By: Mark G. Mangie. The political debate post Las Vegas shootings is ramping up in despicable terms. Inherent in the leftist propaganda is that somehow the victims had it coming because they were more likely than not supporters of gun rights and Republicans. CNN’s senior White House correspondent Jeff Zeleny opined that President Trump was only going to Las Vegas and made sympathetic comments because he has real estate in Las Vegas and those who were victims were part of his base. A top CBS lawyer stated that she has no sympathy for those injured because of their political views. University professors are attributing the violence to white rage and failing members of the white privileged class. Various Democratic Congresspersons have stated that Republicans have blood on their hands. All of this is part of the violent narrative just below the surface of leftist rhetoric… if you are a Republican or a Trump supporter, you don’t deserve to live. Fairly disgusting stuff.
The fact of the matter is that these purveyors of hate are overlooking some inconvenient truths.
1) Adjusted for the U.S. population, the number of guns per American increased from 0.93 per person in 1993 to 1.45 in 2013, which is a 56 percent increase in the number of guns per person that occurred during the same period when gun violence decreased by 49 percent.
2) The kind of mass murder attack that happened in Las Vegas, notwithstanding the tragedy and horror associated with it, is extremely rare and mostly associated with political terrorism kinds of activity. Nobody is denying that mental illness driven massacres they occur…evidence Columbine and Sandy Hook. And any death is unacceptable. But the fact of the matter is that deaths by these kinds of attacks make up less than 1/10 of a percent of violent deaths in the United States.
3) As the left focuses on using this event for their own political purposes, they completely ignore the mother-load of violent gun deaths in the inner cities of America…mostly committed by illegal guns and Saturday night specials. In the last six years of Barack Obama’s presidency, 3900 people were killed by guns in Chicago…18,000 people were injured.
The most inconvenient truth is that people intent on killing large numbers of people will find a way to do it whether it be a bomb, acid, poison, airplanes or guns. Nothing that is being proposed right now would have stopped the Las Vegas killer given his profile. But that is irrelevant to the left which discourages serious discussion of how these issues should be addressed with more attention being paid to terrorist activity and mental health problems.
I am for having a serious discussion on the issue if the other side wants a serious discussion based on facts rather than ideology. I doubt that is possible with the Progressives.