Everyone in America is sick of the gun violence that plagues us everywhere we go. Everyone that is, except the one group of people that could possibly do something about it: Republicans. They seem to think there’s nothing you can do and we all should just accept children getting slaughtered at school is an inevitability of American life.
In perhaps the most egregious lack of self-awareness I’ve ever seen, Republican Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee (seen above with Marjorie Taylor Greene congratulating each other on being ineffectual monsters) admitted that Congress will do nothing about school shootings or gun violence in general. According to him, we just need to accept that and move on, I guess there are more important things to fight, like regulating bodies and telling Drag Queens they’re abominations. Per Jezebel:
Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) told reporters on the steps of the Capitol Monday that it was “a horrible, horrible situation,” but as lawmakers, “We’re not gonna fix it. Criminals are going to be criminals.”
Yes, criminals will be criminals, but what is a criminal without a gun? A much less lethal criminal if you look at statistics from all around the world because getting a gun in America is a very easy thing to do here. (Also, under that logic, he should be out of a job because why bother making any laws at all?)
This is old hat. We have to have this conversation every time a mass shooting happens, which means we do this frequently and everyone but the Republicans are sick of it! They just tell us now is not the time to have this conversation. That it’s inappropriate and we must focus on the victims and healing. We all know this song and dance. Thoughts and prayers, thoughts and prayers.
At least this horrible excuse for a human being is honest about not wasting our time. He has no intention of enacting change. He will not fix it, and is too stupid to understand how Congress could pass any legislation to make the situation better, despite overwhelming data that when the assault weapons ban was in place, at least the mass shooting epidemic in this country was not as terrible as it is now.
What’s the most upsetting part of this whole is Burchett’s “f*ck you, I’ve got mine” mentality as an elected official. You know, the job he raised his hand and willingly ran in order to be elected to. It’s how he protects his own child from mass shooting at school:
He f*cking homeschools her. So he ADMITS that gun violence in school is an issue, and has taken steps to address it for his own child, but f*ck the rest of the children of his district. He has the power to enact change. He is literally one of the rarified few hundred people in this entire country who can enact the change the majority of Americans want (71%!) and he has completely abdicated it while protecting his own selfish interest. All because the NRA has bought and paid for the Republicans. It’s disgusting.
We can’t also ignore the fact the GOP has systematically tried its best to destroy the public school system over the past decades, and the conversation around gun control and violence in our schools must be intrinsically linked to that, as these tweets point out:
The logic is sound: If school is no longer safe for children, parents will begin to question whether to send their children to schools, looking into other options. Just a few days ago the American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten gave a speech outlining all the ways the GOP is systematically trying to gut public education. The link between gun violence, public schools, and GOP inaction on gun reform cannot be underestimated.
Something is inherently broken in this country, and these cowards are contemptible. While by no means the most egregious part of this, I find it particularly galling that this coward who had abdicated his responsibility to his country will be able to collect a f*cking pension from it once he completes his third term after this Congress. This stain on Democracy will be bleeding us dry from the age of 62 onwards (he is currently 58 years old.) So, for the country he has done so little for, and taken so much from, he will continue to take from for the rest of his life. The true American dream, he got his, right? Who cares how many children had to get slaughtered in their classrooms along the way?
(featured image: Alex Wong/Getty Images)
