‘Let’s Move On’: Republicans Prove Once Again They’re Beyond Caring About Mass Shootings
After seven people were killed in a mass shooting at a 4th of July parade in the Highland Park suburb of Chicago, Republican lawmakers are grasping at anything they can to avoid acknowledging America’s gun problem.
The suspected gunman, Robert E. Crimo III, opened fire shortly after 10 a.m. on Monday, firing into the crowd from the rooftop of a building near the parade route. Crimo was apprehended several hours after the shooting and has yet to be charged.
Illinois gubernatorial nominee Darren Bailey went live on Facebook shortly after the shooting, offering prayers to the families of the victims before encouraging viewers to “move on and celebrate freedom.”
In the immediate aftermath of a deadly mass shooting while the shooter is at large, ILGOP nominee for Governor Darren Bailey goes on Facebook to offer prayers for families & police, voices frustrations about a canceled parade, and then says, “Let’s move on and celebrate freedom.” pic.twitter.com/vETKZNkJuJ
— Mark Maxwell (@MarkMaxwellTV) July 4, 2022
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on Monday night pushed a dubious claim that antidepressant medications and SSRI’s are responsible for mass shootings. The Georgia congresswoman said she was “done with the political plays on this BS” and accused people of “covering for Big Pharma.”
Greene also blamed “alternate reality games” and accused law enforcement, as well as the gunman’s family and network, of withholding information about what “drugs and/or psychiatric drugs was he on.”
When are we going to have an honest conversation about drug abuse, mental illness, and SSRI’s???
And deadly side effects.
Are we really going to keep pretending?
Or covering for Big Pharma?
Because I’m absolutely done with the political plays on this BS. pic.twitter.com/8SkNpSOYWW
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) July 5, 2022
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), a staunch gun rights advocate, claimed that a mass shooting in Denmark on Sunday meant that it was “time to admit that gun laws DO NOT stop mass shootings!” Denmark, which has some of the strictest gun laws in Europe, hadn’t had a mass shooting since 2015.
There was just a mass shooting in Denmark, a country with some of the strictest gun laws in Europe.
It’s time to admit that gun laws DO NOT stop mass shootings!
— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) July 3, 2022
Republican House candidate J.R. Majewski didn’t quite agree with Boebert. The Ohioan who has been endorsed by former President Trump tweeted on Monday that he doesn’t “care if countries in Europe have less shootings because they don’t have guns,” he cares “about THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and OUR 2nd Amendment Rights.”
I don’t care if countries in Europe have less shootings because they don’t have guns.
I care about THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and OUR 2nd Amendment Rights.
I think Americans stopped caring what Europe thought of our country in 1776.
— JR Majewski (@JRMajewski) July 4, 2022
Majewski’s comments highlight the true nature of Republican gun policy: that Americans being shot dead while performing the day-to-day activities of their lives is simply the sunk cost of protecting a single sentence written by men who only had access to musket balls and gunpowder.