Dodge, dip, duck, dive, and dodge: that’s what we’re seeing from the GOP candidates on stage tonight. The Republican Party’s five go-to maneuvers to avoid their responsibility to take action to curb gun violence.
79% of Republicans support universal background checks. But the NRA’s bought-and-paid-for GOP candidates refuse to take meaningful action by supporting any sort of common-sense gun safety measures.
Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio actually voted to protect suspected terrorists’ ability to buy guns in December. And just a few weeks ago, front-runner Donald Trump callously joked about personally shooting someone “in the middle of 5th Avenue.”
They refuse to act and they refuse to acknowledge that their inaction has very real, very serious consequences. It isn’t a “culture war” or a “degradation of family values” that’s to blame. Gun violence is rooted in the broad availability of firearms, and can be traced back to the NRA-bought politicians who refuse to take meaningful, common-sense actions to do anything about it.
Here’s a sample of the GOP field’s denials of responsibility:
- Marco Rubio: “We have a serious societal problem…But we’re focusing too much on what it is people are using to commit violence, and not enough on why it is that people are committing violence…These gun laws just aren’t effective at preventing this.”
- Rubio: “Guns are what they’re using to commit the violence. And, again, in many of these cases, the laws that are actually being proposed wouldn’t have prevented them.
- John Kasich: “I don’t believe that gun control would stop this…I don’t think any president can stop mass shootings.
Published: Mar 3, 2016