GEORGE FREY/AFP
It has been a devastating week for the people of Uvalde, Texas but also for a nation struggling to understand how this sort of horror can reoccur.
The horrific details of 19 elementary school kids and two adults killed by an unhinged 18-year-old who had just purchased two assault weapons shortly after his birthday have been painfully difficult to digest. And the predictable rhetorical pattern that has followed this tragedy feels like the worst version of Groundhog Day ever.
Like every other mass shooting that came before, the immediate aftermath of the Uvalde school shooting saw political media rhetoric fall along with two clear subgroups.
On one end there was anger and disgust that such an event could possibly have occurred yet again and an immediate call for policies that could abate the frequency of school shootings.
On the other end of the spectrum was an almost preemptive criticism of anyone calling for a change. “How dare you politicize this tragedy for your own political gain,” or words to that effect, is still a common refrain heard from
But the criticism that some are politicizing this tragedy is a vile tact of sophistry, insulting to our intelligence and disrespectful to the memories of the innocent people who were murdered.
Asking about how we can prevent more children from being killed by assault weapons is not a political conversation. It’s a policy one. Discussion about what we can specifically do to can prevent more children from being killed by assault weapons is not a political conversation. It’s a policy one. The immediate dismissal of this discussion as “politicizing a tragedy” is almost subterfuge to avoid talking about problematic issues in a deeply craven way.
And it needs to be called out for what it is: disgusting.
This was perhaps best exemplified on Tuesday night. President Joe Biden addressed the nation following the events in Uvalde. Immediately following that speech, however, Tucker Carlson insulted the president by calling him “frail, confused,” and “bitterly partisan.” And disgustingly enough, that wasn’t the worst of it.
Carlson alleged that the president’s speech was an act of “desecrating the memory of recently murdered children with tired talking points of the democratic party, dividing the country in a moment of deep pain rather than uniting, his voice raising and amplified only as he repeats the talking points he repeated for over 35 years in the senate, the thoughts the only thing that animates him.” In case his
What was it that Biden said that set Carlson off? The president called for what he called “common-sense gun laws.” The commander in chief went further to call out elected officials who have been obstructing, delaying, or blocking legislation designed to lessen the frequency of mass shootings.
“We need to let you know that we will not forget,” Biden said in a clear reference to Republican Senators refusing to even have a vote on the House-approved HR8 bill that would extend background checks. “We can do so much more. We have to do more.”
That bill to extend background checks is not a partisan one. It not only has bipartisan support but 90% of Americans are also in favor of it, even before the Uvalde school shooting occurred. Carlson’s insulting reaction was far more divisive than Biden’s. And yes, one is the president, but the other is the leader of the Republican party.
Would this bill have kept this tragedy from happening? Impossible to know and that’s not the point. Lessening the frequency of mass shootings moving forward is the goal, and if someone with a platform the size of Carlson is more animated by political rhetoric with which he disagrees than efforts to save kids from getting slaughtered, well that’s where are at the
And yes, it is fair to say that Carlson was more outraged by Biden’s calling for action and gun safety following the massacre of 19 elementary school children than he was by the school shooting itself. Carlson’s reaction was a stomach-churning moment to watch with the knowledge that millions of his viewers and their families will follow his lead in blasting “politicizing” as a means of deflection from the real issues.
And Carlson’s reaction perfectly reflected the sick rhetorical pattern with which we have become all too familiar.
“How dare you ask about gun safety policies that might lead to fewer children getting killed by a mass murder so quickly after a school massacre?” is the entirely fucked up reasoning from those wedded to an arcane and out-of-touch definition of the Second Amendment.
The right to “bear arms” seems more important than instituting any regulations that would lessen the instances of 19 fourth graders or 10 elderly grocery shoppers in Buffalo being killed in broad daylight by 18-year-old kids who legally purchased assault weapons!
There are other salient issues that have emerged from this story being dismissed as well. School security needs discussion. Mental health and alienated individuals are an enormous problem that needs addressing and credit to Carlson for making that point later in the week. And while many on the right say you are “politicizing” a tragedy, many
It’s time to discuss all of it. Gun access and safety, assault weapons, school security, mental health, and the very concerning decay of our social fabric. Let’s all drop our political tribalism and consider all of it.
While the school shooting in Newton, Connecticut in 2015 was a shock, in some ways, the school shooting in Uvalde has been harder because it suggests this is the new normalcy.
But there is one norm that we need to stop within the realm of political media. Attempting to shut down policy discussions as “politicizing a tragedy” says more about the person throwing out that misdirect than anything else.