The killer hippie gun rampage
by digby
Via Crooks and Liars:
Congressional District 1 candidate Gary Kiehne made extreme comments about gun rights at a Republican primary debate Saturday.
Asked how he would protect gun rights, Kiehne said he owns more guns and ammunition than the other candidates and said everyone should own a gun.
When it comes to mass shootings, “if you look at all the fiascos that have occurred, 99 percent of them have been by Democrats pulling their guns out and shooting people,” Kiehne said to an audience of about 60 people. “So I don’t think you have a problem with the Republicans.”
Well, that's quite a "problem" isn't it? I wonder what he proposes to do about it? Itcertainly wouldn't be something like background checks. Maybe he thinks Republicans ought to be "standing their ground" a little bit more often, if you know what I mean ...
I've been very leery of all this gun stuff in the political arena. It seems to me that once you bring a gun to a political event you've effectively silenced anyone who disagrees with you. You've certainly intimidated them physically. But this is the first time I've seen anyone characterize this in a specifically partisan way. Yes, it's true that most gun proliferation zealots are Republicans. But they haven't generally made the leap that if there's a problem with gun "fiascos" (presumably mass killings) it's because the shooters are Democrats -- the political home of the gun safety faction, led by a president who is trying to pass sensible gun legislation.
It reminds me of the extreme illogic that ran rampant after 9/11 where it was presumed that the gay loving, feminazi, free love, anti-traditional, non-violent hippie lefties were in cahoots with the super-strict, gay hating, women oppressing, sexually repressed, violent macho Islamic religious fundamentalists. Yeah, that makes sense.
Update: Apparently, I've been out of the loop on the "Democrats are the real killers meme"
Kiehne’s claim that 99 percent of shootings were committed by Democrats is completely false, yet continues to be a persistent myth on the radical right. Roger Hedgecock, a conservative radio host, seems to have originated this message soon after the Newtown shooting, as President Obama was preparing a plan to combat gun violence.
Since many of these mass killers aren't political but are simply mentally ill, I'm going to assume that they think all mentally ill people are Democrats. Or perhaps it's simpler than that: all Democrats are mentally ill.
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