Because of the MAGA-gun lobby’s opposition to any new gun law, we’ve seen criminals get guns and carry out 147 mass shootings in the first 100 days this year. Rather than change course and figure out how to prevent the next one, the MAGA-gun lobby rationalizes the carnage with these arguments:
“Give me liberty or give me death” Because the MAGA-Gun Lobby wants unfettered Second Amendment liberty, even if it means Second Amendment liberties for criminals, the shooting death of someone else’s child is just the price we pay, they say. When faced with the dilemma that more liberty for criminals means less life for the law-abiding, the MAGA-gun lobby has chosen liberty over life. They think, as unrealistic as it is, that they’ll always be able to protect themselves from armed criminals, always being awake and ready and never turning their back or having a slower reaction time.
But MAGA’s instincts are questionable. We saw their instincts in prioritizing liberty over life unfold at the beginning of Covid as they wanted to continue their pre-pandemic freedom. The result was to risk — and lose – their lives. It reminded us that we can’t have liberty without life.
Similarly, too many armed law-abiding Americans lose their lives to armed criminals regularly. As one of many examples, this year in Milwaukee, a police officer was shot and killed by an armed robbery suspect while trying to arrest him. Weeks ago in the Louisville bank shooting, two officers, both armed, responded to the scene and were shot by the suspect, with the younger officer being shot in the head and left fighting for his life.
Religion. Many MAGA supporters whose religion guides them excuse (sic) a mass shooting with the belief that it was just in the stars. So when someone’s child is shot and killed, it’s a tragedy no doubt, but, hey, that was just God’s plan. This religious view, however, differs with other religions, which teach that a higher power is guiding people not to simply accept loss of life but rather to work hard to prevent the loss of life to begin with.
Personally-affected v. empathy for others. For the MAGA-Gun Lobby, even though life is worth risking to have liberty, and even though God may have intended for someone’s child to be harmed, they won’t consider new gun laws unless they or their child would be personally harmed by weak gun laws. Guided by individualism over empathy, conservatives like the Ohio Congressman and the Tennessee governor announced new public support for banning assault weapons and red flag laws, respectively, after they were personally affected.
— Riju Das in The Maga-Gun Lobby’s Rationalization of Mass Shootings
