GUN CONTROL NOV. 5
John Bowden
Sun 8 September 2024
One of Georgia’s senators has responded to Republican vice presidential contender JD Vance after he referred to school shootings as a regrettable “fact of life” in modern society.
Raphael Warnock, who won a six-year term in 2022 after defeating a Republican challenger to secure his first full term in office, appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday after a shooting in his state claimed the lives of two students and two teachers at a high school. Nine others were injured.
He was asked about the comments by Vance, which ignited a media firestorm and were seized upon by Kamala Harris’s campaign as the latest sign of Republicans’ refusal to address such horrific attacks in American schools. The Ohio senator, speaking at a rally in Arizona, lamented, “I don’t like that this is a fact of life” after the shooting took place last week.
“Listen, JD Vance claims that this random, routine carnage is a ‘fact of life’. No, it’s not. This is a fact of American life,” Warnock stressed to NBC’s Kristen Welker.
He added: “There are children that are troubled in other countries. This only happens here. It’s the guns.”
“In America, it’s not safe to be in our schools, it’s not safe to be in our shopping malls. … We’re all sitting ducks.”
Warnock is correct; the US experiences shooting incidents in schools at a number that is unmatched by any other country in the developed world. Homicide, with gun violence making up the lion’s share, is the second-leading cause of death for Americans under the age of 30.
Political debate in America after a mass shooting typically revolves around the roles of firearms in American society and whether the prevalence and availability of guns contribute to the US’s higher rates of gun violence compared to other developed nations.
Warnock, who represents a purple state in the deep south, took the position Sunday that no individual piece of gun control legislation would have stopped the Apalachee High School shooting while pointing to the overall number of guns in America as a reason for the higher rates of violence.
“A country that allows this to continue, without putting forth just common-sense gun safety measures, is a country that has in a tragic way lost its way.”
Warnock’s victory in 2022 (as well as sweeping victories for him and other Democrats just two years earlier) has emboldened Democrats pushing to turn Georgia into the first real crack in the red wall of the American South. The state is a top battleground for the 2024 election and hosted the first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden in June before the latter dropped out of the race.
The shooting in Georgia’s Barrow County came after the 14-year-old suspect was reportedly gifted an AR-15-style rifle by his father despite a known history of suicidal and homicidal thoughts. Both the suspected shooter, Colt Gray, and his father remain in police custody following the attack.
Warnock says gun lobby ‘lines its pockets with the blood of our children’ after Georgia school shooting
Miranda Nazzaro
Sun 8 September 2024
THE HILL
Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) on Sunday took aim at some politicians whom he described as “beholden to the gun lobby” while lamenting his frustrations about gun violence in the wake of last week’s school shooting at a Georgia high school.
“The reality is that in America, it’s not safe to be in our schools. It’s not safe to be in our shopping malls. It’s not safe to be in the spa. It’s not safe to be in a medical clinic. We’re all sitting ducks,” Warnock said on NBC News’s “Meet the Press.”
And any country that allows this to continue without putting forward just common-sense gun safety measures is a country that has, in a tragic way, lost its way. Politicians need to realign their values.”
Warnock said there is “no one single law” to prevent school shootings when asked by NBC News anchor Kristen Welker.
“In a sense, I think we have to broaden the scope of the question because, after all, we have two mass shootings a day in our country, based on the data just last year,” he said. “And this does not happen everywhere in the world. The problem is that we have politicians in our country who are beholden to the gun lobby. And either based on ambition or fear, they go to work every day doing their bidding while the gun lobby lines its pockets with the blood of our children.”
The gun lobby is a term usually referring to state and federal efforts to influence gun policies, often in the form of supporting candidates who are against gun control measures.
The remarks come days after a gunman opened fire at Apalachee High School in Winder, Ga. last week, killing two students and two teachers.
The suspect, 14-year-old Colt Gray, was charged with four counts of felony murder.
“Listen, 14-year-olds don’t need AR-15s, and we need to get these military-style weapons off the streets,” Warnock said.
Warnock called for action in Congress, stating the few gun safety policies that have passed were “not enough” to prevent last week’s shooting in his home state.
“The best – the least we can do is move forward on the bipartisan spaces where ordinary people agree,” he said. “Clearly, there’s a disconnect between what the people, the American people want and what they’re able to get out of their government.”
He pointed to a Fox News poll taken in April 2023, which found 87 percent of voters are in favor of requiring criminal background checks for all gun buyers.
Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Tim Walz Lays Into JD Vance Over ‘Fact of Life’ Shooting Comments
Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) on Sunday took aim at some politicians whom he described as “beholden to the gun lobby” while lamenting his frustrations about gun violence in the wake of last week’s school shooting at a Georgia high school.
“The reality is that in America, it’s not safe to be in our schools. It’s not safe to be in our shopping malls. It’s not safe to be in the spa. It’s not safe to be in a medical clinic. We’re all sitting ducks,” Warnock said on NBC News’s “Meet the Press.”
And any country that allows this to continue without putting forward just common-sense gun safety measures is a country that has, in a tragic way, lost its way. Politicians need to realign their values.”
Warnock said there is “no one single law” to prevent school shootings when asked by NBC News anchor Kristen Welker.
“In a sense, I think we have to broaden the scope of the question because, after all, we have two mass shootings a day in our country, based on the data just last year,” he said. “And this does not happen everywhere in the world. The problem is that we have politicians in our country who are beholden to the gun lobby. And either based on ambition or fear, they go to work every day doing their bidding while the gun lobby lines its pockets with the blood of our children.”
The gun lobby is a term usually referring to state and federal efforts to influence gun policies, often in the form of supporting candidates who are against gun control measures.
The remarks come days after a gunman opened fire at Apalachee High School in Winder, Ga. last week, killing two students and two teachers.
The suspect, 14-year-old Colt Gray, was charged with four counts of felony murder.
“Listen, 14-year-olds don’t need AR-15s, and we need to get these military-style weapons off the streets,” Warnock said.
Warnock called for action in Congress, stating the few gun safety policies that have passed were “not enough” to prevent last week’s shooting in his home state.
“The best – the least we can do is move forward on the bipartisan spaces where ordinary people agree,” he said. “Clearly, there’s a disconnect between what the people, the American people want and what they’re able to get out of their government.”
He pointed to a Fox News poll taken in April 2023, which found 87 percent of voters are in favor of requiring criminal background checks for all gun buyers.
Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Tim Walz Lays Into JD Vance Over ‘Fact of Life’ Shooting Comments
Matt Young
Sun 8 September 2024
Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz took his Republican rival to task over his controversial response in the aftermath of the Georgia school shooting.
Walz made a speech during an appearance at the Humans Rights Campaign National Dinner–the nation’s largest LGBTQ+ civil rights organization–in Washington on Saturday night.
Walz took to stage to highlight his support for his running mate, Kamala Harris (“Yes, by the way, she’s more qualified than anybody that’s ever run for this office, let’s be clear”) along with the pair’s record on queer rights.
“I’m an old, straight, white guy, I’m teaching social studies, you’re all picturing the damn stereotype here. Turns out I’m opposite world of Tommy Tuberville though,” he said before describing his involvement with his former school’s gay-straight alliance.
Yet the Minnesota governor used the opportunity to namecheck more than just Tuberville.
“It’s a fact of life some people are gay,” Walz said. “But you know what’s not a fact of life? That our children need to be shot dead in schools. That’s not a fact of life.”
Vance told a crowd during a rally in Phoenix, Arizona, last week, that increased security was the answer to school shootings, rather than tougher legislation on guns.
Four people were killed and another nine injured last week after 14-year-old Colt Gray allegedly launched an attack on Apalachee High School in Georgia.
“I don’t like that this is a fact of life. But if you’re—if you are a psycho, you want to make headlines, you realize that our schools are soft targets. And we have got to bolster security at our schools… We’ve got to bolster security so if a psycho wants to walk through the front door and kill a bunch of children, they’re not able to,” Vance said.
“If these psychos are going to go after our kids we’ve got to be prepared for it,” Vance said. “We don’t have to like the reality that we live in, but it is the reality we live in. We’ve got to deal with it.”
JD Vance’s Staggering Comments After Georgia School Shooting
While the Harris-Walz campaign had already condemned Vance’s comments, Walz used his speech to reiterate, “Folks are banning books, but they’re okay with weapons of war being in our schools. Look, that’s not this country, it doesn’t have to be this way, it doesn’t happen elsewhere, we’re going to make sure our children are seen, they bring their authentic selves, then we’re going to make sure they’re safe when they get there, so thank you all,” he said.
Republicans however have supported Vance over his comments, claiming the criticism is driven by Democrats with an agenda.
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