“We’re single-issue voters, with guns being the number one issue,” said Melissa Alexander, a real estate agent, gun owner, and mother who takes pride in her son’s hunting skills.
Despite grassroots advocacy by liberals, conservative resistance to gun control has deflated the issue to the point that it barely registers in the US presidential campaign.
Democrats have often championed gun reform — but this time around even Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, has emphasized her gun ownership in a country seemingly numbed to mass shootings.
“I thought March 27th (2023) would be the tipping point for gun violence and safety,” said Justin Pearson, a local Democratic assemblyman.
That day, a shooter killed three children and three adults at The Covenant School, a Nashville elementary school.
“But I also thought we would do something as a country after Sandy Hook,” Pearson added, referring to the massacre that claimed 26 lives, including 20 young children.
The Tennessee shooting was at “a private Christian conservative school, so I did have a modicum of hope that this would be the threshold for them to really do something different — and they failed,” he said.
Shortly after the tragedy, Pearson and another Black elected official were expelled from the local legislature for protesting inside the institution — an extremely rare punishment.
A third white Democrat, who also advocated for stricter gun laws, was spared.
Both expelled lawmakers were swiftly reelected, but the tragedy failed to produce any legislation restricting firearm access.
Instead, a new law passed this year allowed teachers to carry weapons.
“We did everything possible to prevent it,” said Alexander, who, alongside Mary Joyce, leads the ‘Covenant Moms,’ a group of school mothers who mobilized after the shooting.
Their press conferences and meetings with elected officials, including the Tennessee governor, proved futile.
She seems to think that safe storage and red flag laws are how you stop mass shootings. She even does the gun owner and hunter dance that she thinks gives her some sort of authority on the subject. I’m embarrassed for her.
Dude,
Here is a quote (apparently from her) on her linked Instagram page:
“We need to protect our communities by enacting laws like safe storage and protective orders that keep weapons out of the wrong hands …”
Safe storage and protective orders are demonstrably ineffective at preventing / stopping bad actors from attacking innocent victims. And yet she is claiming that something which does not work will work simply because she wants it to work. When a toddler does that, Psychologists call that “magical thinking”. I find it interesting that Psychologists drop the “magical thinking” label when adults do it and consider it important discussion.
Something like 50% of our population ignores facts and reality and conducts themselves on emotion which is often destructive and contradicts reality.
I am unable to wrap my head around that way of operating–and how it is so commonplace.
Mr _sense: Me thinks to many will not, for what ever reason, think for themselves and rely on media wobble heads etc for their views/opinions on issues. I have encountered several who refuse to listen to anything outside of their normal sources.