December 14, 2012

Conservatives React to the Newtown Shooting

As news broke of the Newtown school shooting, horror and grief transcended party lines. But for some conservatives, the shooting—and the ensuing calls for reassessing gun policies—also presented a political challenge. Some notable tweets:

Some suggested that the fix is not fewer guns, but more:

Ann Coulter:

Chris Loesch, husband of conservative commentator Dana Loesch:

In just the past four years, the NRA has helped pass weaker gun restrictions in 37 states, making the weapons easier to own, carry and conceal. At the same time, the number of mass shootings has increased in America.*

Mike Huckabee, former Arkansas governor and GOP presidential candidate, told Fox News the shooting happened because “we removed God from our schools. (h/t ThinkProgress)

HUCKABEE: Ultimately, you can take away every gun in America and somebody will use a gun. When somebody has an intent to do incredible damage, they’re going to find a way to do it… People will want to pass new laws, but unless you change people’s hearts, they’re our transition to the pastor side. This is a heard issue, it’s not something, laws don’t change this kind of thing.

CAVUTO: How could God let this happen? 

HUCKABEE: Well, you know, it’s an interesting thing. When we ask why there is violence in our schools, but we’ve systematically removed God from our schools. Should we be so surprised that schools have become a place for carnage because we’ve made it a place where we don’t want to talk about eternity, life, responsibility, accountability? That we’re not just going to have to be accountable to the police, if they catch us. But one day, we will stand in judgment before God. If we don’t believe that, we don’t fear that.

Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association took a similar tack on his radio show today, claiming that God has abandoned our schools because prayer is no longer allowed. 

Fischer tweeted this too:

Blogger Mike Vanderboegh offered an elliptic Biblical reference on his blog, quoting a Wikipedia article about the ancient Ammonite god who demanded child sacrifices. 

Conservative radio personality Steve Deace took to his Facebook page to complain about politicizing the tragedy while also blaming public schools.

 

Deace wasn’t the only one who lashed out against people who speaking against gun laws. Michelle Malkin’s aggregator account, Twitchy, offered this:

Rush Limbaugh struck a related note on his radio show: 

And even as we speak, the Drive-By Media and the Democrats are attempting to politicize the issue to advance their own agenda. In this case, probably an assault on the Second Amendment again. I guarantee you that they are overturning everything they can in their quest to be able to blame this on Republicans. This, to them, is an opportunity.

Conservative news site Townhall reacts to New York mayor Michael Bloomberg’s call for gun control legislation by saying this:

I’m going to have some class and avoid this political fight today, but it’s important to show what Bloomberg is saying and now pushing for in the wake of tragedy.

(After the Aurora shootings, our colleague Adam Serwer weighed in on why national tragedies are political.) 

Brandon Darby, an one-time radical leftist turned FBI informant had yet another takeaway:

NewsBusters, which is devoted to responding to liberal media bias, hasn’t addressed the shooting at all on its homepage. This screenshot was taken at 3:45 PM PST. 

And the NRA? It has been silent since this tweet, just before news of the Newtown shooting broke.

Meanwhile, The Daily Caller‘s Tucker Carlson has moved on:

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that gun violence has increased. 

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do things differently in the aftermath of a political crisis: Watergate. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after, and go deep on, stories others don’t. And we’re a nonprofit newsroom because we knew corporations and billionaires would never fund the journalism we do. Our reporting makes a difference in policies and people’s lives changed.

And we need your support like never before to vigorously fight back against the existential threats American democracy and journalism face. We’re running behind our online fundraising targets and urgently need all hands on deck right now. We can’t afford to come up short—we have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

Please help with a donation today if you can—even just a few bucks helps. Not ready to donate but interested in our work? Sign up for our Daily newsletter to stay well-informed—and see what makes our people-powered, not profit-driven, journalism special.

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