July 24, 2012 |
Mourners pray for the victims of the Aurora, Colorado shooting.
Photo Credit: AFP
After reeling in shock from the horrifying details of the Aurora,
Colorado massacre, many of us were soon reeling from the callous,
exploitative reactions.
I'm perhaps not the only person who was aghast by the number and
intensity of responses declaring the problem with Aurora was that not
enough citizens were armed. There is a race to come up with the most
farfetched things to blame--anything, essentially, besides the ease of
purchasing firearms and a system that doesn't provide for the mentally
ill.
Even Mitt Romney has gone on the record saying he doesn't think gun
laws had anything to do with the tragedy--even though the alleged
perpetrator easily purchased 6,000 rounds of ammunition and deadly
weapons with complete legal immunity.
Without further ado, here are the six worst reactions I found (with a few retractions and clarifications included):
1. Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert says the attack is the
result of an attack on Judeo-Christian beliefs, and that the killings
might have been avoided if the country returned to the ways of God.
From HuffPo:
During a radio interview on the Heritage Foundation's "Istook Live!"
show, Gohmert was asked why he believes such senseless acts of violence
take place. Gohmert responded by talking about the weakening of
Christian values in the country. "You know what really gets me, as a
Christian, is to see the ongoing attacks on Judeo-Christian beliefs, and
then some senseless crazy act of terror like this takes place," Gohmert
said.
Later, Gohmert
apologized for causing pain and said he was taken out of context. Listen to his words yourself:
2. Mike Huckabee blames sin. The fervently religious
politico-turned-pundit says we don't have a gun problem or a crime
problem, but a "sin problem" and blames--what else--a mythical
encroaching secularization.
“Ultimately,” Huckabee concluded, “We don't have a crime problem or a
gun problem – or even a violence problem. What we have is a sin problem.
And since we ordered God out of our schools and communities, the
military and public conversations, you know, we really shouldn't act so
surprised when all hell breaks loose.”
3. Extremist evangelicals Jerry Newcombe and Fred Jackson blame the liberal media, say victims who aren't Christian are in hell.
A great post at ThinkProgress
sums up some of the worst statements from extreme evangelical pastors.
From Jerry Newcombe, who predictably blames loose morals, the victims
had better been right with God: "iI they knowingly rejected Jesus
Christ, then, basically, they are going to a terrible place."
And the other key quote is from the American Family Association's Fred
Jackson: "Whether it’s the Hollywood movies, whether it’s what we see on
the Internet, whether it’s liberal bias in the media, whether it’s our
politicians changing public policy, I think all of those somehow have
fit together—and I have to say also churches who are leaving the
authority of Scripture and losing their fear of God" are what "give us
these kinds of incidents."
4. Internet conspiracy theorists blame government, Obama, Illuminati.
At Gawker, a
quick look through the Internet reveals a number of long rants about
how President Obama, the government and others armed and trained the
killer and set him up in order to somehow turn American against guns.
Quoth one loony: "This is somebody who was selected for a mission, given
equipment to carry it out, then somehow brainwashed into getting it
done." Okay then. There's also the guy who declared [sic] "Not one week
from the rumored Obama signing of the UN Gun Ban Treaty, on Friday the
27th and Obama is 'Gift Wrapped' this horrific slaughter, that he can
take and use to Obliterate our God given Second Ammendment
Right's." That's the state of the rumor-mongering before we even get to
the Illuminati.
Read the post here.
5. Russell Pearce blames victims. Here's the sorry tale of former senator Russell Pearce, who had a far too typical reaction and shared it on Facebook.
Via TPM:
Early Saturday morning, the former Republican lawmaker took to
Facebook to mourn the victims. He then wondered why none were “[b]rave”
enough to stop the atrocity.
“Where were the men of flight 93???? Someone should have stopped this
man,” he wrote. “…All that was needed is one Courageous/ Brave man
prepared mentally or otherwise to stop this it could have been done.”
He later backtracked and declared he was blaming
gun laws, not victims. But eventually, both Facebook rants disappeared. Well then.
6. The Daily Mail blames women. A common, and
irritating, media narrative surrounding violence is that it's fueled by
sexual rejection: had some woman just taken pity on the poor man, he
wouldn't have acted out.
Witness this wording in the Daily Mail:
James Holmes reached out to multiple women on a sex website in the
days before launching a massacre which killed 12 people and injured 58
during a screening of The Dark Knight Rises, it has emerged.
However, at least three of the women he contacted through
AdultFriendFinder rejected his advances -- even though he was apparently
just hoping to 'chat' with 'nothing sexual' on the cards.
The news follows rumours that Holmes may have broken up with a
girlfriend shortly before the shooting in Aurora, Colorado, and that he
was due to be evicted from his apartment after dropping out of grad
school.
At Jezebel, Erin Gloria Ryan
smacks this type of thinking down,
pointing out that the killer planned his spree months ahead of time:
"What if one of those much maligned Internet sex-finding women could
have somehow found it in the kindness of her heart to fuck James Holmes?
What then? Nothing. What happened in Colorado happened because a man
who was trying to cause chaos was able to acquire the tools to do it
successfully."
7 (sorta). Rick Warren appears to blame the massacre on evolution, then says he didn't. People were understandably outraged when the megachurch pastor tweeted, the afternoon of the massacre. "
When students are taught they are no different from animals, they act like it."
Steve Benen reminds us that we've heard this story before:
"In June 1999, then-Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) appeared on the House
floor to reflect on the Columbine massacre, and he proceeded to blame
science textbooks for the murders. These tragedies happen,
DeLay said,
'because our school systems teach the children that they are nothing
but glorified apes who are evolutionized [sic] out of some primordial
soup.'" Amanda Marcotte
also has a good retort, pointing out
that if we actually acted like some animals, we'd be peaceful. "You
almost never hear the phrase applied to describe behaviors that are most
like our non-human animal friends. For instance, when you pick up and
eat a raw apple, you're acting like lots of animals, ranging from
raccoons to monkeys."
The sad rush to scapegoat everything but the killer and his weapons
shouldn't underscore the thoughtful commentary--much of it here and on
AlterNet's partner sites--on gun violence in America. But it should show
how difficult it will be to have the debate about how to practically
make us safer from weapons designed for the mass destruction of lives.
Sarah Seltzer is an associate editor at
AlterNet and a freelance writer based in New York City. Her work has
been published at the Nation, the Christian Science Monitor, Jezebel and
the Washington Post. Follow her on Twitter at
@sarahmseltzer and find her work at
sarahmseltzer.com.
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