The shooting of Gabby Giffords while she was holding a constituent meet-and-greet by a mentally-unstable asshole is one of the saddest and most sickening stories of the past decade.
But, as former-White-House-Chief-of-Staff-and-current-Mayor-of-Chicago Rahm Emanuel (longest business card ever) said, “you never want a serious crisis to go to waste.”
When she was invoked by the President at the State of the Union to push gun control legislation (which wouldn’t have saved her at all), it was a new low in American politics.
Read this exchange about her between radio host Alan Stock and Nevada Congressman Joe Heck:
STOCK: At the end of the president’s State of the Union when he said have a vote for Gabby Giffords, have a vote for this and that. I found that to be nauseating and you know what else is nauseating too is putting Gabby Giffords up there, who can’t even clap her hands, as a figure of somebody being — having shot her. I think it’s a shameful act putting her up there as a prop. I’m sorry. I really do.
HECK: Yeah, no I agree. I think again in the cloud of emotion surrounding Connecticut those who are anti-gun want to use that to limit their Second Amendment rights.
And how does this get characterized by Annie-Rose Strasser?
“Congressman Joe Heck (R-NV) on Tuesday agreed that he considers former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-AZ), who was a victim of an assassination attempt two years ago, a “prop” in the debate over gun regulations.”
So let’s see.
Invoking her to push an agenda? Totally rad!
Saying it’s not okay to invoke her to push an agenda? WHY DO YOU HATE HER DO YOU WISH SHE GOT SHOT OR SOMETHING
By the way, Congressman Heck actually supports gun control legislation:
“I think the idea of background checks across the board, I’m not opposed to them,” Heck said. “I disagree with people who say that this is going to be the first step to gun registration, which leads to gun confiscation.”[…]
“For law-abiding citizens that want to own a weapon, I don’t see why they would be adverse to undergoing that check just like you would if you walked into the gun store,” Heck said.
However, it still wouldn’t have helped save her.
Guns are not the problem. The mentally unstable are the problem.
If the man really wanted to kill Congresswoman Giffords, he could have used a variety of weapons.
Locking him away would have saved her. Banning knives or bats or automobiles or really strong people would have been about as helpful as banning guns.
