There’s an internet meme going around with various quotes ascribed to Abraham Lincoln that he clearly did not say. This lampoons the fact that Lincoln is one of history’s most frequently misquoted authors, like Ben Franklin, Woody Allen, and George Carlin.
It’s an unfortunate circumstance for public officials to be misquoted. Case in point: “Congressman Considers Gabby Giffords A ‘Prop’ For Gun Regulations”.
*cue outrage engine*
Here’s the exchange between Congressman Joe Heck and radio host Alan Stock:
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.
No, Congressman Heck didn’t call Gabby Giffords a prop, so the title is misleading.
And Stock has a very strong point. Mentioning someone in a State of the Union to gain emotional favor is an ugly tactic, especially if it’s someone who wouldn’t even be helped by the legislation called for.
Congressman Giffords was shot with a 9mm Glock pistol, which is an entirely legal gun that a ban on assault weapons would not touch.
The gun was obtained by legal means:
in Mr. Loughner’s case, when the 22-year-old went to the Sportsman’s Warehouse outlet in Tucson, Ariz., on Nov. 30 to purchase a Glock 19 semiautomatic handgun, a background check was performed and he came up clear.
Assault weapons legislation would not have saved Gabby Giffords.
Universal background check legislation would not have saved Gabby Giffords.
But because she’s a prominent face of a woman who was shot, the President sees it fit to trot her out as, yes, a prop, as a crass emotional appeal.
It would be as if the President held up a photo of Army sniper Chris Kyle to pass stricter gun legislation. Kyle was shot, by his friend, a military man trained to use a weapon, at a gun range, under strict safety conditions. Neither an assault weapons ban nor universal background checks would have saved him, either.
Of course, the President sought fit to ignore the shooting of Chris Kyle in his State of the Union, because it was a story that didn’t fit the narrative.
As Lincoln would say, “I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.”
