Posted on June 18th, 2016 by Adam-Troy Castro
When the gun nuts — a specific demographic separate from “gun owners,” that Donald Trump has just joined for expedience — claim that the Orlando massacre would have been cut short if the nightclub’s patrons been armed and able to return fire, it’s hard to tell exactly what scene he and others envision.
Set to a pounding drumbeat on the dance floor, the various people dancing with abandon exactly as they were, except with guns in their shootin’ hands?
You don’t even see that at country-western clubs.
Too, let us not forget that this club served alcohol, that some there must have been drinking to excess even without considering what other recreational drugs they might have been on, and what Trump and others are advocating is that when you go out to get wasted on a weekend night, you really ought to also have access to a firearm.
On top of this, on top of this, we have the knowledge that the club security was strapped, and it changed the outcome not at all.
The image we have here, that the NRA and its apologists want to advance, is that nobody should ever be out in public, ever, without firearms at hand, and that if they happen to get shot because they left their weapons in a handbag or in an ankle-holster they didn’t get to because they were cut down too quickly, it’s their own fault for not having one of those TAXI DRIVER spring-loading gadgets that slam the handgun into their palms at the instant it occurs to them that they might need to ventilate somebody; and this is the life they want for this country.
Trump’s eager embrace of this alternate world, for votes, is especially noxious because, let’s face it, these scenarios need never play out for him. Not when he can walk inside a gauntlet of eagle-eyed security men; not when he lives in buildings with security, not when he spends his life in guarded enclaves. But he is eager to let the poor shoot it out.
It may be the most cynical me-too of his historically revolting campaign.
Tags: Assholes, Donald Trump, Guns, Republicans, Taxi Driver | Category Life Wisdom, Politics
Comment By: Barb Padgett
June 18th, 2016 at 9:18 am
The only difference it would have made is that there would probably be even more casualties due to panicking people shooting in all directions.
Comment By: Frank Schildiner
June 18th, 2016 at 9:18 am
He ignores the fact that it took 11 armed SWAT team men to kill that man. Patrons being armed would have resulted in more deaths, by accident.
Comment By: Adam-Troy Castro
June 18th, 2016 at 9:18 am
I’m ignoring that fact. I’ve written before on what a horrorshow an armed response by patrons would be, in the context of the Aurora movie theatre slayings. What blows my mind more is *what they’re willing to say our everday demeanor needs to be like*.
Comment By: Frank Schildiner
June 18th, 2016 at 9:18 am
For many years I’ve had a simple response to the old nonsense, “an armed society is a polite one”. I look at the person in the face and say, “Just like Beirut?”
Comment By: Gwyndyn Alexander
June 18th, 2016 at 2:18 pm
I’ve noticed that a lot of gun enthusiasts have a great many ideas about how people need to change their lives and behaviors so as not to be victims.
I find it interesting that so many of my male friends are shocked by this, by the very concept that anyone thinks they should change their entire attitudes and behaviors.
Ask any woman what she has to do every day of her life to avoid rape. Ask her how much advice she is given on how not to be raped.
It’s systemic victim blaming, on both issues. But most men are lucky enough to never have experienced it.
For women, it’s a daily way of life.
Comment By: Melody Ghormley
June 18th, 2016 at 8:21 pm
Word, sister. Trump would probably say the best thing to stop a bad rapist is a good girl in a high-necked, long-sleeved, ankle length wool dress.
Comment By: David Vineyard
June 18th, 2016 at 6:17 pm
With amateurs banging away in the dark the casualty list would have doubled. Even trained soldiers fear a firefight in a dark closed space and often lose people to friendly fire. Bullets don’t always hit the bad guy just because you open fire in that general direction. I’ve been underfire. It is hard to keep your head.