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House GOP Congresswoman Argues Guns Have Nothing to Do With School Shootings
House Republican Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn claimed that guns aren’t part of the root problem of school shootings. Rep. Blackburn tried to argue that guns have nothing to do with school shootings.
Video:
Transcript from CBS News:
BLACKBURN: My take is first of all, we need to make certain we keep children safe. And that’s what we want to do. But I’ve got to tell you, when I hear some of this conversation, I think that we’re looking at symptoms, we’re not looking at the root causes. And I’ve talked with a lot of teachers, classroom teachers after the Sandy Hook situation, and they say, look, we need to be looking at mental health. We need to be looking at the root causes, some of these psychotropic drugs, and not let this be about the weapon, but let’s talk about some of the root causes in these issues. And I understand the senator’s passion for this, but I got to tell you, an assault ban is not the answer to helping keep people safe.
…
SCHIEFFER: I agree with you, Miss Blackburn, that I think mental health needs to be a part of this. I think it’s got to be a comprehensive plan of some sort. But I also wonder — I mean, don’t we have to find some way just to reduce this access to guns that some of these people have? I mean, you know, if the guy had walked into the Connecticut school with a baseball bat, he could have put some bumps on a couple of people’s head, but I don’t think that many people would have been killed.
BLACKBURN: Well, you know, I think that there, again, you look at the safety issue. Some of the school districts in my congressional district are looking at resource officers, and how they secure that environment. But, you know, the speaker is right. You look at what is actually causing the problem. This means you look at the weapons that are there. You do some hearings that are on, that have occurred in some of these areas like Chicago, where they have a problem. You look at the mental health issues. You look at the psychotropic and psychiatric drugs that a lot of the youth are taking that individuals that have committed these crimes are taking. You look at the violence that is there in entertainment, in video games, and don’t just go say, “we’re going to do an assault weapons ban, and that’s going to solve the problem,” because it is not going to get to the root of the problem.
Bob Schieffer brought up the completely rational point that the shooter in Newtown would have done a lot less damage with a baseball bat, and was met with the rare combination of insanity and NRA talking points that can only come from a House tea partier. From the point of view of the paid through campaign contributions NRA congressional stooge, the problem with school shootings isn’t the gun, or even easy access to guns. The problem is mental illness. It’s not the gun’s fault that people are crazy. Why are we blaming the poor innocent gun for SHOOTINGS? This is part of the Republican talking point that we need to meet in the middle, and have a discussion about keeping our children safe. However, guns have nothing to do with the problem. This type of absolutism mixed with irrationality is why this nation can’t have a sensible conversation about the role of guns in gun violence.
No one wants to take guns away from anyone, but the moment guns are brought up the far right immediately refuses to discuss the role that access to guns plays in our culture of violence. Video games and television shows don’t kill people, but mentally ill individuals who have easy access to guns and hear politicians fearmongering about threats to their Second Amendment rights might.
The idea that easy access to guns isn’t part of the root cause of school shootings is flat out insane. Mental illness is an issue that needs to be dealt with, but a mentally ill person without a gun is a lot less dangerous to society. If we want to do something about the mental illness problem in our society, Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) would be a great place to start.
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45 Responses to House GOP Congresswoman Argues Guns Have Nothing to Do With School Shootings
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Regina
Jan. 27th, 2013 at 5:33 pm
This idiot was endorsed by Sarah Palin and is fluent in word salad, also, too.
Reynardine
Jan. 27th, 2013 at 6:43 pm
Worse yet, the word salad is only a side dish. The entrée is brain omelette.
Tyler S Kirk
Jan. 27th, 2013 at 11:23 pm
This is why the GOP is so f—-d up and why I would love to see it destroyed
Martha
Jan. 27th, 2013 at 5:38 pm
The GOP needs a vaccination for Cognitive dissonance.
The Fox and the Grapes by Aesop. When the fox fails to reach the grapes, he decides he does not want them after all. Rationalization (making excuses) is often involved in reducing anxiety about conflicting cognitions, according to cognitive dissonance theory.
In modern psychology, cognitive dissonance is the feeling of discomfort when simultaneously holding two or more conflicting cognitions: ideas, beliefs, values or emotional reactions. In a state of dissonance, people may sometimes feel “disequilibrium”: frustration, hunger, dread, guilt, anger, embarrassment, anxiety, etc.
The theory of cognitive dissonance in social psychology proposes that people have a motivational drive to reduce dissonance by altering existing cognitions, adding new ones to create a consistent belief system, or alternatively by reducing the importance of any one of the dissonant elements.
It is the distressing mental state that people feel when they “find themselves doing things that don’t fit with what they know, or having opinions that do not fit with other opinions they hold.” A key assumption is that people want their expectations to meet reality, creating a sense of equilibrium. Likewise, another assumption is that a person will avoid situations or information sources that give rise to feelings of uneasiness, or dissonance.
Cognitive dissonance theory explains human behavior by positing that people have a bias to seek consonance between their expectations and reality. According to Festinger, people engage in a process he termed “dissonance reduction”, which can be achieved in one of three ways: ~~lowering the importance of one of the discordant factors,~~ adding consonant elements, or changing one of the dissonant factors. ~~This bias sheds light on otherwise puzzling, irrational, and even destructive behaviors.~~
djchefron(Moderator)
Jan. 27th, 2013 at 5:51 pm
OK cut to the chase.Is the GOP bat guano crazy
SinghX
Jan. 28th, 2013 at 12:50 am
Ok Martha,I’m a big fan of Festinger, too but, ya’ got it all wrong according to a a talk show by a couple of fundie-males who would not approve of this women at all!
“…There are “two forms of feminism,” Buehner argued. There are “cute” feminists like Sarah Palin who will find jobs in the “marketplace” and “get themselves a husband” but will “never submit to the husband, in fact they will use their power probably to make their husband submit to them.” Then, there are the “ugly” feminists whose “lack of attractiveness has not given them access to power that they wanted in the marketplace.” These “attractively challenged” feminists will only find careers in academia and in government agencies, for instance, “you can run the EPA.”
What all these feminists have in common, Swanson argues, is that “all of them want to be free from the family” and together with “the homosexuals” are “destroying society.” Buehner speculates that in the future, feminism will be remembered as “a time in which women lost the love of their children” and “decided to become selfish, narcissistic, family-destroying whores.”…[see Right Wing Watch]
It’s ALL women’s fault, don’t you see? And this woman is a Sara Palin type…uh-ohhh
Reynardine
Jan. 28th, 2013 at 8:01 am
I saw the thing myself. Misogyny is a core- maybe *the* core- tenet of fundamentalists of every stripe, and it’s clear that disenfranchising women not only doesn’t cure it, it makes it far more sadistic.
Cheri DelBrocco
Jan. 27th, 2013 at 5:44 pm
This NRA sockpuppet is a despicable human being & an embarrassment to the the state of TN. If banning assault weapons does not make us safer, as she asserts, then surely she would be fine w/allowing assault weapons in the U.S. capitol where she works. Why does CBS give “The Sarah Palin of the South” a platform to advance her crazy thoughts?
anitamurie
Jan. 27th, 2013 at 5:52 pm
If Republicans have their way we’ll just get more hearings and no results. The answers are obvious. Why do we insist on complicating getting these weapons of war and the ammo they use off our streets!?
Shiva(Moderator)
Jan. 27th, 2013 at 6:08 pm
If you are pro life, you will understand the gun is part of the killings. The type of gun is part of the killings. I think dear Marsha is saying I dont care if kids die, as long as I continue to get endorsements and cash from the NRA
J
Jan. 27th, 2013 at 6:18 pm
How is what she’s saying crazy? If you support a weapons ban, it’s obvious you have no understanding of weapons technology. And for the people who calls gun rights supporters NRA stooges, don’t get mad because we have actual facts and numbers to support why a ban should not be instated. Gun control supporters have only been making the emotional arguments, and that’s why you will lose.
djchefron(Moderator)
Jan. 27th, 2013 at 6:28 pm
You may be right about gun regulation might fail but for the wrong reason.If we have failure it would because of 5 dummycrats who cower in fear of a paper tiger.That is the NRA
Shiva(Moderator)
Jan. 27th, 2013 at 7:24 pm
No you only have opinion
roooth
Jan. 27th, 2013 at 9:38 pm
“we have actual facts and numbers”
No, you don’t. You have your bizarre alternate reality where you just make shit up and figure we should all just accept it because you’ll stamp your feet and threaten if we don’t.
Jeff R
Jan. 27th, 2013 at 10:29 pm
So J, it is your contention that the number and type of guns available to crazy people has NO effect on the number people that will be killed by those people.
Correct?
I have not seen the “actual facts and numbers to support why a ban should not be instated” of which you speak. Please tell them to me.
Bob Bear
Feb. 1st, 2013 at 4:41 pm
I own guns, served in the military, now retired, used to belong to the NRA before they became a hate group representing Corporate gun manufacturers, and I can tell you straight that laws allowing the purchase of guns that can be bought today without a back ground check is nuts! Add to that its crazy to allow the purchase of body armor, cop killer ammo, and large clips!
These shooting don’t happen without guns!
All these shootings are done by sick people!
With the amount of guns out there, there is no safe place!
Everything must be part of the solution! Or it will only get worse!!
Heller 2008, Supreme Court decision by the Conservatives written by Scallia stated States had a right to decide which guns could be sold, and accessories! Gun laws getting rid of assault weapons, large clips, cop killer ammo, and body armor are not protected by the 2nd amendment!
That’s decided law, Heller 2008, read it, there’s no debate by the NRA that can change that! Its only stupid hot air!!
Doris~
Jan. 27th, 2013 at 6:32 pm
Just another Rethug bimbo who has been trained to go against women’s rights too…
Doris~
Jan. 27th, 2013 at 6:37 pm
Nothing surprises me coming for the koch backed & nra aliens and it is time for all of them go go!
OUST THE TGOP! SAVE OUR COUNTRY!
David Carlton
Jan. 27th, 2013 at 7:08 pm
Idiots like her make me embarrassed to say I’m from Tennessee!
TommyNIK
Jan. 27th, 2013 at 7:32 pm
She must be the “bubble-headed bleached blond” that Don Henley sang about a few years ago.
Anne
Jan. 27th, 2013 at 7:40 pm
What planet does this fool woman reside on, for her to say the shootings have nothing to do with guns? I swear, the more she and her fellow blockheadsS try to rationalize that we don’t need gun control, the dumber they all sound. Although her appearance is something she has no control over, this picture at the top shows her with the same vacant, vacuous look I have seen in many of her fellow Republicans like Lyin’ Ryan, Weathervane Willard, Moronic Michele, and Simple Sarah. The vacant looks reflect the emptiness of their souls.
Frank
Jan. 28th, 2013 at 3:00 pm
Indeed.
Lots of reasons for the high rate of gun violence:
It’s the video games. It’s the drugs. It’s the single mothers. It’s Hollywood. We kicked god out of the schools.
But it’s never the guns or the easy access to them that have anything to do with gun violence.
Do these people ever listen to themselves hen they talk?
Oh, wait–I left out one cause I’ve heard: the violent culture we have in the U.S. But a large part of the reason we have a violent culture is that guns play such a large role in it, and the people who insist that everyone should have as many guns as they want.
The rationalizations astound. I read a reply in another discussion once to the old chestnut that “guns don’t kill people, people do.”
The response: “Vacuum cleaners don’t suck the dirt out of carpets, people do.” It really put that in a different light for me.
Wish I’d thought that it up.
Marcel
Jan. 27th, 2013 at 7:41 pm
Looks like a ditz. Talks like a ditz. Is a ditz.
AverySays
Jan. 27th, 2013 at 7:49 pm
I like how Newt unintentionally makes a pretty fair case for banning semi-automatic handguns.
Eddie Powell
Jan. 27th, 2013 at 8:00 pm
I agree with Blackburn on one point only. Our failed mental health system is the symptom. Rest of what she is saying is what I continue to say about republican women in politics. Robots to be seen and not heard. Guns are the problem. To deny that they are not represented a part of that mental health failure. The sad part is that the same nuts that are responsible for both are going to be responsible for both repairs. These people got us to this point and still refuses to admit they are the real problem. Blackburn and the others in her political camp should take the short view and put in place real gun control. As far as the long view, complete overhaul with new leadership from the local to the national level, private and public. Then real changes that are so desperately required in our current failed mental health system will occur. One must remember that those young men involved in the last 3 mass killings were receiving mental health services.
Reynardine
Jan. 27th, 2013 at 8:01 pm
By the way, was that photo cherrypicked, or does she always look that dumb?
Lori
Jan. 27th, 2013 at 11:09 pm
She always looks that dumb. Sounds even dumber than she looks.
@damspahn
Jan. 27th, 2013 at 8:58 pm
What is this person? A dingbat porn star? Is this the best that Tennessee can do?
djchefron(Moderator)
Jan. 27th, 2013 at 9:08 pm
She may not be working with a full deck but she doesnt have his problems
Scott DesJarlais
During the election campaigns, events from DesJarlais’ personal life became public, making the 2012 race against Stewart “one of the ugliest Tennessee congressional races in decades”. Stories that surfaced included the fact that during the divorce proceedings, DesJarlais’ first wife Susan had alleged that her ex-husband engaged in “violent and threatening behavior”. Court filings revealed that he had at least four affairs. One was with a female patient. According to the Huffington Post, tapes that DesJarlais himself recorded, show that he pressured her to have an abortion after she became pregnant A second woman came forward, stating that she began dating DesJarlais while she was his patient. She alleges that the two smoked marijuana together and he prescribed pain medications for her while at his house.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sco...
Wow affairs and a abortion!! What a guy, pro-life good christian real murikkkan
samantha
Jan. 27th, 2013 at 9:23 pm
“Guns” just so happend to be the weapon on choice by the “Mentally” ill person doing the crime, Or just the weapon he could only get his hands on at that point in time. Weapons are a tool used to do harm. Weapons are also the tools used to keep this country safe from terrorist groups trying to harm us or this country. Just like 9-11 when the tool used to kill thousands of innocent men, women and children was an airplane or three. The tools used to commit horrible crimes varies from person to person depending on what they have near them or what they can get their hands on at that point in time. Most criminals do not even use weapons of a certain calliber, but they use their hands or other type of body part to do what needs to be done at that time to get the job done (as they say). Criminals do not need AR-15′s to commit a crime nor do they need any other type of gun to commit crimes. They have used knives also along with so many other things that you normally would not even think of. Banning guns is just an agenda to the government to enslave us to a one world government. What a better way to start than to have the media on your side and banning guns playing on innocent children to do so. Just like Hitler did in Germany at the start of his rule. Look how many died. He also did this to Austria. He went in just like obama and infiltrated it from the inside. They started out just like us and if we do not stop this we are going to end up just like all those people who parished under Hitlers rule. We need to stop playing to the medias role in this and turn them around to see the truth of the matter and that obama is not the all and wonderful they think of him. Guns are just a tool used and not the sole root of the problem. We need to make prisons not worth going to instead of way of life for people to choose. Help the mentally ill instead of pushing them aside and not having anything to do with them. They need help and are crying for it. Lets help them, they need it.
djchefron(Moderator)
Jan. 27th, 2013 at 9:36 pm
You are persistent.No matter what I do, like a case of herpes you just keep coming back.But just to let you know
imageshack.us/a/img22/539...
Deborah_
Jan. 28th, 2013 at 1:56 am
Samantha, I’m not going to reply to everything you said because people like you just don’t listen and you have no logic. I sincerely hope though that YOU do not have access to ANY gun!
roooth
Jan. 27th, 2013 at 9:40 pm
Can anyone tell me when was the last time she was right about ANYTHING??
Deanne
Jan. 27th, 2013 at 10:15 pm
I recall in January she noted that — oops, that was proven wrong in Feb.
Okay — in October she said President Obama had never — sorry, forgot — she got that wrong too.
I guess the simple answer would be NEVER!!
Deanne
Jan. 27th, 2013 at 10:06 pm
The GOP and NRA who continue to shoot themselves in the foot as if it was the head, there is nothing there to do damage as there is no brain matter in the cavity called their heads.
For all the talk about videos, movies & TV — I do wish more would bring up the fact that those same videos, movies & TV shows are available in Canada, in the U.K. — all over. Kids and adults play/watch them daily. So all the bitching about the ‘entertainment’ is a lame excuse in that the number of murders by guns are fractional.
Therefore — it leads to those poisonous words in the minds of the GOP & NRA world — it is the GUNS — those assault guns & the ‘cop killer ammo’ that if you relied on them for providing your dinner, you’d starve as there would be nothing left after your shot it.
djchefron(Moderator)
Jan. 27th, 2013 at 10:14 pm
It was Mr.Rodgers Think about it dude had a different outfit on every show yet never had a job or worked anywhere. not even freelance stuff. he never left the neighbourhood but every local business he visited they gave him some kind of gratuity, often in a paper bag.
He is the cause of Americas moral decline
Dont believe me?Watch
www.youtube.com/watch?v=p...
H/T M JOSEPH
Pure comedy
Jan. 27th, 2013 at 11:06 pm
Is this really your composite argument?
She is an idiot suffering from cognitive dissonance who is also a bat guano crazy NRA sockpuppet despicable human being who lives in a bizarre alternate reality. Rethug bimbo, bubble-headed bleached blond fool woman ditz Robot who is to be seen and not heard dingbat porn star with no brain matter in the cavity called their head.
I think I found the root of our problems in a single post.
Mike4891
Jan. 28th, 2013 at 8:46 am
Well, that does illustrate the problem of polarization, (and probably also something about inherent drawbacks of internet commentary and/or drawbacks of its present state) but how many actual solutions there would be otherwise remains an open question, I think. If you like pure comedy, Lewis Black told a good joke a couple of years ago, that Democrats are the party of no ideas and Republicans the party of bad ideas.
majii
Jan. 28th, 2013 at 1:06 am
Want to see Blackburn and the other NRA and pro-gun members of Congress change their tune? Let it get personal. God forbid, but if one of their family members lost his/her life due to gun violence, they’d be singing an entirely different tune. It’s sad, but sometimes this is the only way to move folks like Blackburn from the unbelieving to the believing column on the need for some types of gun control. They have kids and grandkids, but it’s so hard for them to imagine what happened to the 20 kids in Newtown happening to their kids and grandkids. I like Stephen King’s suggestion in an essay he wrote recently—these deniers should have to don protective gear and visit a crime scene like the one in Newtown where kids’ guts, brains, and blood were splattered all over their classrooms.
www.washingtonpost.com/bl...
Mike4891
Jan. 28th, 2013 at 8:47 am
It concerns me that the right, even while making a big show of principle on pro-gun absolutism, has hypocritically politicized this tragedy for their own subjection agendas on everything from censorship to school prayer.
PSzymeczek
Jan. 28th, 2013 at 12:31 pm
She forgets that Jared Loughner was receiving NO treatment, medication or otherwise, for his mental illness at the time of or prior to the shooting spree in Tucson. His parents were pretty much in denial that he had a problem, even though Pima Community College had told them at least three months prior that they were expelling him because there was evidence of a problem.
Richard
Jan. 28th, 2013 at 1:28 pm
Why go to war over weapons? Just send in mental health workers.
That should work, according to the Rightwing nuts.
barkingcats33
Jan. 28th, 2013 at 3:36 pm
Psychotropic drugs are under the umbrella of psychiatric drugs and rarely are they the cause of mass murder. But then I suppose you would say that they should be taking them if they aren’t and vise versa. When asked a question it is appropriate to answer the question posed instead of whatever question is convenient for you. Less people are killed when an assault rifle is not used so isn’t that alone a reason to ban them? You started talking about teachers and mental health when that was pointed out. That’s just what I noticed off the top of my head. I think you should try writing your thoughts down Ms. Blackburn to see if they make any sense first. Please and thank you.
djchefron(Moderator)
Jan. 28th, 2013 at 10:35 pm
I know we have our crazies here in OK but Tennessee,oh Tennessee….
Bill Would Tie Welfare Benefits to Child School Performance
State Sen. Stacey Campfield has proposed legislation that would cut welfare benefits to parents whose children fail to make “satisfactory academic progress” in school, a move he says should inspire parents to take a more active role in helping students learn.
blogs.knoxnews.com/humphr...
Brian Loudermilch
Jan. 29th, 2013 at 10:00 am
Guns have Nothing to do With school shootings Like Water has Nothing to Do with
a Person Getting Wet.
The Village Idiot from the GOP just broke
teh Stupid Meter.