Shooting Victim’s Father Blames NRA – NRA Says Proposed Gun Study Unethical

Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 06:05 pm

So Richard Martinez, father of 20-year-old Chris Martinez, who was killed by Eliott Rodgers during his shooting rampage in Santa Barbara, California, that left six dead and 13 wounded, hit the nail on his head when he placed the blame for his son’s death on “craven, irresponsible politicians and the NRA.”

Chris died because of craven, irresponsible politicians and the NRA. They talk about gun rights. What about Chris’s right to live? When will this insanity stop? When will enough people say ‘stop this madness, we don’t have to live like this?’

Two of Rodgers’ six victims were women. When he finally and fatally shot himself in the head, he was found to be armed with three handguns, two Sig Sauer p226s and a Glock 34 – all legally purchased – and 400 rounds of ammunition. According to Mother Jones, three-quarters of all assault weapons and handguns used by mass murderers in this country have been purchased legally.

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As Sarah Jones wrote here Saturday, Rodgers went on his rampage because, as he put it, he was tired of being rejected and ignored by women.

Almost two-thirds of the women killed with firearms were killed by their intimate partners. So the very folks blaming women for being murdered because they didn’t protect themselves are also the folks advocating for a no rules, free for all when it comes to gun ownership that clearly and directly endangers women.

And it’s true. This is what Rodgers said before he went on his rampage:

You girls have never been attracted to me. I don’t know why you girls aren’t attracted to me, but I will punish you all for it.

You literally can’t get more unequivocal than this.

So, because Rodgers blamed women, and specifically cited women, Fox News, of course, blamed homosexuality. According to Fox News, Rodgers was actually “angry at the men for not choosing him.”

Dr. Robi Ludwig told Fox News what conservative viewers wanted to hear,

When I was first listening to him, I was like, ‘Oh, he’s angry with women for rejecting him. And then I started to have a different idea: Is this somebody who is trying to fight against his homosexual impulses?’

Was he angry with women because they were taking away men from him? But this is a kid who couldn’t connect, and felt enraged, and wanted to obliterate anyone that made him feel like a nothing.

Fox News, so fair and balanced it prefers to make up facts than pay attention to actual facts sitting there right in front of them.

Because of course, he can’t really be angry because he was a heterosexual who felt rejected by women. It fits more neatly into Fox News’ anti-gay agenda to label him a homosexual instead.

I mean, he killed people. He has to be gay, right? What are homosexuals, according to the conservative meme, but proto-Nazis waiting to establish a new Reich?

In fact, Fox News itself shares a great deal of blame for supporting an pro-death, anti-American, gun-culture agenda. Fox News accused movie mogul Harvey Weinstein of hypocrisy earlier this year for making violent films while opposing the NRA while shamelessly promoting the NRA’s murderous policies.

In fact, Fox News accused the media earlier this month of not talking enough about a decrease in gun violence. The problem is, the study Fox News pointed to as evidence, shows that “Nearly all the decline in the firearm homicide rate took place in the 1990s” and that “the rate appears to be higher in 2011 compared with 2008.” The study stops there. It tells us nothing at all about gun violence in 2012, 2013, or 2014.

The only thing Fox News has not blamed for gun violence is guns.

And talk about hypocrisy: here is Fox News using a study to defend the NRA while the NRA says a study which would determine how many people are actually killed by guns is “unethical.” Now ask yourself why would the NRA worry about something like that?

NRA spokesperson Catherine Mortensen told ProPublica,

The abuse of taxpayer funds for anti-gun political propaganda under the guise of ‘research’ is unethical. That is why Congress should stand firm against President Obama’s scheme to undermine a fundamental constitutional right.

You might remember here what Richard Martinez said about his son’s right to live.

It’s easy to blame television or Hollywood. And it’s convenient. But at the heart of the evil of gun violence in America is the NRA’s rampant embrace and promotion of a gun culture, and Fox News, which lives off ramping up hate and fear. It’s a potent mix.

As President Obama said in the wake of the Washington Navy Yard shootings last fall, he senses “a creeping resignation that these tragedies are just the way it is — a new normal. We cannot accept this. There’s nothing normal about innocent people getting gunned down at work.”

Or anywhere else for that matter. But it is happening regardless, and with increasing regularity. And conservatism’s answer is to blame not guns, not the NRA, not Republican politicians and their increasingly lax gun laws, but liberals. Most mass murderers, they say, are registered Democrats (In fact, so goes the meme, liberalism is to blame for just about every evil in the world).

But this is not true. It is a myth.

And Rodgers didn’t learn to hate women from Democrats or from liberalism. Only one political ideology in America is teaching young American men that women owe them something, and that is conservatism. The same ideology, by the way, that is not only sowing hate and fear in general but misogyny in particular, that is teaching them that problems can and should be solved with guns.

The NRA, the GOP, and Fox News rant about the “fundamental” right to bear arms while ignoring the fundamental right of Americans to life. And as Richard Martinez said, their right to own a gun does not trump your right to life. Which, you might ask yourself, is in truth, more fundamental?

Hrafnkell Haraldsson

Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.