Serious Men
Senator John Thune of South Dakota is a serious man. A ranking member of the Republican Senate Leadership, he is one of the “prop men”. He’s always standing behind Minority Leader McConnell along with John Cornyn as the Leader explains why the Republicans can’t do one thing or another. Thune takes his job seriously. And he’s made it clear that he’s not an extremist like the Josh Hawley’s and Ted Cruz’s of the Senate.
Republican Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana stood up for what he believed. He voted to impeach Donald Trump after the Insurrection. And he’s one of the “moderate” Senators, willing to sit down with Democrats to move legislation forward. He’s an unusual politician, a medical doctor specializing in liver diseases, who gave up more than two decades of practice to go into elective politics.
Congressman Ken Buck is a Republican from Colorado. He is one of the Congressional leaders in anti-trust legislation, going against the trend of Republican obeisance to American business. Buck is an Ivy-Leaguer, with an undergraduate degree from Princeton. He received his law degree from the University of Wyoming, and served as a US Attorney and County District Attorney in Colorado before getting elected to Congress.
These are serious men, in serious times. They are not the “hair on fire” Marjorie Taylor Greene’s or Rand Paul’s, easy to dismiss because of their constant outrageous statements. They are legislators with demonstrated interest in passing laws to make America better.
Varmints
And yet, all three of them made outrageous statements about AR-15 assault rifles this week.
John Thune said: “In my state, they use them to shoot prairie dogs and, you know, other types of varmints. And so I think there are legitimate reasons why people would want to have them” (People).
Cassidy’s statement: “If you talk to the people that own it, killing feral pigs in the, whatever, the middle of Louisiana. They’ll wonder: ‘Why would you take it away from me?'” (People).
And Buck: “An AR-15 is a gun of choice for killing raccoons before they get to our chickens,” Buck said. “It is the gun of choice for killing a fox, it is a gun that you control predators on your ranch, on your farm, on your property.” (People).
A Unique Problem
Massacre after massacre, from Uvalde to Buffalo and all the way back to Sandy Hook; assault rifles are the “weapon of choice” for killing victims as quickly as possible. In speaking to a Congressional Committee, Uvalde first-responders gave graphic testimony of the condition of the fourth graders’ they found. They were literally blown into pieces and unidentifiable by the high energy rounds entering their bodies.
Those killings are serious, symbolic of a uniquely American problem. We have a problem of mass shootings, unlike any other civilized nation in the world. But these serious men: Thune, Cassidy and Buck; are defending assault rifles because they say they’re needed to kill prairie dogs, feral pigs, raccoons and foxes.
Why would “serious” men make such ridiculous statements? Are they trying to drag us into the argument of what caliber weapon is required to put down a prairie dog, or a raccoon, or a feral pig? An AR-15 is designed for war; designed specifically to make the most grievous wounds possible in order to not only stop an enemy soldier, but require multiple other enemy soldiers to try to care for the wounded. Are they telling us that weapon is needed to kill a prairie dog?
Fear
No they are not. What they are doing is laughing at the media. They are sending us down a “prairie dog” hole, getting all of us to talk about their idiotic statements, and focus away from the real tragedy. America is the only “modern” nation in the world where weapons of war are available at the local “sporting goods” store. America, to paraphrase Justice Jackson, is making the US Constitution into a suicide pact, by including assault rifles as part of a “right to bear arms”.
That’s the discussion that Senators Thune and Cassidy, and Congressman Buck do not want to have. They can’t have it, not over the mangled bodies of children from Sandy Hook to Uvalde. Not while the funerals for the folks at the Top Supermarket in Buffalo are just concluding. Not when we know that the next mass shooting is today, or tomorrow, or soon. And there’s nothing that they are willing to do about it.
And since they won’t take the political risks to save the next classroom of children, they’re going to keep talking about prairie dogs, and feral pigs, and raccoons, and foxes. They’re serious men, and seriously afraid of the power of the gun manufacturers to end their political careers. And of course, that’s more important than prairie dogs, feral pigs, raccoons, foxes: and fourth graders.
