“…is a polite society.”
Last Thursday, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) returned to the House of Representatives amid cheers and applause, after having been shot in June at the Congressional baseball game.by a disturbed 60ish man wielding a legally purchased high-powered rifle. That man wounded Scalise and three other people before police were able to return fire and incapacitate him (the shooter later died of his wounds).
This previously unaired segment of a CBS News interview with Scalise was recorded shortly before the Las Vegas shooting occurred. Within the segment, Scalise affirms that despite his experience he remains a strong proponent of gun ownership rights.
What’s particularly noteworthy about his answers here is that he readily admits playing second base in the middle of a ballgame is no time to be carrying a sidearm, and that he’s instead grateful for the trained security personnel who were there to protect him and others. It begs for the obvious follow-up questions: “Is going out dancing for the evening an appropriate time to carry a sidearm? How about going to the movies? How about going to the library? How about when you’re teaching a class of first graders? When you’re visiting your family for the holidays?”
“Can you please provide us with the detailed list of everyday activities, both work and leisure, during which it makes the most sense to be carrying a firearm?”
The NRA, to be sure, insists that there is no wrong time to be carrying–but the NRA is, I will continue to stress, a marketing apparatus whose primary goal is to increase profits for their client industry. Incidentally, Steve Scalise received a $5,000 campaign donation from the NRA last election cycle and enjoys their glowing A+ rating for his positions on firearms.
At current, reports state that the toll in Las Vegas is 59 people dead and 525 injured, by one man, in approximately 10 minutes. That number is higher than the combined total of people that comprise the office of the president, every seat in the Cabinet, every seat in both chambers of Congress, and every seat on the Supreme Court.
I make that comparison not to be threatening. But it should, one would hope, be more sobering to men like Steve Scalise.
Creative Control 