July 25, 2015

After yet another mass shooting by a man who turned out to be a white supremacist "tea party type" who had access to a gun, even though he had mental problems in Louisiana, Gov. Bobby Jindal reacted in the way we've come to expect form those who are beholden to the NRA, and who never, ever want to talk about gun control in the immediate aftermath of another one of these incidents.

Jindal: Now is not the time to talk gun control:

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal on Friday deflected questions about whether Thursday night’s movie theater shooting should prompt a reevaluation of gun policies.

“We are less than 24 hours out, we’ve got two families that need to bury their loved ones. We’ve got families waiting for their loved ones to leave the hospital and are praying for their recovery,” he said Friday at a press conference in Lafayette, La., where a gunman killed two others and himself.

“There will be an absolute appropriate time for us to talk about policies and politics, and I’m sure that folks will want to score political points of this tragedy, as they’ve tried to do on previous tragedies.”

MSNBC's Chris Hayes and Esquire's Charlie Pierce weighed in on Jindal's reaction on this Friday's All In, and Pierce did his best to just shred Jindal's lame arguments that now is not the time to talk about the tragedy or how to fix it, and the gall it took for him to pretend that this sort of violence is "unthinkable" in his state.

After Hayes discussed the fact that these shootings have become so routine that people aren't even “panicked in the control rooms” any more and “know the drill” because these shootings have become something in the American psyche similar to tornadoes or wildfires or hurricanes, here's how Pierce responded.

PIERCE: I want someone to make the argument as honestly as possible that one of these shootings every two weeks is the price we pay for our freedom in this country. I want someone... I don't want both of those divorced any more. I want one of the people opposed to sensible gun laws, to please make that argument that this is just something we have to take as a population, because we have a Second Amendment. The honesty would be refreshing at this point.

After pointing out that this is a uniquely American problem, Charlie Pierce responded to Hayes with this:

PIERCE: Yeah, the two words that I think should be eliminated from the dictionary when dealing with another mass shooting are unspeakable and unthinkable, because quite honestly, if at this point you cannot think about how one of these things happens, then you haven't been paying attention. And if we don't speak about it, then they're going to keep on happening.

When you say, you know, Bobby Jindal gets up and says who can believe this would happen here. Well, let's go through the issue in Louisiana, shall we? I mean, the riots in 1866. There was The Colfax Massacre, the Thibodaux Massacre, the Battle of Liberty Place. According to Bryan Stevenson's group there were 540 lynchings between the 1880's and the 1950's in Louisiana.

So don't tell me that public violence is unthinkable. We've thought about it a lot.

Amen to that. They also discussed the fact that NRA spox Wayne LaPierrre has allowed himself to be the face for these gun manufacturers so none of the people who own these companies that are profiting off of these deaths ever have to face a camera or the scrutiny that their business deserves. Maybe we'll see that change some time in the near future if someone like Hayes goes and tries to get a few of them on camera if his network allows it.

Here's more from The New Republic on how Bobby Jindal has made things worse in his state on this issue that he pretends to care about and give lip service to: Bobby Jindal Enabled Louisiana's Gun Violence Problem:

Governor Bobby Jindal suspended his sputtering presidential campaign on Friday, a day after 59-year-old gunman John Houser killed two people and wounded nine others in a movie theater in Lafayette, Louisiana. "We’re going to do whatever we can to support our community here," he said on Fox News. "This is a time for us to come together."

He should do a lot more than that. Louisiana has some of the weakest gun laws and worst gun violence in the nation.

The state doesn't require background checks on private sales, even for assault weapons; doesn’t require gun owners to register their firearms; and doesn't have a limit on the number of firearms that can be purchased at one time, according to the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. As for gun violence, the state has the second-highest gun death rate in the nation, according to an analysis of the latest National Vital Statistics report. Louisiana's lax oversight also enables firearms trafficking to other states, in which it ranks fifteenth in the nation, and 28 percent of guns wind up in criminals' hands within two years of sale—almost six points above the national average.

Jindal has worked to weaken the state’s already lax gun control by signing a wave of bills in 2013 and 2014. He broadened the "Stand Your Ground" law to protect shooters who hurt, but don’t kill, someone they feel is threatening. He allowed concealed weapons in places that serve alcohol. He banned public access to the personal information of concealed handgun permit owners. He approved guns in churches. And he allowed Louisianans to apply for lifetime concealed-carry permits.

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