I don’t know what it is about watching national and state elected Democratic officials when they face off with their GOP counterparts but more often than not it’s usually a deer in the headlights moment. This morning on CNN I sat and watched Texas State House Representative Eddie Rodriguez (D – Dist. #51) square off with Texas State Senator Jeff Wentworth (R – Dist. 25) about pending legislation in both state houses to allow guns on college campuses that will no doubt pass without much resistance during the current legislative term. While Wentworth projected that serious aura of knowing exactly what he was talking about as he laid out his side of the issue with the Virginia Teach shootings as the center piece of his argument you could almost see Rodriquez’s wheels spinning in his head on how to answer his tired, by now worn out rationalizations for looser gunright ownership regulations. The only thing I can remember about Rodriquez’s convoluted counter points is this old liberals need to reach through the TV screen, reach down his throat and pull out the argument he should have given that would have effectively had Wentworth hitting the reboot switch on his GOP/NRA trained talking points in a loop and looking foolish.What we were presented with instead was Wentworth giving the usual rationale that if more people on campus and in particular in the classroom had been armed this horrible incident would never have happened. The coup de grace of his argument was noting that in Texas all registered hand gun owners are required to complete both the classroom and range components of the handgun proficiency course (10 hrs) with a $25.00 dollar fee (he may have said $100.00 but I can’t be quite sure) from a qualified handgun instructor before being issued a concealed handgun permit. This way each of these certified gun owners would have training to help them in a situation similar to Virginia Tech. It was at this point I was ready to lunge at the TV screen if Rodriquez could not even come up with one point of value to shut this guy up. Instead he opened with the “I’m a scared Democrat” regurgitation of his stand that yes, everyone should have a right to own a firearm, but on the other hand blah, blah, blah….. I nearly lost it. Whatever was said after that point was unmemorable and worthless.
The counter argument for this craziness is not rocket science. I just don’t understand where Democrats are coming from with this irrational fear of these crazies. What’s even worse is the crazier the right gets with their rationalizations the more afraid Democrats become. It’s disheartening. It's time to open a school for the liberal, the left of center, or just plain sane Democrat on how to make rational arguments in the media. Let class begin with an example of how to counter this argument: how Rodriquez should have answered Wentworth.
Thank you for allowing me here today to talk with your viewers about this critical issue and its place in our society. The recent Detroit police station shooting should make everyone in the country stand back and give pause to the argument that regular citizens possessing firearms in this country with minimum or no training in their use would react accordingly in a crisis situation. A man walked into a Detroit police station this past January with a concealed shotgun, not even a handgun, and seriously wound four police officers in a shooting spree in a building full of armed professionals who make this their life work. Even then it did not deter or stop this individual from wounding these officers. Then there is the case of Major Nidal Malik Hasan of Ft. Hood who in November of 2009 walked onto a military base filled with professionals trained to use firearms for a living and kill 13 individuals and wound 12 before he was stopped by one of these trained professionals. I want to point out that in the process of his stalking and shooting these innocent victims he encountered one of these trained professionals in the use and control of firearms. Sergeant Kimberly Munley was called to the area in response to the emergency and encountered Major Hasan in the commission of these heinous acts and exchanged fire with him as she was trained to do. She was shot twice where one bullet hit her in the knee and the other shattered her femur into 120 pieces by the time she fell to the ground. It was at this point he was able to walk over to her and kick the gun out of her hand. He was not able to be stopped until encountering Sergeant Mark Todd who exchanged gunfire with Hasan before bringing him down.
Finally let’s look at the assassination attempt on President Reagan in 1981 who was surrounded by Secret Service agents, the best trained and armed professionals in the world, who was still unable to stop John Hinckley from hitting his intended target including Press Secretary James Brady, a police officer and a Secret Service agent. This argument about arming every individual possible, which is the goal of this legislation, to prevent incidents such as these falls apart in the face of the facts regarding the outcome of these incidents. All the individuals involved were trained professionals who do this for a living. These were not individuals who had minimal training for x number of hours who do not do this on a day to day basis. People were still killed, maimed and wounded. This position from the right and the NRA only serves to denigrate these patriotic, brave first responders who carry out their jobs in a heroic fashion unnoticed or unheralded on a day to day basis that make it their business to protect the innocent citizens of our country. Giving everyone the right to take possession and have opportunities to commit harm to innocent citizens in this country without going through a process to screen out unstable individuals is unconscionable. Sir, I will agree with you on one of your tired worn out talking points and principles you and your fellow supporters drag out every time this discussion comes up: you are right guns, don’t kill people, first time offenders that have a right to bear arms for the purposes of committing heinous crimes on innocent people do.
It would have been fun to watch Wentworth reach for the Rolaids with this rejoinder to his nuttiness. This stuff is not hard. Not only that this would, for once, put them on the defensive and the NRA in a position to oppose and delegitimize the professionalism of all these first responders who have been deified in the media. But alas all we are left with are impotent arguments that only serve the purpose of enabling these crazies.
