Michael Flynn Jr. is lashing out at teenager David Hogg, a Florida school shooting survivor, for his gun control advocacy, saying his parents “didn’t smack this kid much” when he was growing up. Read story here.
The comments by Flynn Jr., whose father has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in the Mueller probe, echoes the behavior of other rightwingers who are viciously attacking the kids instead of debating how to make schools safe.
Photo: The Flynns
It is widely believed that Michael Flynn Sr. accepted a plea bargain in order to protect his son, who hasn’t been charged, from prosecution by Mueller.
When a few Republicans did join the debate over how to prevent school shootings, their ideas ranged from ill-advised (e.g., arming teachers, which teacher groups oppose) to crassly insensitive (such as ex-Sen. Rick Santorum suggesting schoolchildren prepare for classroom shootings by learning CPR).
Hogg, 17, one of the most visible and outspoken of the Florida survivors, has been standing up to attacks by rightwing mouthpieces. When conservative propagandist Laura Ingraham taunted him, he called her a “bully,” and Ingraham then went on leave of absence from her show when advertisers began dumping her in response to a nationwide outcry.
Ted Nugent, a minor musician with an extremely checkered personal history, has called the Stoneman Douglas kids “mush brained.” Nugent is a loud and obnoxious defender of “gun rights.”
Pro-gun advocates are a small but vocal minority in the U.S. population. Statistics show 3% of Americans own 50% of the guns in civilian hands, and 19% own most of the other 50%, while over three-fourths of households are gun-free. Recent polling shows two-thirds of Americans support stricter gun control laws.