Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC), challenged by a Democrat to articulate what he’s willing to do to stop gun violence, replied:
“I wouldn’t let teachers prop doors open. I would make sure that police are not discouraged from going in and saving children who are being assaulted while the assault is going on. I would not intimidate the police and tell them they ought to cease to exist.”
(Read story here.)
It would be nice if those who make laws know what they’re talking about, but don’t get your hopes up. Too many people still vote for politicians like him.
Early reports that the Uvalde gunman got into the school because a teacher left a door open were wrong (see story here). The federal cops who killed the gunman were “discouraged from going in” by local police (see story here). And if the rest of his comment is a swipe at Biden and the Democrats, he’s wrong there, too; Biden has called for more police funding and more police (see story here).
What it boils down to is this Republican not only has no solutions, he doesn’t even know what the problem is, so there’s little chance he’s going to come up with legislation that actually helps solve it.
What Bishop is doing, of course, is aiding and abetting “male cops blaming a female teacher for their own failures” as part of a larger Republican narrative that schools are easy targets because most teachers are women and women are weak; therefore schools are “in need of even more male protection.” (See article here.)
And that highlights an even larger point about Republicans: Their legislative goals are ideology-driven, not fact-driven, and they’ll bend, misstate, or falsify facts to justify their agenda.
The last thing Republicans like Bishop want to do is allow gun legislation to pass; as Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) said, “Not gonna happen.” (See story here.)
Another GOP senator confronted by frustrated constituents refused to say what he’d do about guns; they responded, “Quit filibustering!” Read that story here. And Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL) even brandished guns during a virtual Judiciary Committee hearing on gun violence. (See story here).
To summarize: If you elect Republicans to represent you in Congress, what you’ll get is blaming gun violence on women, a lot of hemming and hawing and deflecting, and no action on guns.