On the stump last week-end, Donald Trump entertained his followers in the wake of the massacre in Oregon with colorful fantasies of him walking down the street, pulling a gun on a would-be assailant and taking him out right there on the sidewalk. He said, “I have a license to carry in New York, can you believe that? Somebody attacks me, they’re gonna be shocked,” at which point he mimes a quick draw:
As the crowd applauds and cheers, he goes on to say “somebody attacks me, oh they’re gonna be shocked. Can you imagine? Somebody says, oh there’s Trump, he’s easy pickins…” And then he pantomimes the quick draw again:
Everybody laughs. And then Trump talks about an old Charles Bronson vigilante movie and they all chanted the name “Death Wish” together. Keep in mind that this sophomoric nonsense took place just two days after a disturbed man went into a classroom and shot 17 people.
Now Trump is a clown, we know that — a very wealthy celebrity clown who has captured the imagination of millions of people. And if there’s one thing he’s known for, it’s his macho swagger so this isn’t exactly a shock coming from him. Indeed his entire rap is based on the idea that American leaders are all a bunch of “babies” (although one cannot help but think he has some other words in mind) while he is the manly leader who will take on all the “bad people” including world leaders, ISIS and anyone else who stands in the way of making America great again. It wouldn’t surprise me to see Trump literally packing head at his next rally and shooting into the air like Yosemite Sam.
Ben Carson, the Republican presidential candidate, said on Tuesday that victims of mass shootings should not be timid during attacks, imagining that if he were facing a raging gunman, “I would not just stand there and let him shoot me.”
The remarks on Fox News came a week after a gunman entered a community college classroom in Oregon and opened fire on students after asking them about their religion. Mr. Carson said that he would defend his faith at any cost and that if he had been in that classroom he would not have cooperated.
“I would say: ‘Hey, guys, everybody attack him! He may shoot me, but he can’t get us all,’” Mr. Carson, a conservative who has been rising in recent polls, said.
That’s very impressive. I’m sure Carson had a lot to teach the victims about how they should have behaved more bravely in the face of an armed madman bent on killing them. One of them, a veteran who tried to keep the shooter out of the room, did live, so perhaps Carson can tell him all about what he did wrong when he’s out of the hospital. As for defending his faith at any cost and committing suicide rather than cooperate, well let’s just say that makes him someone who has more in common with Islamic fundamentalists than he might be comfortable with.
One thing is clear. While Trump and Carson may have personalities that are polar opposites in terms of temperament, they do have a couple of important things in common (besides crackpot politics). They are both outrageously arrogant and they both see themselves as Hollywood-style heroes. This notion they are personally so tough that if anyone threatened them with a gun, they’d either out-draw them or inspire everyone to run straight into a hail of bullets, is ludicrous. Neither of these men are trained military veterans or have any professional experience with firearms — except in their own Walter Mitty fantasies. These comments are embarrassing for both of them.
But it does speak to a larger issue about how the right proposes to deal with gun violence, personal danger and the fear that permeates our society due to the flood of deadly weapons landing in the hands of people with an ax to grind who want to go out in a blaze of glory and take a bunch of people with them. Isn’t that the dark side of Trump and Carson’s inane self-serving illusions about their own theoretical heroism? Doesn’t Wayne LaPierre’s formulation that “the only thing that will stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun” sound like old fashioned cowboy serial dialog that ignores the indiscriminate carnage that inevitably results when bullets start flying from guns that don’t know what kind of “guys” are firing them?
There’s lots more at the link about “stand your ground” and “Castle Doctrine” and how “good guys with guns” are actually raising the body count substantially. This macho fantasy world these people inhabit is very, very dangerous.
Police in Auburn Hills, Michigan are investigating an attempted shooting at a Home Depot, where a 47-year-old woman with a concealed carry permit tried to shoot a fleeing shoplifter, WXYZ reports.
According to authorities, the woman witnessed a man exiting the Home Depot while being followed by loss prevention officers. The man attempted to flee in a small, dark sport utility vehicle, at which point the woman pulled out her concealed 9mm handgun and opened fire in the Home Depot parking lot.
She fired repeatedly, and police believe one of the bullets struck and flattened the SUV’s tire — but the suspects, described as two males in their 40s, one white and one black, still escaped. The woman is said to be cooperating with police, who are still deciding whether to charge her for shooting up a Home Depot parking lot to stop a suspected shoplifter.
According to police, there were many people in the parking lot when the woman shot at the fleeing SUV. A police spokeswoman told a WXYZ reporter that “the best thing that anybody who witnesses or thinks they’re witnessing a crime could do for us is gather information, write down information, provide it to the officers when they arrive.”
Update II:this piece by Josh Holland is informative. He spoke with actual combat vets who have a slightly different take than the fantasy heroes Trump, Carson and Wayne LaPierre.
