'My mind is blown!' House Republicans slammed for voting against Amber Alerts for mass shootingsThis week, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would establish an Amber Alert-style system to let people in an area know there is an active shooter situation. While the bill was bipartisan, 168 House Republicans voted against it — and some of them gave eyebrow-raising reasons.
"It's because they want you to be afraid of the Second Amendment," said Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) in a speech on the floor. "It's because they want you to be afraid of responsible gun ownership." "This is another example of Washington creating another department, another position, spending more money we don't have in order to have a policy objective and advance fear among the American people," said Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX).
On MSNBC Thursday, anchor Joy Reid tore into the GOP opposition votes with Brandon Wolf, a survivor of the Pulse Nightclub shooting.
"Brandon, my friend, you know, I can't think of anything that should be more bipartisan and easy to vote for than an Amber Alert-type system to let people know, hey, there's an active shooter in your area," said Reid. "This would be like saying the current Amber Alert system, which helps us find sexual predators, is just trying to make people afraid of people who want to rape children. Yeah, we should be afraid of people who want to rape children! That's why we have an Amber Alert system. They kidnap a kid, yes, we're afraid of people who want to abduct and hurt children. My mind is blown that 168 Republicans thought that was a bad idea. I can only imagine what you think."
"The absurdity would be comical if it wasn't deadly in nature," said Wolf. "I think you have to start by considering what the Republican message to this country has been on gun violence for decades. They've told us gun violence is inevitable. Sorry you saw your kid to school only to see them carried out in a body bag. Sorry you had to provide a DNA sample because your nephew's body was mangled. Sorry you sent grandma to the grocery store only to be gunned down in the produce aisle. That's simply the way the cookie crumbles. That has been, for decades, been the Republican message on gun violence. If that's true, if you believe there's nothing we can do about gun violence, that it's just an inevitable way of American life, why on earth would you oppose giving people the very best information possible to be kept alive?"
"I'll tell you why," Wolf continued. "It's because Republican leaders in this country are not capable of, nor are they interested in doing the jobs that they've asked for. Democrats, I think, need to call it like it is. Republican politicians are obstructionist wannabe reality television stars who view their positions in government simply as a chance to see themselves on TV as often as possible. And, America, we have to be honest with ourselves. We have to stop enabling these totally unserious political mercenaries who are content to surround themselves with security without so much as giving us a heads-up that there is a shooter around the block. In a functioning democracy, this would and should cost every one of them their jobs."
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