“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of 17-month-old toddlers.”
Authorities say that a man armed with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle hijacked a mail van and went on a shooting spree in the Texas sister cities of Midland and Odessa Saturday. By the time police killed the yet-unnamed suspect, he had shot at least 28 people. Seven of them, including a 15-year-old girl who had recently celebrated her quinceañera, died. A 17-month-old toddler was among the wounded.
Conservatives have long been criticized offering “thoughts and prayers” in the wake of each mass shooting, rather than supporting life-saving measures like gun control. But one member of the Texas House of Representatives, Matt Schaefer, took that rhetoric even farther in the wake of the latest murders.
“‘Do something!’ is the statement we keep hearing. As an elected official with a vote in Austin, let me tell you what I am NOT going to do,” wrote Schaefer on social media. “I am NOT going to use the evil acts of a handful of people to diminish the God-given rights of my fellow Texans. Period. None of these so-called gun-control solutions will work to stop a person with evil intent. I say NO to ‘red flag’ pre-crime laws. NO to universal background checks. NO to bans on AR-15s, or high capacity magazines. NO to mandatory gun buybacks.”
This is way around the bend talk. Of course he goes on to outline his sure-fire plan to stop gun violence:
What can we do? YES to praying for victims. YES to praying for protection. YES to praying that God would transform the hearts of people with evil intent.
