Like his colleague Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D), Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy (D) is not the sharpest tool in the shed, nor does he have any real sense of what honor and decency are supposed to look like.
When he’s not meeting with terrorist state leaders and trying to undermine U.S. policy in the process, a favorite subject for Murphy has been the Second Amendment, for which he frequently expresses disdain. In fact, he’s established himself as one of the most anti-gun rights Senators in modern history, and was responsible in part for the “bipartisan gun bill” that President Biden recently signed into law.
To further prove the point, after the Tuesday release of the chilling 77-minute video from the horrific Robb Elementary School mass shooting, Murphy took to the Twitter machine to proclaim something he’s said before about the “good guys with guns” arguments defenders of the Second Amendment often use:
The Uvalde video puts to bed, forever, the question of whether the way to deal with bad guys with guns is to make sure there are more good guys with guns.
We’ve always known it was a gun industry created lie, designed to sell more guns. Now we just have the gut wrenching proof.
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) July 13, 2022
He repeated his claim during an interview Wednesday with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell, who teed him up quite well for the response he gave:
First things first, his argument is a complete strawman. No one is arguing that the “only” way to stop bad guys with gun is a good guy with a gun. The argument is that they are the best deterrents to bad guys with guns.
Secondly, imagine knowing all we know about the lack of timely response from Uvalde law enforcement officers and believing that makes your case against the “good guys with guns” argument. The “good guy with guns” scenario usually refers to civilians acting to protect in the absence of the police. As others observed, “Actually Chris what the Uvalde video shows is you can’t trust law enforcement to protect you from bad guys all the time. Sometimes you have to protect yourself.”
Remember, too, that civilians (including parents of some of the students) wanted to rush the school because police were holding back, but they weren’t allowed to do so (including an armed officer who wanted to go in to try and save his wife who had been shot and later died). And eventually, the shooter was taken down by good guys with guns from the border patrol who prevented even more injuries and deaths with their actions.
Also, it’s not always a matter of not being able to “trust” law enforcement. Let’s say there’s a domestic violence situation where time is of the essence and you can’t wait for the cops to get there to you. You or someone close by who cares about you have to be able to take strong defensive steps in those instances to save your and/or their lives. There are countless documented instances of where the “good guy with a gun” (who didn’t happen to be a police officer) scenario played out, whether it be in a store, at someone’s home, at a church, in a parking lot, etc. where lives were undoubtedly saved thanks to someone who was armed who acted quickly when they or those around them were under threat.
But despite what happened in Uvalde, there are plenty of “good guy” police officers who do react in a timely matter to keep people safe. A prime example of this is another recent incident where a deranged person repeatedly tried to enter an elementary school through locked windows and doors. But he never got the chance because he was shot down by law enforcement in the parking lot during a scuffle:
A man who tried to force his way into an Alabama elementary school Thursday morning was shot and killed by police before he could enter, authorities said.
Gadsden City Schools Superintendent Tony Reddick said a “potential intruder” tried to enter Walnut Park Elementary School in Gadsden, Alabama, through multiple doors Thursday morning while several dozen children were on the campus for a summer literacy program and a Parks and Recreation summer camp. The town is located about 60 miles northeast of Birmingham.
Authorities didn’t immediately say whether the man was armed or why he might have been trying to get into the school.
The man was unsuccessful in entering the school. All the exterior doors were locked, Reddick said, and the principal contacted the school resource officer when she realized what was happening.
[…]
The suspect was fatally shot after resisting and trying to take the resource officer’s gun, according to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency statement, which did not say how many shots were fired or by whom.
Of course, “leaders” like Chris Murphy never mention these types of stories because they go entirely against their despicable gun-grabbing talking points about how the “good guy with a gun” argument is a “fiction created to sell more weapons.”
It’s absolutely not a “fiction,” as survivors in situations where a good guy saved the day would attest.
Keep in mind, too, that as Murphy says this he is afforded taxpayer-funded protection that involves good guys with guns putting their lives on the line to keep him and his loved ones safe.
It’s always good enough for them, but it’s never good enough for you. Never forget that when powerful people like Chris Murphy openly advocate for eating away at your rights.
Flashback: Rep. Eric Swalwell Takes Appalling Cheap Shot at “Good Guys With Guns” After Odessa Mass Shooting
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