Mass murderers scored huge victories during Washingtonâs current legislative session, with two gun control bills failing to make it out of committee. You might say they were shot down, ho ho!
Also, ten people are dead in Colorado after a mass shooting, not to be confused with the mass shooting in Cleveland that killed two, not to be confused with the mass shooting in Detroit that killed one, not to be confused with the mass shooting in Houston that injured five, or the mass shooting in Dallas, or Pennsylvania, or Oregon, or New Orleans, or Stockton, or Georgia. Thatâs at least 23 dead, 27 injured in just the last week. If you want something more local, just go back another few days, and you can include the guy in Tacoma who was shot to death on March 4 because he insulted someone.
Two bills this session would have addressed gun violence in Washington: SB 5078 and SB 5217, a ban on high-capacity magazines and a ban on assault weapons, respectively. Neither one made it out of committee, and on a call with the media this week, Republicans explained that itâs because shooting people is already illegal. Oh okay, problem solved!
âWhat happened in Colorado should never be acceptable,â Senator John Braun said on the call (skip to around the 17-minute mark), responding to a question from KIRO's Essex Porter.
âWhat was done there is already illegal ⌠Adding one more way itâs illegal is not going to solve this problem,â Braun added.
Ah, itâs the old âguns donât kill people; people kill peopleâ argument, to which Eddie Izzard once famously responded, âwell I think the gun helps.â
So what DOES Braun think we should do about all the, you know, constant shooting and killing and terror? âGet after the underlying mental health issues,â he says, which is nonsense because, whatâis America the only country in the world where people have mental health problems?
Braun continued spinning his wheels, saying the state needs to address âsome of the issues exacerbated by the pandemic, some of the isolation and restrictions.â
Ohhhh, of COURSE, thatâs what made mass shootings happen â quarantine is to blame, another of the things that Republicans oppose! How very convenient! Too bad itâs not 2004âhe could have blamed gay marriage.
What is the thinking here again? That business closures drive mass murderers to kill? âOh, Starbucks only allows one person at a time, thatâs the last strawâ? And it's one of those horrible paper straws, too?? Arghhh, liberals!!!!
And just what has Senator Braun done to address the supposed mental health cause of shootings? Letâs just take a look at his sponsored bills and see if we can find the one about fully funding mental health programs. Hmmm, thereâs one about hydrogen fuel cell taxes, one about consolidating traffic tickets, one about reducing litter, one about making it harder to vote⌠weird, nothing about mental health and guns in there!
To be fair, back in 2018, he proposed a half-billion-dollar bond measure to fund mental health services, a proposal that went precisely nowhere.
âThe Legislature can take steps to reduce the risk of deadly school violence, which stems most often from mental illness,â he said at the time.
But wait. âMental illness plays a limited roleâ in mass violence, according to a study in the journal Criminology. âMass shootings by people with serious mental illness represent less than 1% of all yearly gun-related homicides,â according to this publication by the American Psychiatric Association. Another study puts the figure at 8% worldwide.
Thereâs still some dispute over just how many mass shootings are orchestrated by people with mental illness â experts agree, though, that the number is low, unlike the number of mass shootings caused by people with guns, which is all of them.