Republicans will do anything to avoid admitting that sensible gun control is needed in the United States.
Despite the grim death toll from the Buffalo and Uvalde mass shootings, it now appears that the GOP will continue to block even modest gun reforms such as making it mandatory that a person must be 21 before purchasing a semiautomatic weapon or adding enhanced background checks, both of which are supported by an overwhelming number of Americans.
So, if guns aren’t the problem (at least to hear the Republicans tell it), then what could be the underlying cause for the bloodshed we see on the streets of the country?
According to Rep. Pat Fallon (R-TX) the blame lies with your smartphone.
HuffPost reports:
During a House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing on Wednesday, Fallon rejected a call for new gun regulations by suggesting guns were around long before the relatively recent rash of mass shootings began.
“Guns have always been readily available in this country but mass shootings and particularly mass shootings of schools were nonexistent or extremely rare until they became a grisly recent phenomenon,” Fallon told the committee.
“So what’s changed in the last 50 years?” he asked, before offering his own theory.
“There’s been a noticeable breakdown of the family, there’s been an erosion of faith and there’s been a seismic drop in social interaction in large measure due to the overuse of these dang smartphones and the proliferation of social media, which is probably better described as anti-social media,” he said while holding up his own device as a visual aid.
Yep, your iPhone or Android device are the killers. Not the lack of mental health services, not the ability to buy weapons of mass murder almost anywhere in the country, but the thing you use to make phone calls, text your loved ones, and surf the internet.
Of course, what Congressman Fallon failed to address is why other countries such as our allies in Britain, France, Germany, and Japan don’t have as many mass shootings even though smartphones are ubiquitous in those nations, too. Why? Because they make it much more difficult to purchase and legally own a weapon.
So, Mr. Fallon, put your hands up and tremble, because we’re all about to start posting on Twitter about what an idiotic douche you are.