Republican candidates are straight up insane these days. There is no low that is too low for them. There is no amount of crazy that is too crazy for them. One of the biggest issues I have with Republicans that want to cater to Trump or run on owning the libs instead of actual policies and ideas is the need they have to minimize political violence, make American gun owners look like irresponsible idiots who shouldn't be trusted with a stapler, let alone a weapon, and to stir up this view that depicting violence against a political opponent is just no big deal.
Let me be abundantly clear. I have a problem with ANYONE depicting or encouraging violence against political opponents. It's not something to encourage and it's not something to make light of, but apparently minimizing the value of life over disagreement is what the modern pro life, pro Trump Republican stands for.
The ad I'm referring to is from Jim Lamon. You can watch it for yourself here: https://twitter.com/jim_lamon/status/1491836062934704141?t=hDx22l-FXjHlt9eYL6eWaQ&s=19
The ad is a Wild West style showdown that ends with Lamon and his gang shooting the weapons out of their opponents hands, who then run away. Their opponents are Mark Kelly, Joe Biden, and Nancy Pelosi.
First of all, a few conservatives have defended this by saying that he didn't shoot his opponents, he just shot their weapons. Here's the thing...you still have to aim a gun at your opponent and open fire. That's still a sick thing to do. The ad unrealistically shows the bullets casually removing the weapons from their hands. In real life, you would have to aim for their actual hand. That is shooting someone.
Another defense is that the ad simply shows Jim and his gang "disarming" the Democrats, not shooting them. Okay. How would you take it if Democrats put out an ad showing a candidate using their weapons to disarm Republicans? Would you be fine with it? Would that just be another political ad to you? Or would you have a problem with it? Be honest.
I was raised around guns. I watched NRA gun safety videos as a kid and I went to shooting ranges as a kid. A lot of people didn't. If you care about gun rights in this country, then it should absolutely be a concern to you that gun owners are viewed as inherently dangerous by people who don't know much about guns or about people who learn about guns from an early age. The more ridiculous videos like this that go viral, the more people are convinced that the average American shouldn't have the right to own a gun, the more people are convinced that they should fear people with guns. That's not the message anyone who values gun rights should be trying to send. Irresponsible gun owners encouraging other gun owners to be irresponsible doesn't help anyone.
If you can't think of a better way to make a political ad, then don't run for office. If you had good policy ideas, you would be making the case.
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