The Right-wing pundits are trying to distance themselves from their trigger-happy rhetoric.

[The Backlash Cometh]

I'm wondering what left-wing commentator is going to collect all the angry "shoot-the-liberals" comments that we have been hearing for several years now. I have posted in years back how this is common talk among right-wingers. And now, in the aftermath of the Gabrielle Giffords shooting, the right-wingers are trying to distance themselves from culpability when this rhetoric reflects their entire cultural perspective.

Yes, Democrats have made some references to guns or "someday somebody is going to shot Limbaugh in the head," (Chris Matthews), but the bottom line is that it's the people who support the gun culture who have made this talk an American value! For every Democrat who may have made a close reference, there are thousands of instances where the right-wingers have said it because it's part of their belief system. As far as rhetoric goes, it's like comparing a derringer to a Tommy Gun.

This is not one that I think should be left for right-wing pundits to spin. I think you need to put the microphone in the faces of everyday right-wingers to see how they really feel about this, because I don't think the pundits are reflecting the truth about their culture.

[sharesunited]

1. Their honest opinion would be It Is Still Worth Having Our Guns.

Despite incidents like this.

And extra vigilance is required to make sure gun grabbers don't use incidents like this to confiscate our guns.

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. This is not a 2nd Amendment issue. It's a first amendment issue.

Nobody is trying to go after their guns. What we're pointing out is that their rhetoric has crossed the line. Their words were said as a form of threat in order to intimidate people. Now, with this massacre, we see it has crossed that line. The words will have the same effect as you find in terrorism.

[sharesunited]

4. It's both. Violence by machete can be incited.

But you can't outrun bullets.

[Brilliantrocket]

5. It must be a lonely world for you....

Being one of the last few holdouts in wanting to ban guns. Well then again people are stupid, after this tragedy people will want to ban guns for a week, then they will forget. They will carry on with their lives as if nothing happened. The next major issue on the news will soon wipe most people's memory.

Your dream can never be realized in our world. You are delusional in thinking that guns can be just banned away. Have you ever seen one of those stories on the people in Pakistan ? They've been making guns in the desert for hundreds of years. If a guy in Pakistan can do it , what makes you think criminals wouldn't just make their own guns? All you need is a lathe and some random metal chunks.

[sharesunited]

6. It's just a matter of public policy. Prohibiting child porn is a popular crusade.

Was the little girl who was killed more at risk from obscene images or the bullet that killed her?

[Zoeisright]

11. Oh yeah, right - they're making automatic weapons from metal chunks and wood. How stupid.

There are plenty of people in this country who want to ban guns. And of course it can be done. Countries with gun control laws have minuscule numbers of gun deaths, compared to this country where it's an epidemic. But you know that if you know how to read. Apparently it doesn't mean anything to you that more than 40,000 Americans are killed every year with guns.

We even beat Mexico, with its ruling drug cartels, in terms of death by gun. And you are delusional in thinking that guns cannot be banned. Grow up.

[Upton]

3. +1000

[nashville_brook]

7. i bet if you go on youtube you'll find many mashups of these talking points...

and if they're not there, they will be. sound bite after sound bite...followed by headlines of the murders...over images of the tea party signs calling for violence.

i'm beside myself with grief, and also anger. it's up to us to end this, b/c the political right has too much to gain by continuing this rhetoric. they have no other way to communiciate.

[The Backlash Cometh]

8. Jackpine radical has a headstart

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x152186

[tblue37]

9. In general, violent rhetoric on the left is expressed by fringe elements and

rejected by the mainstream of the left and its leaders and spokespersons. Violent, threatening rhetoric on the right is expressed by its mainstream elements and embraced and reinforced by its leaders and spokespersons.

[The Backlash Cometh]

10. That's a good point.

Where there is extreme lefty talk, we reject it. The right-wingers do not.

I just hope that Libertarians are not mashed in there with the Liberals. It would be a terrible generalization.

[TalkingDog]

12. You mean Liberal Libertarians like the Dalai Lama or Nelson Mandela?

Yeah, horrible examples.

[chervilant]

13. hmm...

Both of these great men are rendered relatively powerless by the Corporate Megalomaniacs who hold all of the significant power in this world. They are fewer than 400 in number, yet they own and control more than 45% of the world's resources. Those among us who haven't figured out that the Corporate Megalomaniacs have usurped our global economy and now drive every significant GLOBAL economic decision had better get a clue soon. The Corporate Megalomaniacs are sitting in their insular and well-appointed mansions or boardrooms, rubbing their hands together and chuckling with glee. Overpopulation? No problem! A few well-placed rabble-rousers vomiting divisive hate-mongering and fear-mongering rhetoric, and people die. Problem solved.

Despite an urge to point out more ways the Corporate Megalomaniacs control and dehumanize us (how about radical income inequity?), I will simply adjure: read Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein. REALLY read it! We the People are smart and resourceful. Surely, we can figure out how to throw off the shackles of this global economic slavery. A good first step will be rejecting divisive, hate-mongering and fear-mongering rhetoric.