Before Shooting, A Campaign Season Rife With Gun Rhetoric

[cynatnite]

Robert Lowry, a Republican challenger to Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schulz (D-FL), stopped by a local Republican event in October. The event was at a gun range, and Lowry shot at a human-shaped target that had Wasserman Schulz's initials written next to it.

Dean Allen, a conservative candidate for state office in South Carolina threw a "machine gun social"

Pamela Gorman, a conservative in a crowded Republican primary field in Arizona's third district, got some much-needed publicity with a web ad that showed a montage of her shooting different kinds of guns. She also blasted out press releases with titles like: "Armed and Fiscally Responsible."

Dale Peterson, Republican candidate for agricultural commissioner of Alabama, ran an ad in May which he posed with a rifle and declared, "I'll name names and take no prisoners."

A month later, Rick Barber (R-AL) drew attention to his Congressional campaign with a TV ad in which he and "the Founding Fathers" discussed the current tax code. At the end of the ad, in which the cameras zoom in on colonial-era pistols several times, one of the Founders says, "Gather your armies."

About a year ago, Richard Behney, a tea partier from Indiana running for former Sen. Evan Bayh's seat, told a group of Second Amendment activists that they didn't have to resort to armed insurrection -- "yet. We can get new faces in. Whether it's my face or not, I pray to God that I see new faces. And if we don't see new faces, I'm cleaning my guns and getting ready for the big show."

Another one from 2009: Rep. Gregg Harper (R-MS) told Politico that he hunts Democrats. Asked about the Congressional Sportsmen's Caucus, he said, "We hunt liberal, tree-hugging Democrats, although it does seem like a waste of good ammunition."

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/01/gun_rhetoric_2010.php?ref=fpblg

I snipped the examples that TPM posted.

[steve2470]

1. oh but that has nothing to do with a mentally ill person trying to shoot a Congresswoman !!!!!

:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

[mod mom]

2. Just about to post to FB as well! rec'd

[justiceischeap]

3. And do you know why they use this kind of language?

because their polling shows that the people most likely to vote for them, will be drawn by this type of talk. There's something terribly wrong in this nation when to garner votes, you must appeal to voters who LIKE to hear about their candidate shooting up the competition.

There is no conceivable argument that can be made that RW radio/TV has not contributed to this growing voting population. Of course, I'm not saying every single person who listens to FAUX news is like this but a lot are. A lot see FAUX news and Limbaugh/Beck/Palin as some sort of Messiah figure and absorb every bit of rhetoric/threats/denigration they spout and then internalize it until they become a segment of the population that needs guns, guns, guns and violence, violence, violence as campaign slogans. Anything else is too liberal.

And that ladies and gents, is just sad.

[Ikonoklast]

4. Oh, they didn't mean anything by that!

You're taking it all out of context to score political points.

I mean, who in their right mind actually thinks that Democrats should be hunted down and killed?

We were only joking.

You're sense of humor must be lacking, everyone always jokes about killing people they disagree with politically.

If a few nuts take what we actually say at face value and hurt some people, it's not our fault.

You must hate Free Speech.

Bet you want to take my guns away, too.

Then the terrarists win.

[malaise]

5. That's why they're on the defensive

They're scared shitless.

[liberalmuse]

6. I really think they use this rhetoric...

because, while they may not personally harm someone, somewhere deep inside they hope some lone crazy picks up the signals and runs with them to their horrifying conclusion. That way they can absolve themselves of any blame while eliminating an opponent. I really do believe some of these people like Palin and Beck are getting exactly what they want.

Why would Palin continue to demonize Obama, for example, when she knew death threats had increased against him and his family by the hundreds when she did so? Why did she continue to slander him even after she knew the truth, after people spit out things like, 'Kill him!', 'Terrorist!' and starting bringing violent and racist imagery to her rallies? This horror of a human being knew exactly what she was doing from the beginning, even as she put gun sights on that map.

Words and imagery have power. Ask any advertising agency for Chrissake. Ask anyone who's studied The Holocaust. You may not be the one pulling the trigger or hacking and raping women and children, but violent and hate-filled words have been and continue to be a signal to psychotics and people who have hatred in their hearts. Words oftentimes leads to action, and can make people start to believe that violence is an acceptable way to solve a problem.

[enough]

7. You would be interested in this posting at dKos: "Stochastic Terrorism: Triggering the Shooters

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2011/1/10/934890/-Stochastic-Terrorism:-Triggering-the-shooters.

Stochastic terrorism is the use of mass communications to stir up random lone wolves to carry out violent or terrorist acts that are statistically predictable but individually unpredictable.

This is what occurs when Bin Laden releases a video that stirs random extremists halfway around the globe to commit a bombing or shooting.

This is also the term for what Beck, O'Reilly, Hannity, and others do. And this is what led directly and predictably to a number of cases of ideologically-motivated murder similar to the Tucson shootings.

Much more at link.