See also: Russell Pearce's Racism "Discovered" by Arizona's Media See also: Russell Pearce's Mexican-Bashing E-mails Slammed By Randy Parraz, Others
Recalled, disgraced ex-state Senate President Russell Pearce's heart, or what little there is of it, goes out to the victims of the Dark Knight Rises shootings in Aurora, Colorado.
But pro-gun Pearce is careful to point out that these folks' injuries, fatal and otherwise, are really their own dang fault.
See, a dozen didn't die and 58 weren't wounded because some heavily armed nut decided to turn mass murderer on Friday. Rather, the massacre occurred because, according to Pearce, no one had a gun so they could stand up and play John Wayne.
Yesterday, Pearce posted the commentary above to his FaceBook page, after supposedly speaking with a friend whose niece was in the theater during the slaughter. One of the niece's friends was shot.
The right-wing Republican then uses the tragedy to score some pro-NRA debate points, or so he believes.
"What a heart breaking story," writes Pearce. "Had someone been prepared and armed they could have stopped this `bad' man from most of this tragedy. He was two and three feet away from folks, I understand he had to stop and reload. Where were the men of flight 93???? Someone should have stopped this man. Someone could have stopped this man.
"Lives were lost because of a bad man, not because he had a weapon, but because noone [sic] was prepared to stop it. Had they been prepared to save their lives or lives of others, lives would have been saved. All that was needed is one Courages/Brave [sic] man prepared mentally or otherwise to stop this it could have been done."
That's some interesting logic coming from a guy known for his association with neo-Nazi, baby-murderer J.T. Ready and for forwarding racist and anti-Semitic e-mails to all and sundry.
Pearce apparently presumes that if we all were to walk around armed all of the time -- in the workplace, in the movies, in the shower, you name it -- then such mass slayings would never happen.
The friend of his pal's niece? Either she should have been armed or the male friend who was with her should have been packing or both. Shame on them.
What about any children harmed in the bloodbath? Well, that's just terrible, but their parents should have known better than to go to a movie without a Glock.
The Navy sailor and two Air Force personnel reportedly injured?
Heck, what are military men doing walking around without firearms? The armed forces sure have gone downhill. Shame on them, too. At the very least they should have gone all Chuck Norris on the psycho.
AR-15s are as legal as pie, as is all the ammo you can buy for 'em. That's in the Constitution, for cryin' out loud. No matter where you are, you have to assume that at any moment some Kevlar-vested maniac's gonna stroll in and start blasting.
Pearce's logic covers all such incidents. Former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords should have been packin' on that fateful January day last year. Ditto late U.S. federal Judge John Roll, who would not be "late" if he'd been strapped and ready to shoot it out with Jared Loughner.
Does the Pearce factor apply to all assassination attempts? How about the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan by John Hinckley, Jr.? Okay, Reagan wasn't armed, but he had plenty of Secret Service and cops around him that were. And yet the best protection in the world wasn't able to stop some dude in the crowd with a .22.
Soldiers at war are armed to the teeth, and yet come home in caskets aplenty. How does Pearce's twisted argument apply to them?
That Aurora movie theater wasn't a war zone, but gunman James Holmes treated it like one.
According to Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates, Holmes was dressed in a "ballistic helmet," a "ballistic tactical vest," a gas mask, and other gear. He apparently released two canisters of smoke or some other irritant into the theater before opening fire.
In addition to his AR-15, Holmes had a .40 caliber Glock and a 12-gauge shotgun on him, plus another .40 caliber Glock in his car.
The Los Angeles Times paraphrases Oates as saying that Holmes had bought "several magazines on the Internet for the assault rifle, including one 100-round drum magazine which was recovered from the scene."
The Times further relates that, according to Oates, "[w]ith the drum magazine, the gunman could have shot 50 to 60 rounds within one minute."
Better practice your draw, pardner. If you're not quick enough to best 50 rounds per minute, then you deserve your fate.
Oates also said that rounds fired by Holmes penetrated into an adjoining theater, wounding one person.
Wonder if that individual was armed? Obviously, he or she should have been, then they'd never have been hurt. Right, Russ?
UPDATE July 22, 2012: Pearce doubled down on his comments in a follow-up FaceBook post. See below. He clearly doesn't get it. Plus, the Rep's staff posted their blog item a couple of hours after mine. Jeez, where's the love, RP?
UPDATE July 23, 2012 8:32 AM: First they were down, then they were up again. And now once more they're gone. (At least for the moment.) I'm talking about Pearce's recent "blame the victim" comments on his FaceBook page. Thing is, Pearce might as well leave them up.The damage is done. And folks keep adding links to stories about them on his page.
