Chris Hayes highlighted a magnificent attack by Rep. Jamall Bowman (NY) on Republican congressmembers for their cowardice on gun violence. I needed that!
"Tonight, a pretty incredible and emotional scene in the United States Capitol. A Democratic congressman, Jamall Bowman, who has spent more than a decade as an educator in New York public schools, said what many of us are feeling and thinking today," Hayes said.
"When he took his Republican colleagues to task for the refusal to take action on America's gun violence epidemic. Bowman wound up in a heated exchange with Kentucky Republican congressman Thomas Massie, who once posted this picture of his family sitting around their Christmas tree, brandishing assault style rifles."
They're all cowards! They won't do anything to save the lives of our children at all. Cowards! Force them to respond to the question 'Why the hell won't you to do anything to save America's children?' And let them explain that all the way up until Election Day 2024. Let them explain it all the way up until the Election Day 2024, they are freaking cowards, they're gutless. They are not here talking about gun violence. I'm talking about gun violence!
He was interrupted by Kentucky congressman Thomas Massie, who insisted that there have been no school shootings where teachers were allowed to carry.
"More guns lead to more death. Look at the data. You're not looking at any data. You're carrying water for the gun lobby. Look at the data. More guns lead to more deaths! States that have open carry laws have more deaths. States that have open carry laws have more death. Are you listening to what I'm saying? We won't calm down, children are dying! Nine-year-old children, the solution is not arm your teachers," Bowman said.
When Massie continued to insist having teachers carry guns was the solution, Bowman shot back, repeating, "Have you ever worked in a school? It's a yes or no question. Have you ever worked in a school?"
Whew.
Hayes said Alyssa Slotkin was on the problem yesterday and she said, 'The terrain is shifting right now. I can feel it. I'm in a swing state, I'm running statewide.' "What do you think?" he asked David Jolly.
Jolly said he didn't think Republican politicians will budge. "It could be shifting with voters, who get to hold Republican politicians accountable, and that will be the ultimate test. I mean, we have a generation of Republican politicians who basically have been indoctrinated from the time they entered politics, alongside the NRA and gun lobby talking points, and I think you're seeing that from Thomas Massie."
"The reality is, even if there's truth to the fact there's not been a school shooting in the schools that arm teachers, I would suggest correlation does not imply causation. And secondly, inevitably, Chris, there will be, and Thomas Massie will be proven wrong. The data point that should inform all of our judgment on gun deaths is that the United States, per capita for 100 people, has a higher density of gun ownership by a rate of 3 to 10 times than other developed countries and we have 3 to 10 times the gun deaths in the United States compared to other developed countries.
"It is the guns and I think that's what Bowman was making clear."
"The gun lobby matters a lot, but you're not putting your family on a Christmas card holding guns for the gun lobby. like, again, like, the fetishization, the celebration of the gun, is an intense cultural totem for folks," Hayes said.
"It's not, like, it's obviously I think been created by a gun industry that needs to sell weapons, but, you know, I think these people really do think that, like, every single American carrying a weapon would be better for the country. I think that is their vision," Hayes said.
Jolly talked about possible legal solutions.
"The question around culture is something that ultimately, we just have to crush the culture of gun ownership here in the United States, because we do have, within the United States, this culture that somehow, gun ownership creates virulence, creates strength. What it actually leads to is the death of children.
"I think it was Claire McCaskill yesterday or the day before who said, maybe Democrats and those who sympathize with the Democratic position on this need to launch our own culture war. In the face of all the Republican culture wars around transgender-ism and black and brown communities, wokeism, maybe the culture war in 2024 needs to be to crush the culture of gun violence in the United States and humiliate Republicans who continue to platform lies that allow the shootings we saw this weekend in Tennessee," Jolly said.
"When you say the word gun violence, one of the things that strikes me here, you see it here, is if you say the word crime, Republicans, there's no, there nothing, that's too much to go after crime in the big cities, crime. Crime is the enemy. If you say gun violence, which is probably the most deadly subset of crime, all of a sudden it's like, well, what are you going to do? Whatever the word is, that just changes everything," Hayes said.
"Chris, this is going to be hard but for Republicans, crime is something that's committed by black Americans, yes, right? Gun ownership and gun violence is part of the culture of young white men, and so the Republicans will protect it. That's the reality," Jolly said.
The full exchange.
