Congressional Democrats who were practicing for Thursday night’s game with Republicans near the field where House Majority Whip Steve Scalise was shot gathered to pray for their colleagues. A photo posted on social media by Representative Ruben Kihuen (D-Nev.) shows about 25 of them huddled together in their dugout with their heads bowed. Kihuen posted this comment along with the photo: “Me [sic] and my House Democrat colleagues saying a prayer for our House Republicans and Senate GOP baseball colleagues after hearing about this morning’s horrific shooting at their practice field.”
The alleged shooter, James T. Hodgkinson, of Belleville, Illinois, somehow obtained a semi-automatic rifle (Illinois has some of the country’s strictest gun control laws in place) and then somehow managed to ship it to Arlington, Virginia, also home to anti-gun politicians who have enacted almost equally draconian laws. There is little doubt that the shooter, now deceased (thanks to the intervention of an armed law-enforcement officer), was acting out his rage against Trump and his Republican supporters in Congress. Selwyn Duke, writing in The New American, said that “Hodgkinson was a leftist who … posted a link to a Change.org petition in late March that included the notation that ‘Trump is a Traitor. Trump has Destroyed our Democracy. It’s Time to Destroy Trump & Co.’”
The executive vice president of the Second Amendment Foundation, Alan Gottlieb, said Hodgkinson was galvanized by hatred generated by the left:
This hate speech that has been going on since Donald Trump was elected.… It gets their voter base agitated and this is what happens as a result….
When liberal leftists support the assassination of President Trump on stage, what do you expect to happen? Hate speech and actions incite this kind of violence.
Second Amendment supporters were quick to point out that it “took a good guy with a gun to stop a bad guy with a gun,” a phrase popularized years ago by a top NRA official. As Mike Adams wrote on his Natural News blog: “Once again a man with a gun was able to stop a mass murderer, proving yet again that guns help save lives by stopping insanely violent left-wing murderers who only seek death and destruction.”
Adams went a step further:
The hate-filled left-wing media … are deliberately spreading hatred, bigotry, intolerance and violence in order to radicalize domestic terrorists to murder Republicans.
This is deliberate. It’s not coincidence. It’s all part of the hatred “programming” now being carried out by the left-wing media and its hate pushers who are trying to drive America into a civil war.
Jesus Christ said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy; But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those whose persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?” (Matthew 5: 43-46)
Perhaps those Democrats with their heads bowed were reciting this commandment of the King of kings. For that they are to be commended. Or perhaps they were remembering what Martin Luther King said: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” If so, for that they are to be commended.
But one Democrat who couldn’t resist the temptation to act instead as “a man with an agenda” was Virginia’s Democratic Governor Terry McAuliffe. When a microphone was thrust into his face and he was asked: “Governor, do you think any more needs to be done to protect politicians?” McAuliffe launched his predictable rant against guns instead of evil:
Well, let me say this: I think we need to do more to protect all of our citizens. I have long advocated — this is not what today is about — but there are too many guns on the street.
We lose 93 million [sic — 93] individual Americans a day to gun violence. I’ve long talked about this: background checks, shutting down gun-show loopholes. That’s not for today’s discussion. It’s not just about politicians. We are about this every day for all of our citizens.
The reporter couldn’t resist. He asked the governor: “If it’s not for today then why are you bringing it up? People are going to criticize that you’re bringing up gun control at this time.” Responded McAuliffe: “Well, I talk about this every single day. It’s a very serious issue.… We’ve got to look at this.”
Can any good come out of the evil perpetrated on a baseball diamond in Arlington today? History is likely to remember the hatred expressed by one man through violence. It is also likely to remember that the violence would likely have been much worse if a man with a gun had not intervened. History will remember Democrats with their heads bowed as they prayed for their Republican colleagues. History is likely to forget entirely Virginia Governor McAuliffe’s attempt to turn the tragedy into political advantage.
Image of Scalise being treated after wounding: Screengrab of YouTube video from Storyful.news
An Ivy League graduate and former investment advisor, Bob is a regular contributor to The New American magazine and blogs frequently at LightFromTheRight.com, primarily on economics and politics. He can be reached at [email protected].
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