"Be Polite, Be Professional, But Have A Plan To Kill Everyone You Meet"

Imagine the 202 mass shootings in the US this year had all been terrorist attacks instead. Would Republicans still insist nothing can be done and blame pot and doors?

Americans, have you been wondering how you can go to church, a mall, an outdoor festival, or anywhere outside of your house and stay safe from being slaughtered in a mass shooting? On Saturday, Alex Coker — a military veteran, law enforcement instructor, and Fox talking head — offered some advice:

Just like [Marine] General [and former Secretary of State James] Mattis once said, be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everyone you meet, because you never know. If you’re at your workplace, your business workplace, something you might say could possibly cause someone to snap.

As Aaron Rupar pointed out, Mattis’s quote referred to his time in Iraq, “but Fox News host Lawrence Jones didn’t even remark on the comparison between life in 21st century America and survival in an active war zone. Instead, Jones obliviously lamented that “even in Texas, we have constitutional carry. There’s a lot of people that carry there. What can we do to keep ourselves safe?”

It’s apparently the biggest fucking mystery of all time.

And yet every other country on the planet has the answer.

Rep. Keith Self, the Republican shitbag who represents Collin County, where the Allen, Texas, mall shooting occurred, implied that these near-daily massacres are God’s will. Self said that Almighty God “is absolutely in control of our lives”. It’s all God’s fault — and nothing can be done.

There have been 202 mass shootings (where 4+ people, not including the shooter, are injured or killed) in the U.S. this year. May 9 is the 129th day of the year.

Not a single week has passed in 2023 without at least four mass shootings.

Charlie Sykes, The Bulwark, April 11, 2023:

A quick thought experiment:

Instead of talking about the routine slaughter of children and our fellow citizens in schools, banks, nightclubs, and grocery stores, imagine we were talking about Islamic terrorist attacks.

Imagine that there had been 145 attacks from members of the Sinaloa Cartel, or that dozens of airplanes had been hijacked and hundreds of passengers killed.

Would Rick Scott merely offer thoughts and prayers? Would Ted Cruz suggest that we need more locked doors? Armored backpacks? More armed guards? More bans on drag queen story hours?

Would congressmen and legislators simply shrug and say that it was a shame, but that there was nothing — nothing at all — that we could do to confront the horror?

Or would the nation be shocked out of its torpor and mobilize to confront the threat?

We have gone to war for less.