(Dobbs) Message to Gun-Loving Politicians: Your Thoughts and Prayers Aren’t Working

They sure don’t replace reasonable gun laws.

Unspeakable tragedy upon unspeakable tragedy. This time it’s Nashville’s. But some would say there’s some silver lining for the people of Nashville: they can mourn in the warmth of the thoughts and prayers of rock-solid gun-loving politicians who have the power to pass laws that might prevent massacres like this. But they don’t. They just pass along their thoughts and prayers.

Like Republican House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who told reporters at the Capitol, "The first thing in any kind of tragedy I do is I pray. I pray for the victims, pray to their families.”

How comforting.

Or like the congressman who actually represents the district where the shooting happened, Representative Andy Ogles. His first reaction was meant to sound heartfelt: he was “utterly heartbroken” and sent his “thoughts and prayers to the families of those lost.” 

But it was heartfelt hypocrisy, for here’s the real Andy Ogles: last Christmas he sent out this blood-tingling card to constituents.

The warm holiday message that came with the family photo was, “The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil interference – they deserve a place of honor with all that’s good.” This did nothing to stop Americans’ obsession with guns. It did everything to stimulate it.

What Scalise and Ogles and others of their ilk conveniently overlook is this: their prayers don’t stop the insanity of mass murders in America. Their prayers don’t help the victims rise from their graves.

Even the chaplain of the United States Senate— clearly a man who believes in the power of prayer— understands this, saying yesterday on the floor of the Senate, “Lord, when babies die at a church school, it is time for us to move beyond thoughts and prayers.”

But the issue isn’t really about thoughts and prayers anyway. It’s about politics. It’s about the gun lobby. The chair of the House Judiciary Committee, Jim Jordan, yesterday mouthed the company line: “I believe in the Second Amendment, and we shouldn’t penalize law-abiding American citizens.” Left unsaid of course is this: by ignoring reasonable gun reform, the people we don’t penalize are those bent on harm.

When confronted with a question about actually trying to make it harder for murderers to put their hands on guns, Majority Leader Scalise also took the company line: “It just seems like on the other side, all they want to do is take guns away from law-abiding citizens."

Wrong, Congressman. They want to take guns away from law-breaking citizens like the woman who shot up the school in Nashville. They want to make it harder, if not impossible, for maniacs like this to even get their hands on guns.

Some states are doing that. My own state of Colorado, for example, this week is passing three new laws aimed at making it harder. One would impose a three day waiting period to buy a gun. Another would impose a minimum age of 21 to make the purchase. A third would expand a red-flag law to inhibit someone with a firearm who is deemed dangerous.

These politicians who oppose reasonable measures like these, measures that do not “take guns away from law-abiding citizens,” are the epitome of disgrace and dishonor to the sacred office they hold, let alone the innocent Americans they serve.

Exactly 30 days ago, I wrote a piece here with the title, “Setting New Records for Mass Shootings.” On that day, February 27th, we were up to 86. Today, after Nashville, we stand at 130. No one would bet against that number going up more and going up fast. That is America today.

As it happens, I am not in America right now, I am in New Zealand, and yesterday I found myself sitting next to three local citizens who were talking amongst themselves and the first word that got my attention was “insanity.” It turns out, they were talking about Nashville.

These people don’t have a stake in the debate about guns in America. But what they do have is a stake in human life. What they see and can’t begin to wrap their heads around is, too many American politicians don’t.

Over almost five decades Greg Dobbs has been a correspondent for two television networks including ABC News, a political columnist for The Denver Post and syndicated columnist for Scripps newspapers, a moderator on Rocky Mountain PBS, and author of two books, including one about the life of a foreign correspondent called “Life in the Wrong Lane.” He has covered presidencies, politics, and the U.S. space program at home, and wars, natural disasters, and other crises around the globe, from Afghanistan to South Africa, from Iran to Egypt, from the Soviet Union to Saudi Arabia, from Nicaragua to Namibia, from Vietnam to Venezuela, from Libya to Liberia, from Panama to Poland. Dobbs has won three Emmys, the Distinguished Service Award from the Society of Professional Journalists, and as a 36-year resident of Colorado, a place in the Denver Press Club Hall of Fame.