Recently the satirical Duffel blog posted a fictitious news story about a non-existent government pamphlet titled “What to Do When the Veteran In Your Classroom Attempts a Mass Shooting”. I became aware of this post because I received an email from someone who thought the pamphlet was real. As I read it, I wondered what Barack Obama’s advice might be in a pamphlet about what to do if a leftist (what many of you still call a “liberal”) were to attempt a mass shooting.
So, somewhat tongue in cheek, here it is; I leave it up to the reader to determine what advise Obama and his bureaucrats really would give if they didn’t have to worry about PR:
- Stand down. Take no immediate action to stop the active shooter. This guideline is particularly easy to follow, since you are probably in a gun-free zone. Besides, it would be a shame to waste a crisis, and stopping the shooter too soon would prevent the event from reaching crisis status, which would undermine exploiting the incident for more gun control.
- If the shooting is halted before casualties are sufficient for it to be considered a “mass” shooting, especially if the shooter was stopped by an armed citizen, relegate the story to the back page, or ignore it altogether.
- Publicly scapegoat the NRA, gun owners (except elites who have an inalienable right for self-protection that the masses do not have), and conservative Christians. Immediately brand the shooter as a Bible-thumping gun-toting evangelical that “clings to guns and religion”.
- Suppress, if possible, or at least minimize the reporting of and emphasis on information about the shooter’s leftist views (i.e. the fact that he voted for Obama in 2008 and 2012), his mental health history, or addictions to pornography, violent video games and violent movies.
- Regardless of the weapons used, make sure they are demonized. This is best done by classifying them as “military style” or “assault” weapons, even if they are neither, but especially if they simply mimic military or assault weapons in appearance. Also, be sure to use the phrase “gun violence”.
- Grandstand. Hold press conferences. Give speeches. Get maximum media exposure. Remember that a crisis is a campaign opportunity, and provides lots of great free publicity if you know how to exploit it.
- Feign sorrow and outrage. I know that’s hard to do while you are inwardly celebrating an opportunity to further your radical Socialist agenda, but failure to fake these emotions would be a serious breech of etiquette. You can do it. Never mind that you aren’t upset by much bigger atrocities, such as the abortion of millions of innocent babies, or the persecution and murder of Christians throughout the world, or the use of Fast & Furious guns by Mexican cartels to kill Mexicans and Americans, or the random slaughter of Israelis by terrorist organizations you sympathize with, or the murder of American diplomats and personnel in Benghazi, or the brutal slaughter of millions by the radical Socialist regimes of Stalin, Lenin, Mao, Pol Pot and Hitler.
- Push for the passage of numerous new local, state and federal gun control laws. Ignore the facts that criminals and lunatics ignore gun control laws, and that many gun control laws and penalties already on the books are either ineffective, unenforced, under-enforced, or selectively enforced, and that harmless law-abiding citizens are often prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law for inadvertent violations, while charges are often not brought against violent first-time and repeat offenders who utilize firearms in the commission of crimes.
Note that guidelines 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7 and 8 apply to any mass shooting, not just to ones where the perpetrator is a leftist.
References & Comments Related to the Foregoing
1) Navy Yard: Swat team ‘stood down’ at mass shooting scene; In Benghazi American forces were reportedly told to stand down.
2) Citizen Self Defense Prevents Mass Shootings. We don’t often hear about mass shootings that weren’t; i.e. when a citizen or law enforcement stops a shooting before it becomes a mass shooting, for obvious reasons it doesn’t get much coverage.
3 & 4) Almost as reliable as death and taxes is the mainstream and leftist media’s propensity to scapegoat conservatives and related organizations, particularly the NRA, when there is a mass shooting. If it wasn’t for the conservative grass-roots media, we probably wouldn’t be aware of the fact that many mass shootings are perpetrated by left leaning psychopaths with an appetite for violent media. Regarding elitists and their perceived right to self-defense that they deny the masses, that is a fact of life. Elitist leftists that obtain power and gain at the expense of the masses always have arms and protection that they deny the masses. Always.
5) No Such Thing as Gun Violence. Also, who gives a crap that a weapon is “military style”? Just because it looks like a military “assault” weapon doesn’t make it one.
6) “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste…”
7) I find it funny how leftists choose their crises. They pick just the ones that can be used to further their agenda, conveniently ignoring far worse, especially those where an ally is the perpetrator, or where the atrocity is the end result of their ideology.
8) You only have to read the news to know about harmless otherwise law-abiding citizens who are persecuted and prosecuted for exercising their second-amendment rights, or for inadvertently disobeying an obscure gun control statute. Meanwhile, in places like Chicago and elsewhere, violent thugs get off easy and avoid the harshest gun control penalties.
1) Navy Yard: Swat team ‘stood down’ at mass shooting scene; In Benghazi American forces were reportedly told to stand down.
2) Citizen Self Defense Prevents Mass Shootings. We don’t often hear about mass shootings that weren’t; i.e. when a citizen or law enforcement stops a shooting before it becomes a mass shooting, for obvious reasons it doesn’t get much coverage.
3 & 4) Almost as reliable as death and taxes is the mainstream and leftist media’s propensity to scapegoat conservatives and related organizations, particularly the NRA, when there is a mass shooting. If it wasn’t for the conservative grass-roots media, we probably wouldn’t be aware of the fact that many mass shootings are perpetrated by left leaning psychopaths with an appetite for violent media. Regarding elitists and their perceived right to self-defense that they deny the masses, that is a fact of life. Elitist leftists that obtain power and gain at the expense of the masses always have arms and protection that they deny the masses. Always.
5) No Such Thing as Gun Violence. Also, who gives a crap that a weapon is “military style”? Just because it looks like a military “assault” weapon doesn’t make it one.
6) “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste…”
7) I find it funny how leftists choose their crises. They pick just the ones that can be used to further their agenda, conveniently ignoring far worse, especially those where an ally is the perpetrator, or where the atrocity is the end result of their ideology.
8) You only have to read the news to know about harmless otherwise law-abiding citizens who are persecuted and prosecuted for exercising their second-amendment rights, or for inadvertently disobeying an obscure gun control statute. Meanwhile, in places like Chicago and elsewhere, violent thugs get off easy and avoid the harshest gun control penalties.