We often hear that refrain by the media immediately after a mass shooting, and in the moment it is often true, there’s a lot we don’t know, worse yet there’s a lot we refuse to know. So then we should ask ourselves what do we know. We know that there are too many guns in America, we know that since 2019 firearms have been the leading cause of death among American adolescents. We know that if Mitch McConnell or any other MAGA prone republican saw a gun on the side of the road they would stop to pick it up, but if there were an abandoned baby they’d drive right past. This is where the Republican party is right now and has bee since I started paying attention, they drove right past Columbine, as they will drive pass Uvalde, Texas. The Republican party, will drive past the victims, the suffering families, and they will offer thoughts and prayers out of the metaphorical window as they speed past.

Columbine was 23 years ago, and Mitch McConnell has been in office for 38 years, I bet he doesn’t think about how many deaths that have happened in America as he takes sips of his favorite whiskey, he’ll just take another sip and move on to killing any bill that would reasonably help the typical American family. Sure there are other republicans that have opposed gun legislation in America but none have been as consistent and in a place of power to do so like Mitch McConnell has. And now even after Uvalde, he did the bare minimum, because he’s willing to wait between mass shootings to pass any legislation that would be truly effective.

We know that Republican party is pro-life, pro-gun, pro-death penalty, and anti health care. We know that Alex Jones lied about Sandy Hook and we know that some Republican somewhere is blaming the Uvalde shooting on immigration because of the shooter’s last name even though the majority of the victims seem to be of Latino descent as well. The cynicism, the callousness, the indecency seems to be the Republican way, maybe they were always like this but they were better at hiding it. Well, at least somewhere between Senator McCarthy’s, “Red Scare,” and President Donald J. Trump’s, “Big Lie,” there is no decency in the GOP. However there is a more insidious undercurrent in America, it is the virus of “better them than us.” It is the virus Tucker Carlson spews every night, the virus that would rather ban a book than a gun, the virus of anomaly worship as opposed to community development, and that virus has run and is running through the GOP and if nothing is done it will become the ruining of America.

The erosion of America in her truest sense has always been at the hands of white men in power, and they historically have always done things to one stay in power, and to have privilege. And those in power have historically convinced a majority of men, white males in particular that whatever is the cause of your fears, frustration, or anger it stems from anything that is not you. So if anything in your white male American experience gets way to frustrating shoot it down. Especially if you’re a cop and the victim is an unarmed Black male.

Yet this is what this country was built on; blood, rape, violence, by privileged men against a minority of people. And the best way to psychologically control the unprivileged, is to say what they can do with their bodies and decide who gets to take a life and when. With the Supreme Courts decision about concealed firearms coming down days after the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, we have to ask ourselves about constitutional originalism, because that is the foundation of what the majority of the Supreme Court is basing their gun decision on and the abortion reversal on. Sometimes I wonder how many children Martha Jefferson, wife of Thomas Jefferson, thought about that weren’t coming out of her womb. I wonder how many she wanted wanted shot or aborted. I wonder if she ever felt jealous, angry, upset about the children her husband sired with slaves, let alone her half-sister, or if she thought about her half Black half White very much enslaved, nieces and nephews. Thomas Jefferson ultimately didn’t seem to give a fuck, even as he was doing so.

Back to “originalism”, the second amendment is often used to support gun rights, but we know this country wasn’t built by AR-15’s. The original gun was a musket so it is almost impossible to take the “original intent” of the founders and attach that to an AR-15, while at the same time ignoring the statement “a well regulated militia.” We know the Supreme Court of United States in the year 2022, cherry picks intent and originalism to fit their right-wing ideology, and we know this is hurting the majority of Americans. The only originalism that this current court wants to restore it seems to me is white male privilege, and yes Clarence Thomas seems to be the vanguard in that movement.

So what do we know? We know that there will be more mass shootings, we know that the Republican party is a party of fear, anger, and hatred. We know nothing comforts a fear, hatred, or anger quite like a gun. Especially for the white male of privilege. We know that the majority of mass shootings have been perpetrated by white males, we know that the republican party wants to blame everything but the gun. So what does that say about America in her current state, there’s a lot we don’t know, but we know from Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, Mike Pence, and yes even Donald J. Trump that the Republican Party is filled with, (and I hate using this word) bitches! As said in a quote from a movie I grew up on “any bloody fool can pull a trigger.” However can the GOP pass any legislation that would help the typical American family going forward besides arming everyone and controlling the bodies of women. We know that thoughts and prayers can’t bring the dead back or help a 10 year old raise her child. So why in hell do people still vote for these, (and again I hate to use this word) bitches.