Stephan: You would think that any politician capable of rational thought would look at the data, look at the news, and see that America is unlike any other nation in the world -- in a very bad way. Guns, and recognize that something needed to be done to stop the endless murders. You might think that, but you would be wrong. The Republican Party long ago rented themselves out to the military-industrial complex, the makers of the weapons that kill tens of thousands of Americans each year. They did this in complete cynicism in return for large buckets of money. It is immoral, it is evil, it is the Republican reality. And no one represents this evil more clearly than Mitch McConnell. Here is his story. Thanks, Kentucky voters for inflicting this horrible person on the rest of us.
Mitch McConnell was just finishing up his first term as the junior senator from Kentucky when a mass shooting rocked his hometown of Louisville.
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) walks onto the stage before speaking at the 2014 Conservative Political Action Committee in National Harbor. Credit: Susan Walsh/AP
On Sept. 14, 1989, a disgruntled employee entered the Standard Gravure printing plant in downtown Louisville and, armed with an AK-47 and other guns, killed eight and wounded 12 others before taking his own life — in what remains the deadliest mass shooting in the state’s history.
At the time, mass shootings had not yet become the staple of American life that they are now, and McConnell said he was “deeply disturbed,” declaring, “We must take action to stop such vicious crimes.”
But he also added: “We need to be careful about legislating in the middle of a crisis.” And in the days and weeks after, he did not join others in calling for a ban on assault weapons like the AK-47 used by the shooter.
DITCH MITCH !