Democrat Lawmaker Walks Out of Moment of Silence for Texas Victims in Political Statement

The famed Alinksy-esque instruction “never let a crisis go to waste” has never been ignored by the left, even in the most tragic of situations, and California Rep. Ted Lieu proved just that on Monday.

On Monday night Lieu took to Facebook where he made a show of standing in front of the chamber of the House of Representatives and telling his audience that while the rest of his colleagues share a moment of silence for the Texas church shooting victims on Sunday, Lieu would not be silent.

After talking about there having been too many moments of silence, the California Democrat got to the real reason he was putting on this performance.

“I urge us to pass reasonable gun safety legislation, including a universal background check law supported by 80 percent of Americans, a ban on assault rifles and a ban on bump stocks,” said Lieu.

I could go on about how disrespectful Lieu’s actions are for a few paragraphs. About how this moment wasn’t about his job, or whatever actions he wished to take to prevent more moments of silences. I could on about how this moment was about them, not him.

That Lieu’s cringe-worthy grandstanding and virtue signaling is a dark mark on his character and reputation is something you can already gather. Instead, I’ll use your reading time to bash his points.

For one, no further law on the books could have prevented this. The shooter, Devin Kelley, wasn’t supposed to be able to buy a gun, but the Air Force failed to log his violent crime of purposefully fracturing his infant stepson’s skull with the NCIS. The fault isn’t with our legal system, it’s with that “bureaucratic error” the Air Force said it made.

We already have a background check system that can do all it can to make sure criminals don’t get their hands on guns. It works, however, most criminals don’t get their guns legally. In fact, contrary to Lieu’s high hopes, I regret to inform he and his fellow Democratic colleagues that criminals don’t follow laws. Passing any further restrictions will only hurt the law-abiding.

Furthermore, 80 percent of Americans want background checks, but only if you leave the question as vague as that. Few people actually want criminals to get their hands on guns. However, if you get into specifics about further federal gun control laws, the number comes down drastically depending on the issue. For instance, Lieu’s ban on assault rifles isn’t exactly a highly beloved concept as he and his colleagues believe.

If Lieu wanted to push the gun control agenda, this is not the way to do it. Blatant disrespect to innocent victims of an atrocity looks good on no one, and while Lieu’s intentions may have been good, the place to lead the charge for a pet cause is not from on top of the slain victims.

There’s a time and place, Lieu. That wasn’t it.

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