As you have no doubt heard today, there was another deadly mass shooting in the wee hours, this time in the Los Angeles suburb of Thousand Oaks, California. Thirteen people have died so far, and although right-wing media did their best to propagate the lie that the shooter was a “Middle Eastern” man, only screen captures of their tweets and articles remain after he was discovered to be a white, 28-year-old former Marine:
It wasn’t just the usual suspects from the notoriously racist right who were busy being disgusting, though. NRA-funded gun shill Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) was on Fox News almost immediately following the tragedy, and when asked what we as Americans can do to stop this sort of thing from happening in the future, her answer was almost worse than the Islamophobic garbage coming out of her peers’ mouths:
FOX NEWS: Senator-elect, the #BorderlineShooting is deadliest mass shooting in the US since Parkland. What do we need to do to stop this?@MarshaBlackburn: “What we do is say how do we make certain that we protect the 2nd amendment?… mental health issues need to be addressed.” pic.twitter.com/9ZYSlsajkT
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 8, 2018
But the people of Thousand Oaks are undeterred, especially since one of those killed in the overnight attack was a local hero.
Police Sergeant Ron Helus was killed while responding to the shooting after being shot multiple times when he entered the bar where the attack took place. He had served on the force for nearly 30 years and was quickly approaching retirement. Ventura Country Sheriff Geoff Dean told reporters that Helus’ last words to his wife were “Hey, I got to go handle a call. I love you.”
The community organized a memorial procession for the slain officer that should make even the most cynical NRA supporter wonder how many more children, innocent bystanders, and public servants will have to die so gun manufacturers can keep making money.
Watch here:
Featured image via screen capture
