Iowa state Sen. Joni Ernst got some national notoriety by talking about castrating hogs, but the candidate for Tom Harkin’s senate seat is taking heat now for an advertisement she is running in which she points a gun directly at the viewer while a narrator promises that she will “unload” on ObamaCare. In a recent Republican debate, she created a headache for herself by dismissing concerns about the ad while referring to the killing spree in Santa Barbara as an “accident.”
“Mrs. Ernst, a viewer wrote us saying in light of the shooting of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, the shootings at the Aurora, Colo., theater, and most recently at the UC Santa Barbara campus, ‘we have a Joni Ernst in the television ad that is running continuously on all local television stations that contains violent imagery pointing a gun directly at the viewer and vowing to quote ‘shoot them down’ and hateful language directed toward their opponents. Is this really what politics has become in this country?'” the moderator said. “Mrs. Ernst, what do you say to this viewer?”
“Yes, I would say to this viewer that what happened in that shooting and that stabbing is an absolute tragedy,” Ernst said. “However, I remain firm in my commitment to the Second Amendment. I have been endorsed by the NRA in this race, and again, just because of a horrible, horrible tragedy, I don’t believe we should be infringing upon people’s Second Amendment rights.”
The moderator then asked Ernst if she would change the ad or its timing in light of the UCSB shooting.
“I would not — no. This unfortunate accident happened after the ad, but it does highlight that I want to get rid of, repeal, and replace Bruce Braley’s Obamacare,” Ernst replied, referring to a Democratic Senate candidate. “And it also shows that I am a strong supporter of the Second Amendment. That is a fundamental right.”
I think the outrage has been misplaced. People make misstatements all the time, and using “accident” instead of “incident” isn’t really a big deal. What people should focus on is the basis of her reasoning. We get that she doesn’t want to do anything about gun violence and that she wants to take away the health care of approximately 120,000 Iowans. Those are policy preferences, and she can defend them. What’s harder to understand is why she thinks it matters when her ad was made or first aired. The question is about whether it is appropriate (in light of the Santa Barbara tragedy) to run the ad “continuously on all local television stations” when it “contains violent imagery pointing a gun directly at the viewer.”
She doesn’t think it’s insensitive to keep running the ad. She doesn’t seem to understand why some people think it’s insensitive. That ought to be the real scandal here.
With luck Iowa Republicans will nominate this woman and she’ll go down to defeat like “I’m not a witch” in MD, Akin in MO, and the IN rape guy.
Ms. Ernst may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but she is very good at remembering the NRA talking points du jour.
You see, since Mr. Rodger killed his roommates with some sort of knife, it’s not the UCSB shooting, it’s the UCSB stabbing and car-running-over and shooting, and all those things are EXACTLY equivalent.
If you want to do anything control access to firearms, then you also want to confiscate everyone’s Swiss Army knife and car, because those things are EXACTLY the same.
Sigh.
Yeah, people keep bringing up the “cars kill X thousand people a year” as if it’s an excellent argument against gun control (instead of an argument for more mass transit). But hell, if we treated guns like cars — required the same sort of training, testing, regular inspection, registration, licensing, and insurance — I’d be fine with that. A “well-regulated militia” seems like it would be a vast improvement over what we have now.
As far as knives go, some municipalities do have laws against concealed knives, carrying knives over a certain length, etc. There doesn’t seem to be much hyperventilation about that for some reason.
Or the computer controlled cars that are starting to come out.
Seriously, whut? That fuckwit tripped over his laces and accidentally killed and wounded all those people? Or was he cleaning his gun and it just kept going off, again and again?