I'll Bet His Eyes Are Brown...

Texas lawmaker who suggested God is responsible for mall mass shooting wants more guns at shopping outlet https://t.co/d021J3ncbs

— Raw Story (@RawStory) May 8, 2023

because he's so full of...

I suppose it's an improvement that he's not speaking for God anymore:

Freshman Republican Rep. Keith Self, 70, whose congressional district includes Allen, Texas, served in both the Army Special Forces and Army Rangers. A Christian nationalist, far-right extremist, and 2020 presidential election denier, Self was endorsed by twice-impeached and criminally-indicted ex-president Donald Trump, along with his disgraced ex-National Security Advisor Mike Flynn, also a far-right Christian nationalist, and a QAnon supporter.

Asked Monday morning if he knew why the gunman targeted that outlet mall, Rep. Self told Fox News (video below),"I don't know, we can speculate on it."

"But I will tell you this: I believe the policy of that mall is a no-gun zone. So one of the things we've got to consider is not having these soft targets," he said, suggesting there should be more people there with guns. "I was in the military for 25 years and I will tell you soft targets are where criminals go."

This is where I point out military service is not criminal law enforcement experience.  And it's not just that military are barred from law enforcement use in the U.S; it's also that they aren't trained for it.  So his expertise in this area is zilch.

Those remarks echo comments Rep. Self gave to The Washington Post in an interview published Sunday.

“If we are going to have people in our society who wantonly murder people, we are going to have to think about more protection — protecting our schools and soft targets like malls. That is the direction we need to be going: What are we going to do to protect ourselves? Unless we develop some civic conscience which means people don’t murder 5-year-olds, then we need to protect society.”

Self also told The Post, “the immediate aftermath is not the time for politics. We have long ago traded faith in God, which means civic action based on that faith, for faith in government.” 

Government is how we protect society.  Or does he think the U.S. military is a citizen sponsored organization operated by volunteers according to somebody's interpretation of the Bible?  If we're going to have people wantonly shooting others, maybe we need to think about access to guns and military weapons.  There's a story now about a woman who stole a fully automatic weapon from a gun store, and my first question is:  WHY THE HELL ARE FULLY AUTOMATIC WEAPONS AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE IN THE FIRST PLACE? And shouldn't that shop lose it's license to sell such weapons?  (Or are those stores licensed in the first place?  I honestly don't know what regulations apply to gun dealers as far as what they can sell and how they handle them.)

As for the idea of more guns at that mall:  brilliant!  The guy shooting the gun is the bad guy!  Wait!  They're all shooting guns!  In the movies bullets either hit their target, or evaporate into the air. Guess what!  That doesn't happen in real life!  How many shootings by "gang members" end up involving bystanders because we assume the shooter as only aiming at one person, but had really bad aim?  In the case of mass shooting the "bystanders" are the target, so you can't go wrong!  Now arm several people in that crowd with AR-15's (why should they be under-powered?) and get 'em all pulling triggers!  Hey, killing even more people is a small price to pay to get the "bad guy"!  Except the off-duty police officer who did get this killer was on-site and took him down pretty goddamned quick.  It's actually rather appalling how much damage you can do with an AR-15 in the brief time it takes the "good guy with a gun" to realize what's happening, identify the shooter, and take him down.

We think we could all do it because we've seen the good guys in the movies do it.  But the movies make sure the bad guy IS RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE CAMERA!  Real life is not so obliging.

You'd think after 25 years in the military Self would know real life ain't like the movies.  But apparently not.  And besides, as this incident proves, the problem is not the rapid response of the "good guy with a gun." The problem is the presence of the bad guy with a gun in the first place.  Emphasis on "gun," whose presence makes all the rest of the horror possible.

This guy is a fuckin' idiot.