Hillary Clinton probably wishes she never spoke up after the tragedy in Las Vegas last Sunday night. All week Clinton has been slammed for her insensitive irrelevant comments on guns while the country was still reeling from the aftermath of one of the worst incidents in U.S. History. As details of the shooting in Las Vegas were still being released, Hilary took to Twitter to slam the NRA and push the gun control political agenda her party is so fond of.
She tweeted, “The crowd fled at the sound of gunshots. Imagine the deaths if the shooter had a silencer, which the NRA wants to make easier to get,” she adds: “Our grief isn’t enough. We can and must put politics aside, stand up to the NRA, and work together to try to stop this from happening again.”
What Hillary is referring to is a bill that the NRA has sponsored to ease the federal rule on suppressors (which she confused with silencers) to help protect the hearing of hunters and target shooters. While the comment is definitely out of place and ultimately an inappropriate grab for a political statement in the midst of a tragedy that many people are suffering through, it is also based on irrelevant information.
The use of suppressors is made to reduce the noise that is emitted from guns a few decibels. This often will quiet a low caliber weapon for the shooter, but high-powered weapons like the ones used in the Las Vegas shooting would only have been mildly muffled during the attack, certainly not enough to eliminate the sound of the gunfire.
Talk radio host and NRA spokesman Dana Loesch stated this information on her twitter feed. “Suppressors only reduce by a few decibels, still same decibel level as a jackhammer.”
Ben Shapiro also weighed in on Hilary’s comment stating, the tweet was “Ignorant, irrelevant and exploitative.”…
The “Hearing Protection Act” is included in part of the larger SHARE Act that passed quickly through the House Committee on Natural Resources to increase hearing safety for hunters and expand the scope of recreational hunters and fisherman. The act is now poised to go through the Senate and has had widespread support from both parties.
Hilary Clinton pushed gun control during her 2016 campaign so this recent tweet may be more of a push to further her political agenda than a concern for those affected by the tragedy. After her tweet about the silencers, she continued on stating that people should stand up to the NRA and defeat the upcoming bill.
Unfortunately killing bills like the SHARE Act or limiting the Hearing Protection portion of the act will do nothing to limit this type of violence when assailants are determined to terrorize and harm the general population. Gun control is most successful at removing firearms from those who have legally attained them for the purpose of self-defense or sport and those who intend to commit a crime or perform random acts of violence will still be able to obtain whatever they need to accomplish their purpose.
The danger of throwing out assumptions while facts were still being uncovered was addressed in the statement made to the press by the White House press secretary Sarah Sanders. She is quoted as saying, “I think before we start trying to talk about the preventions of what took place last night, we need to know more facts, and right now we’re simply not at that point,” Sanders said. “It is very easy for Mrs. Clinton to criticize and to come out, but I think we need to remember the only person with blood on their hands is that of the shooter, and this isn’t a time for us to go after individuals or organizations. I think we can have those policy conversations but today is not that day.”
So the lesson learned from the backlash that Hilary received over her Twitter account, is that when tragedy strikes it is probably best to not try to push a political agenda, especially with comments that deviate from the known information. Perhaps in a tragedy it is best to offer condolences and leave the politics out.
~ American Gun News
