Friday was National Gun Violence Awareness Day and MSNBC’s Chris Jansing Reports used the occasion why gun violence in America is so bad. For former member of President Obama’s 21st century policing taskforce Brittany Packnett Cunningham, the answer lies with the fact that the GOP is the latest in a long line of horrible developments, including slavery, that promotes “this culture of violence.”
After introducing Packnett and fellow panelist and MSNBC legal analyst Paul Butler, Jansing asked “Brittany, to be short and to the point, why does this keep happening?”
Packnett began by trashing the country, “Unfortunately, we live in a country that was built by violence. America used the gun, used the hand, used the whip against indigenous people, against enslaved Africans to build this country that we now inhabit.”
This is why red states are right to crack down on left-wing history. By the time of the Civil War, the slave-holding South was economically well behind the North. It was one of the reasons it lost the war, but since when did MSNBC let facts get in the way of a good narrative?
Still, Packnett continued, “and the trouble with a culture of violence is that it spreads like a smog, and it gets into everything.”
Packnett then blamed guns for other terrible things, “It gets into marriage and family life where we see domestic violence and gun violence. It gets into public safety where we see police violence. It gets into schools and public spaces where we see mass shootings. It seeps its way into communities where we see neighborhood violence and, unfortunately, if the gun is the hammer, then everything big and small looks like a nail.”
There simply is no correlation between gun rights or gun culture in various countries and rates of domestic violence. Not that Packnett cares about such details as she tried to tie all her outlandish claims together, she blamed current politicians, “Culture continues to encourage this kind of violence and protection at all costs, and states continue to make it easier and easier to get these guns, and when that is happening, this is the outcome you can expect, and unfortunately you can equally expect Congress to do little about it.”
Throwing the National Rifle Association into the mix, she proceeded to explicitly mention Republicans, “The NRA has spent $100 million or more since Sandy Hook to elect Republicans who are going to protect guns, who are going to protect the proliferation of guns, and when we see one party getting elected specifically by people who exploit this culture of violence, then we're going to continue to see these incredibly tragic outcomes.”
Claiming that Republicans are trying to use shootings to further their political fortunes is a bold claim that you would think would require some evidence, but none was forthcoming probably because such a claim is also insane.
This segment was sponsored by Tide.
Here is a transcript for the June 2 show:
MSNBC Chris Jansing Reports
6/2/2023
2:27 PM ET
CHRIS JANSING: Joining me now a former member of President Obama's 21st century policing task force and MSNBC contributor, Brittany Packnett Cunningham and former federal prosecutor and MSNBC legal analyst, Paul Butler is back. Brittany, to be short and to the point, why does this keep happening?
BRITTANY PACKNETT CUNNINGHAM: Unfortunately, we live in a country that was built by violence. America used the gun, used the hand, used the whip against indigenous people, against enslaved Africans to build this country that we now inhabit, and the trouble with a culture of violence is that it spreads like a smog, and it gets into everything.
It gets into marriage and family life where we see domestic violence and gun violence. It gets into public safety where we see police violence. It gets into schools and public spaces where we see mass shootings. It seeps its way into communities where we see neighborhood violence and, unfortunately, if the gun is the hammer, then everything big and small looks like a nail.
Culture continues to encourage this kind of violence and protection at all costs, and states continue to make it easier and easier to get these guns, and when that is happening, this is the outcome you can expect, and unfortunately you can equally expect Congress to do little about it.
The NRA has spent $100 million or more since Sandy Hook to elect Republicans who are going to protect guns, who are going to protect the proliferation of guns, and when we see one party getting elected specifically by people who exploit this culture of violence, then we're going to continue to see these incredibly tragic outcomes.
