The NRA: Bitter and clinging to its good guy with a gun narrative
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On March 20, Austin Rollins went to school and shot Jaelynn Willey in the head. The bullet passed through her skull and struck Desmond Barnes in the leg. Less than a minute later, Rollins shot himself in the head and died. Willey was taken off life support and died two days later.
Reports described Rollins and Willey as being “in a relationship” that had recently ended. Since some people can’t pass on a opportunity to romanticize toxic masculinity, this prompted the AP and every outlet that picked up the story to describe a murderer as a “lovesick teen.”
In short, the shooting fit the all-too-familiar pattern of boy meets girl, boy is an abusive waste of skin, boy kills girl and then himself.
However, Blaine Gaskill, the school resource officer also shot at Rollins. This caused other reporters to beclown themselves with headlines like Lone resource officer’s quick action stopped the Maryland school shooter within seconds.
You have to read the article to figure out that even though Gaskill confronted Rollins within seconds of the shooting, he confronted him after Rollins had accomplished his objective. And in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, it wasn’t clear whether Gaskill had in fact stopped the Bad Guy with a Gun or the Bad Guy had stopped himself.
Undaunted by concerns about accuracy, the NRA grabbed its Good Guy Bad Guy chicken and went to work.
But some — most notably, the NRA — held him up as an example of the “good guy with a gun” theory. The theory goes, that bad guys will always find a way to circumvent whatever gun laws are in place. And “to stop a bad guy with a gun,” as NRA head Wayne Lapierre said, “it takes a good guy with a gun.”
“This [Great Mills High School] armed school resource officer, you’re not hearing anyone in #MSM talk about it because it disrupts their narrative,” NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch said in one of several tweets Tuesday. (MSM is short for mainstream media.)
Willey’s murder was a trivial detail to the NRA because they don’t give a shit about mere flesh-beings, there are metal objects that fire projectiles to be revered. Gaskill was too late to stop Rollins from killing her, but according to the NRA, that’s not important. The Good Guy Gun is a talisman that banishes evil. And if the dead don’t rise up and walk again after it has done so, that’s their fault for not trying hard enough, I guess.
When the sheriff’s report of the incident showed Rollins had not intentionally shot Barnes and that he had killed himself was released, it took but a little effort to move the goalposts et voila! The Good Guy with a Gun caused the Bad Guy to turn the Bad Gun on himself.
Yay, guns win again! Better go out and buy another dozen!
And now the NRA is getting annoyed with people who keep mentioning her or the fact that Rollins killed himself.
@ThinkProgress I have had enough of your bogus nonsense…That officer confronted the suspect long before he was dead—confronted that shooter. And in the end saved lives. That proves my point that a good guy with a gun saves lives.”
I’m surprised they haven’t said that Rollins became the good guy with a gun when shot himself.
