If you engage in gun rights debates on social media, you’re going to be called all kinds of things. I know I certainly have. My support for gun rights has had me labeled as hateful, racist, misogynist, and a plethora of other insults.
But for one gun rights advocate, the criticism he received from a Democratic representative for his opposition to the assault weapon ban passed by the House crossed all kinds of lines.
Rep. Chuy Garcia (D-IL) replied to a gun control critic on his official Twitter account Friday night in a profanity-laced tweet after he voted to pass a gun-grabbing bill in the House.
Garcia, who supported the House’s legislation that would ban certain semi-automatic firearms, tweeted his celebration of the bill’s passage. ”I just voted to reinstate the assault weapons ban. Now it’s the Senate’s turn to pass it and send it to President Biden’s desk,” he said.
An anonymous Twitter account wasn’t happy with the congressman’s support of the gun control legislation and replied to Garcia’s tweet, writing “Never even heard of this guy and I won’t comply even if his silly law passes.”
Instead of letting the jab go like most politicians do on social media, Garcia’s official Twitter account responded to the tweet with obscene language.
“You are borderline retarded, ya f***ing dips***,” Garcia tweeted.
The tweet didn’t say up long and Garcia claimed a staffer sent that message without authorization, but that seems awfully convenient, doesn’t it?
Garcia tweeted out a statement afterward:
Statement from Congressman García’s Spokesperson, Fabiola Rodríguez-Ciampoli: pic.twitter.com/SyagCscHA0
— Congressman Chuy García (@RepChuyGarcia) July 30, 2022
After all, in the grand scheme of things, all that was said was what people like Garcia and his staff really think about people like you and me.
Also, let’s note something about that statement. None of that is an apology to the anonymous account or to gun rights advocates. No one in Garcia is taking issue with a staffer questioning the intelligence of Second Amendment advocates nor of the other vulgar language used.
That’s because no one is sorry those things were said. They’re just apologetic that they used inappropriate language about people with mental disabilities.
Now, don’t get me wrong. That should warrant an apology, but the problem is the sentiment conveyed and the rest of the message is just as insulting.
The problem is that it’s insulting to us, and no one in Garcia’s office, particularly Garcia, cares anything about that.
And that’s if we actually believe it was someone in Garcia’s office who had access to the Twitter account but shouldn’t have been worthy of that level of trust. Frankly, I’m not buying it.
My guess is that Garcia tweeted it, realized he’d stepped in a hornet’s nest, deleted it, and is now blaming it on some unnamed staffer, a staffer who is supposedly being punished but who you’ll never hear a thing about. And because he’s got the right politics, this will get a pass from the establishment.
Yet if this had been a gun rights advocate who had used this language, we’d never hear the end of it.
