An analysis of social media responses by NRA-sponsored members of Congress after the Sutherland Springs, TX shootings
This time: 16 thoughts, 107 prayers. But seriously — tax reform!
As I prepare this report, the major news outlets are occupied with layers of scandal surrounding Republican Senate nominee Roy Moore during the ramp-up to the Alabama special election. And by all means, let’s not forget the ongoing Russia investigation and the tax overhaul. The GOP is doing its very best to gut the ACA — er, relieve taxes for the middle class!
In the interest of housekeeping, however, I must look back to the mass shooting in Sutherland Springs, TX a mere week and a half ago, in which a man who should not have had access to firearms used an automatic weapon to murder 25 people and wound 20 more (and also killed himself) on November 5, 2017.
(Don’t worry — I’ll keep it brief, so we can get back to the matters that are important to our Congresspeople. By the way, have you heard about the $1,182 tax cut that an average family of four will allegedly receive under the GOP’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act? They sure are eager for us to hear about that.)
I want to ensure that no earnest thoughts and prayers get overlooked, because even when our NRA-sponsored Congresspeople have compelling reasons for inaction when it comes to gun control, they work hard to signal virtue in ways we can easily appreciate. To call attention where it is due, I used the same techniques applied in my previous analysis: Within 48 hours of the latest mass shooting, I examined social media activity from members of Congress who have received campaign donations from the National Rifle Association (as reported by the Washington Post, using data from the Federal Election Commission).
(To be clear, there have also been other mass shootings in the meantime. In fact, another one just made the news. Even the President has found it hard to tell them apart! At any rate, given time constraints, I resolve to focus this ongoing study on larger events, which are likely to inspire more thoughts and prayers.)
Findings
Out of 299 Congresspeople who have received a campaign donation total of $3,194,109 from the NRA (285 Republicans, 14 Democrats), 293 appear to use social media on a regular basis. Of those 293, 181 offered direct acknowledgment of the Sutherland Springs mass shooting (26 deaths) within 48 hours of the attack. The comments included direct mention of:
- Condolences/sympathies: 7
- Thoughts: 16
- Prayers: 107
This represents a noticeably lower tally than that of the Las Vegas shooting (58 deaths), which inspired 53 thoughts, 209 prayers, and 24 mentions of condolences and/or sympathies.
But in all fairness, members of Congress are very busy people — and we mustn’t forget that the proposed tax bill will supposedly “raise take-home pay by upwards of $4,000.” Oh, and by the way, that Mueller investigation is apparently a “witch hunt” and Mueller should apparently be fired. But seriously — tax reform!
Anyway, here are some other high-performing keywords, in no particular order:
- Heart (plus heartbroken, heartbreaking, heartfelt): 39
- Tragedy/tragic: 30
- Horror (horrific, horrendous, horrifying): 24
- Grief or mourning: 19
- Evil: 24
- Direct mention of God or quoted scripture: 12
- Violence (violent): 19
- Devastated/ing: 18
- Sad (saddened): 11
Other observations
37 expressed gratitude for the actions and bravery of first responders on the scene and/or included them in prayers. These thanks are, of course, well deserved — even though America’s level of firearm saturation puts our first responders’ lives at ever-increasing risk.
50 members of Congress who responded to the Las Vegas shooting in social media within 48 hours did not acknowledge this event within the same timeframe.
11 expressed a belief that churches should be considered sacred, protected, or otherwise special, implying that this choice of setting magnifies the offense. (For my part, I assure you that I would be just as offended if I got murdered in a school or a music festival as I would in a church.)
I’m pleased to report that 3 tweeted or posted about relevant actions they took (or will take), including a bill to close the domestic violence loophole and an emphatic letter to Hon. James Mattis, U.S. Secretary of Defense. Indeed, according to existing federal law, the shooter’s criminal background should have prevented him from obtaining firearms, and the appropriate process was not followed. This is definitely a serious problem.
Naturally, though, “firearms” is consistently treated as a broad, but singular category. No Congressperson (that I found in this study) commented on the specific nature of the rapid-fire, magazine-fed automatic rifle used by the shooter (and so many other shooters), which made it possible to murder a lot of people in a short span of time and, most likely, made it noticeably harder to stop the attack. Under the 2nd Amendment, according to its defendants, every gun is considered equal.
A few commended Stephen Willeford, the citizen who intervened with his own legal firearm and, it appears, slowed down the shooter enough to de-escalate the event. I, too, appreciate his bravery — but I continue to take issue with the “Good Guy with a Gun” myth that the Right keeps touting, and also the smug tone that bubbles forth whenever Willeford is mentioned by someone who isn’t in favor of stronger gun control. 26 people still died, 20 more were still shot, and Willeford himself observed that the task required the use of an AR-15 to stop the killer, because the killer also used (you guess it) an AR-15.
Last, but not least, during the 48 hours examined in this study, the vast majority of NRA-sponsored GOP Congresspeople were very active in promoting the tax code overhaul, whether or not they acknowledged the Sutherland Springs shooting. In coordinated social media outreach, they’re working hard to spin it as a benefit to families and small businesses, even though it’s readily apparent that corporations and wealthy folks are likely to benefit far more.
Other social media highlights
Rep. Billy Long (R, Missouri, $10,500) did not acknowledge the massacre on Twitter or Facebook within the timeframe of the study. Since the event, he has tweeted to promote hunting season in Missouri (which appears to be organized mostly in terms of firearm usage categories).
He also tastefully shared a cute story about a nine-year-old girl who killed a deer with a revolver on her very first hunting trip.
Sen. Jerry Moran (R, Kansas, $21,350) also did not acknowledge the shootings in social media during the study’s timeframe. Upon checking his website, I noted that his latest few press releases address the sentencing of Mark Wisner, an event involving “Advancing the Internet of Things in Rural Communities,” and a November 7 press release about… well, a chunk of lorem ipsum boilerplate text. To me this looks like a missed opportunity, but perhaps I’m mistaken — those could indeed be thoughts and prayers, expressed in a mysterious language that looks just Latin enough to be kinda holy.
Rep. Trent Franks (R, Arizona, $16,450), offered only this acknowledgment of the shooting:
He didn’t provide context for his accusation, but perhaps he’s referring to abundant acknowledgment that these horrible deaths (just like the other mass shooting deaths) were, in fact, avoidable on many levels. (Since that tweet, Rep. Franks has been actively pushing to investigate Planned Parenthood for the absurd claim of “illegally sold unborn baby parts” yet again, among other topics — so maybe he knows a thing or two about fostering hostility.)
In closing…
Consider this article from The Hill, in which a defensive Vice President Pence insists that prayer “takes nothing away from our determination … to get to the bottom of what happened, to understand the why, to determine whether or not there were errors along the way.” Speaker Paul Ryan, too, insisted that the people killed or wounded in these attacks “need our prayers,” because “prayer works.” He went on to say:
As a member of that “far secular left,” I’ll readily admit that I don’t relate to the faith that these righteous men claim to wield. I have no problem with thoughts and prayers on their own merit; we all connect with the Absolute in our own ways. But I see no evidence that these prayers have any effect whatsoever, either in some supernatural way or in turning the hearts of our elected officials toward responsible action. Even though these thoughts and prayers keep circulating in great numbers (according to the elected officials who so graciously profess them in professional contexts), the mass shootings keep right on happening. People keep right on dying, at the behest of people who find it easy to buy weapons designed to kill in great numbers in short spans of time. It happens again and again.
And that’s why I’m going to keep right on watching and listening, with every inevitable mass shooting that happens. I’m counting up those thoughts and prayers every single time, because I am looking for clear evidence that they actually function as more than blatant PR tics.
I offer this response to Speaker Ryan and his colleagues:
It’s disappointing. It’s sad. And this is what you’ll get from much of the faith-professing Right. People who speak of “thoughts and prayers” without taking responsibility just don’t understand responsibility, I guess I’d have to say…
Check back for the next round of data after the next major mass shooting. I suspect it won’t be long.
But seriously — how about that tax code overhaul? Wow! It’ll fix EVERYTHING!
(For an introduction to this ongoing casual study and the methods I used, please refer to the first report in the series, conducted after the Las Vegas shootings on October 1, 2017.)
