As law enforcement and the media were still trying to uncover the details of the mass shooting in Las Vegas, Hillary Clinton took to Twitter and attempted to take political advantage of the crime. Like most people, including the president of the United States, she expressed her grief and sympathy for the victims. However, the twice-failed presidential candidate decided to go further.
Clinton wants to ‘stand up to the NRA’
Clinton’s second tweet started, “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.” Most reports from the scene of the massacre indicate that the crowd thought that the popping noises were either pyrotechnics related to the show or feedback from the sound system.
They began to flee when people started to get hit by gunfire.
Clinton’s third tweet was a call to action. “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.” Ms. Clinton did not enlighten us as to how one might prevent someone from sneaking what was apparently a fully automatic weapon, illegal for most people to have, into a high-rise hotel room and open up on a crowd, also an unlawful act.
The crowd fled at the sound of gunshots.
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 2, 2017
Imagine the deaths if the shooter had a silencer, which the NRA wants to make easier to get.
Tweeting before the facts are in
As Ms.
Clinton was tweeting, not all of the facts about the mass shooting had come in. We know that the shooter was a 64-year old man named Stephen Paddock. The profile of the shooting suggests that some planning went into it and it was not a spontaneous act. We do not know how he got the weapon he used, whether it was a fully automatic rifle or a semi-automatic that had been altered to fire like an automatic.
Finally, we do not know what Paddock’s exact motivations were.
The AP is reporting, though, that ISIS is claiming Paddock as one of their own, stating that he had converted to Islam some months ago. The claim has not been verified. However, a 64-year old Caucasian does not fit the profile of a typical jihadi. It could be that the notorious terrorist organization is being opportunistic and that Paddock was moved by some other motivation.
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.
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 2, 2017
President Trump has been rightly criticized for taking to social media much too often with off-putting tweets. However, Hillary Clinton reminds us that the man who beat her for the presidency last year is hardly the only politician who abuses Twitter. Thus far, incidentally, President Trump has been very decorous in his response to the shooting, both on social media and before the TV cameras. Trump has announced that he intends to go to Las Vegas to meet with law enforcement and comfort the victims.
In any case, as the first high-profile person to put a political spin on the shooting, Clinton is very likely to get pushback from everyone outside her diminishing fan base. In a way, it could be said that by bringing up the NRA, she was being opportunistic as ISIS.
