The following article by Mary Papenfuss was posted on the Huffington Post website February 15, 2018:
His biggest fear: taking away gun rights.
House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has been arguing against what he calls a “knee-jerk” political response to mass shootings for years.
MSNBC’s Chris Hayes presented a video mashup Thursday of the times Ryan has argued against “taking away” America’s gun rights.
Ryan has presented an almost identical speech again and again — and again. He repeated it Thursday after the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, killed 17. “We don’t just knee-jerk before we even have all of the facts and the data,” Ryan said in an interview with Indiana radio station WIBC
“If that sounds familiar, it is because it is,” Hayes said.
Roll tape. Ryan used the “knee-jerk” argument after the California mass shooting in San Bernardino in 2015 that claimed 14 lives, and after the shooting at the Umpqua Community College in Oregon the same year, which killed nine.
One thing Ryan did express concern about is mental illness. Last year, Congress passed, and President Donald Trump signed into law, a measure that rescinded barriers to gun ownership for the mentally ill.
Ryan received $177,000 in contributions from the National Rifle Associationin the 2016 campaign cycle.
Check out Ryan’s anti-gun-control mantra above.
View the post here.