Some months back, Mark Wahlberg made headlines when he told Men’s Journal that if he had been on the planes that hit the towers on 9/11, “it wouldn’t have went down the way it did.” IE, Marky Mark would’ve made the terrorists feel his vibrations and taken out the entire funky bunch with a Wahlburgers knuckle sangwich. Now, former Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce, the guy who authored that controversial immigration bill (SB 1070) is in the news for making similar statements about the Aurora theater shootings on his public Facebook page, saying “If someone had been prepared and armed, they could’ve stopped this ‘bad’ man from most of this tragedy.”
Yes, “bad” was in sarcastiquotes. Draw your own conclusions there. Here’s the full text of the now-deleted post, courtesy of the Wonkette screengrab:
This is certainly a time for prayers for the victims and the families of victims in this horrific crime in Colorado. I just had a call from a very good friend of mine in San Diego, California who’s [sic] neice [sic] Kim, Kim’s best friend Mikayla and Kevin were in the Theater [sic] in the front rows. Kim and Kevin got out and as he was trying to get Mikayla out she said she was shot. As the rush of the crowd exiting through the exit door pushed Kevin and Kim out they lost Mikayla. As of my phone conversation they were not aware of her status. What a heart breaking story. Had someone been prepared and armed they could have stopped this “bad” man from most of this tragedy. He was two and three feet away from folks, I understand he had to stop and reload. Where were the men of flight 93???? Someone should have stopped this man. Lives were lost because of a bad man, not because he had a weapon, but because noone [sic] was prepared to stop it. Had they been prepared to save their lives or lives of others, lives would have been saved. All that was needed is one Courages/Brave [sic] man prepared mentally or otherwise to stop this it could have been done. When seconds count, police are ony [sic] minutes away. My prayers are with all of those suffering from this sensless [sic] act, may God be with them in this moment of pain and heartache.
I hate to depress you this badly early in the day, but the post had 3,400 likes before it was deleted. Now, whether you’re Michael Moore releasing a statement the day after the shootings or this barely-literate simpleton scrawling John Wayne fan fiction on your Facebook page, why not wait for the blood to try first, huh? (Also, not to be cruel, but I’m pretty sure the men of Flight 93 are dead). It’s pretty easy to Monday Morning Quarterback this sh*t after the fact. “If this kid hadn’t been able to get a gun this wouldn’t have happened! If other people in the theater had had guns there would be less dead people! If The Dark Knight wasn’t such a popular franchise this wouldn’t have happened in a theater!” Yes, thanks, very helpful. If you ask me, it’s high time that the phrase “Yeah, and if your aunt had balls she’d be your uncle” make a comeback.
Silly Russell Pearce. You’re just leaving yourself open for the argument that it would’ve have happened if they hadn’t deported the illegal Mexican who used to man the emergency exit.