It has been a week since March For Our Lives took to the streets around the nation, with most eyes on Washington D.C. and the loud voices of the survivors of the Parkland, Florida mass shooting. The march itself was met with a lot of praise, but several high profile names have since gone out to harshly criticize the kids behind the march and the supporters that have popped up around them. Some are your typical names and faces that have firmly placed themselves against the gun control debate. And then there were surprising voices like Eagles Of Death Metal leader Jesse Hughes.
We should add that it is only surprising when you consider what Hughes has experienced himself during the massacre in Paris, France from 2015. Hughes has long been an outspoken conservative and made some waves following the Bataclan attack with his comments about the security. But even with that, his experience would seemingly put him in a more sympathetic place than most — or you’d think it would. Instead, Hughes posted a rant on Instagram that heavily criticized March For Our Lives:
“Obviously… The best thing to do to combat chronic abusers and disregarders of the law (like the law against murder) is to… pass another law! Genius!!! But before we pass this law, we’re going to denigrate the memory and curse ourselves by exploiting the death of sixteen of our fellow students for a few Facebook likes and some media attention… and look how well civil rights abuses as it concerns firearms helped to protect me and my friends in Paris!!!!! This almost sounds like the plan of like a kid maybe like a high school student! Oh wait, that’s right…. The Whitney Houston song about letting the children lead the way wasn’t actually had operating paradigm for life… and when the truth don’t line up with your bullshit narrative, just hold your breath and stamp your feet and [refuse] to [accept] it… then take multiple days off of school, playing hooky at the expense of sixteen of your classmates’ blood! It might be funny if it wasn’t so pathetic and disgusting.
Now after the backlash to that rant, Hughes has released a video apology and deleted the original post from his Instagram page. He attempts to say that his initial message was not aimed at the kids from Parkland and elsewhere who have driven the current gun control movement. Instead he claims it was aimed at those “hijacking” it for their own political motives:
“Recently I made some posts on my Instagram that did not communicate how I feel about a variety of topics. What I intended to be a statement about the hijacking by any side of the aisle of the beautiful agenda of a movement of our nation’s youth came off seeming like a mean-spirited and personal attack and slight of the youth themselves…
“I wanna be clear, I never intended for that to happen. I was not attempting to impugn the youth of America and this beautiful thing that they accomplished. I truly am sorry, I did not mean to hurt anyone or cause any harm.”
Hughes added that as a survivor himself, he should’ve acted “a lot more maturely and responsibly” and hopes that people will accept his apology on the matter. It is a far more heartfelt apology than some we’ve seen in the past week, but it is hard to see if folks will be lining up to accept it. It seems much harder to have an apology accepted today with social media, but it is still better than not apologizing at all.
(Via Rolling Stone / Jesse Hughes)
