A Texas GOP Lawmaker Is Blaming Those ‘Dang Smartphones’ (And Not Guns) For The Rise In Mass Shootings

The Republican Party is desperate to convince people that the rise in mass shootings is due to anything but the laughably easy access to guns and Representative Pat Fallon has thrown our “dang smartphones” into the ring as a possible culprit.

The lawmaker from Texas rejected the call for gun reform legislation at a recent House Oversight Committee meeting despite his own state being in the news after a tragic school shooting that left 19 children and teachers dead, and dozens more badly injured. Instead of working to prevent the senseless loss of even more lives by enacting a law (any law) that might encourage more responsible gun ownership, Fallon focused his energy on the real problem that he believes connects the massacre in Uvalde to recent mass shootings in places like Buffalo, NY, Philadelphia, PA, and Tulsa, OK: cellphones.

“Guns have always been readily available in this country but mass shootings and particularly mass shootings of schools were non-existent or extremely rare until they became a grisly recent phenomenon,” Fallon said via Raw Story. “So what’s changed in the last 50 years? There’s been a noticeable breakdown of the family, there’s been an erosion of faith and there’s been a seismic drop in social interaction in large measure due to the overuse of these dang smartphones and the proliferation of social media, which is probably better described as anti-social media.”

Of course, a ban on assault weapons being lifted in 2004 and the total lack of any meaningful background checks to keep deadly weapons out of the hands of people with mental health issues or criminal records have no influence whatsoever on this “recent phenomenon.” It’s the phones’ fault, you guys.

(Via RawStory)