Rush Limbaugh: When Mass Shooting Survivors Attack The NRA, ‘It’s Politics’ (VIDEO)


Rush Limbaugh has a bad habit of saying the wrong thing at precisely the wrong time. Sunday was no different. He thinks that when survivors of mass shootings are playing politics when they call out the National Rifle Association for derailing meaningful efforts to reform our gun laws. And apparently that applies even when the survivors are kids.

Days after seeing 17 of their teachers and classmates gunned down at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida; a number of students are pushing back–loudly–against the NRA-imposed inertia on gun control. One of the most powerful of those moments came on Saturday, when senior Emma Gonzalez let the NRA and Donald Trump have it for offering little more than “thoughts and prayers” in the wake of yet another tragedy. Watch here.

Recalling that Trump lined his pockets with $30 million from the NRA, Gonzalez had a message for Trump and everyone else who has taken money from the NRA–“Shame on you!”


Apparently Limbaugh wasn’t impressed, judging by what happened when he dropped by “Fox News Sunday” the following day. Limbaugh told host Chris Wallace that neither “prayers and condolences” nor protests are going to solve the gun problem, since “the next shooter is out there.”

But then Limbaugh took a line that is bizarre, even by his standards. He claimed that the gun problem is “he fault of the people doing this and our inability to deal with that and stop them”–and for that reason, slamming the NRA isn’t going to solve anything.

Earlier, Wallace had interviewed a group of survivors, and believed they were “taking politics out of this.” Limbaugh disagreed, saying, “The minute they bash the NRA, it’s politics.”

Wait a minute. Limbaugh seems to have gotten it right the first time–part of the gun problem is our inability to deal with the people who use guns to do harm and stop them. And yet, in the same breath, he claims that when one organization is blocking bipartisan efforts to solve that problem, calling that organization out is “politics.” Process that for a moment.

Limbaugh has long claimed to have “talent on loan from God.” But in this case, it sounds like he loaned his talent to the NRA. Or rather, to the men who sign the NRA’s checks. Remember, folks, the NRA is the mouthpiece of a gun industry made up mostly of privately owned companies. So when Wayne LaPierre, Dana Loesch, and other NRA spokespersons move their lips, they are actually speaking for faceless men who are not accountable to anyone.


It’s long past time that someone put a little sunshine on these proceedings. And if that’s political, something is wrong. Very wrong.

(featured image courtesy Gage Skidmore, available under a Creative Commons BY-SA license)

Darrell is a 30-something graduate of the University of North Carolina who considers himself a journalist of the old school. An attempt to turn him into a member of the religious right in college only succeeded in turning him into the religious right's worst nightmare--a charismatic Christian who is an unapologetic liberal. His desire to stand up for those who have been scared into silence only increased when he survived an abusive three-year marriage. You may know him on Daily Kos as Christian Dem in NC. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook. Click here to buy Darrell a Mello Yello.