GOP Lawmaker Compares Gun Violence To Drunk Driving Hours After Colorado Massacre

Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana on Tuesday downplayed the issue of gun violence in America hours after the United States suffered its second mass shooting in a week.

“We have a lot of drunk drivers in America that kill a lot of people,” Kennedy said during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on gun violence. “We ought to try to combat that too.”

“The answer is not to get rid of all sober drivers,” Kennedy continued. “The answer is to concentrate on the problem.”

Kennedy further attempted to downplay the issue by drawing comparisons between being a gun owner to being Muslim.

“When a Muslim jihadist blows up a school full of school children, we are often told not to condemn all of the actions of those of the Muslim faith because of the actions of a few. And I agree with that,” Kennedy said. “So why doesn’t the same rule apply to the 100 million-plus gun owners in America who are exercising their constitutional right?”

Kennedy’s comments come after 10 people, including a police officer, were killed in a mass shooting in Boulder, Colorado on Monday, and after eight people lost their lives in three shootings in Atlanta, Georgia last Tuesday.

The Republican senator acknowledged that “what has happened in the last few days” and “what’s happened in the last years” regarding gun violence is “of course, tragic.”

Hours after America's second mass shooting in a week, Sen. John Kennedy downplays the gun problem by noting that "we have a lot of drunk drivers in America that kill a lot of people. We ought to try to combat that too … the answer is not to get rid of all sober drivers." pic.twitter.com/BvqhNvuWRJ

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 23, 2021