Gun advocates frame gun-reform talk as exploiting victims’ grief.

Evidence

Another strategy, designed to stifle any talk of gun reforms, condemns any talk about the role of guns in the massacre as political opportunism that exploits people’s grief in a time of mourning. Wayne LaPierre set the tone: “While some have tried to exploit tragedy for political gain, we have remained respectfully silent” (Goldstein, 2012). In an even more outlandish charge of opportunism against President Clinton after the Columbine shooting, LaPierre contended that Clinton was “willing to accept a certain level of killing to further his political agenda and his vice president, too” (Pear, 2000). — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1243 (#expands, via linked claim)

Another strategy, designed to stifle any talk of gun reforms, condemns any talk about the role of guns in the massacre as political opportunism that exploits people’s grief in a time of mourning. Wayne LaPierre set the tone: “While some have tried to exploit tragedy for political gain, we have remained respectfully silent” (Goldstein, 2012). In an even more outlandish charge of opportunism against President Clinton after the Columbine shooting, LaPierre contended that Clinton was “willing to accept a certain level of killing to further his political agenda and his vice president, too” (Pear, 2000). — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1243 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Gun advocates reframe reform talk as exploitative opportunism to silence it — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 1243; Reframing gun-safety talk as grief exploitation suppresses reform debate — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 1243; Mass shootings fail as galvanizing events for gun reform because opponents morally disengage — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 1245

Broader Connections

• Gun advocates reframe reform talk as exploitative opportunism to silence it #expands (0.97) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1243
• Reframing gun-safety talk as grief exploitation suppresses reform debate #expands (0.95) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1243