Reframing gun-safety talk as grief exploitation suppresses reform debate

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

Categorization

• XREF: Links to moral disengagement’s euphemistic labeling and advantage comparison mechanisms; also connects to contemporary political discourse around ‘politicizing tragedy.’
• SEED: An essay angle: how accusation-of-opportunism functions as a standing epistemic veto on policy discourse after any national tragedy — from Sandy Hook to natural disasters.