 To no one's surprise, there was another mass shooting in the United States of America. This time, a deranged lunatic who lost his job went on a killing spree, injuring 22 and killing 7 in total. Now this comes three weeks after we had another mass shooting in El Paso taxes. This one occurred outside of Odessa. And after El Paso, Donald Trump did signal that he would be open to supporting something like universal background checks. And on top of that, he indicated that even Mitch McConnell, who usually blocks anything at all from getting through or being voted on, is on board. So you'd think that after this new mass shooting, Donald Trump would be even more vocal about the need for universal background checks. But here's what he said after El Paso. And then I'll tell you what he's saying now. I have a great relationship with the NRA. I have a lot of respect for the people at the NRA. And I have already spoken to them on numerous occasions, numerous occasions. And frankly, we need intelligent background checks. OK, this isn't a question of NRA, Republican or Democrat. I will tell you I spoke to Mitch McConnell yesterday. He's totally on board. He said, I've been waiting for your call. He is totally on board. Now, we really shouldn't have to give Donald Trump credit for signaling support for something as simple as universal background checks, because this really is the bare minimum. I mean, what is it? Ninety percent of Americans support this policy. So it's not even controversial. And of course, it wouldn't do merely enough to, you know, mitigate this issue. But I mean, it's better than nothing. However, Donald Trump couldn't even remain committed to the bare minimum. In fact, he started to backtrack. And as Bianca Quillanton of Politico reports, following Saturday shootings in West Texas, President Donald Trump on Sunday remained firm that his administration is committed to working with Congress to stop the menace of mass attacks, but did not include universal background checks as part of the solution this time. Trump largely attributed the shootings to mental health issues and said the mass attacks have been going on for a long time and that he wants to reduce them, except now maybe background checks aren't going to be the thing that we do. Maybe that's not the right course of action. Now, by saying this is a mental health issue, OK, it's the guns. But I mean, if you're going to take action to expand access to mental health care facilities and medication, I'd be all for it. It's not going to solve this issue, but it would solve an issue potentially. So propose something. He's not going to do that. Now, Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, actually tweeted that this individual had a criminal history and previously failed a background check for a gun purchase, which implies, of course, that he obtained the gun illegally that he used for the mass shooting, thus a background check wouldn't have stopped him. Nonetheless, we're all saying that a background check in and of itself is that enough. We need a ban on AR 15s, high capacity magazines. We need to institute a nationwide gun buyback program in order to reduce the amount of guns in circulation. I mean, there are actual policy prescriptions to this issue. Australia had a mass shooting. They did reform gun reform. They had a buyback program and they haven't had another mass shooting since. So to claim that, you know, this is something that we have to just put up with, you're wrong. There's a policy solution to deal with this. We just are choosing not to do that. And of course, you know, since Greg Abbott put out this tweet, conservatives will undoubtedly use this as evidence that criminals will just find some way to obtain guns. So there's really no point in doing a universal background check law or pretty much anything for that matter. But I mean, to even consider Republicans, Mitch McConnell, Donald Trump doing anything, we're getting ahead of ourselves because there will not be any types of reform until we see a turnover in the White House and in the Senate, because they just don't care. That blood money that Republicans and Donald Trump took from the NRA. It's just too good because the minute Donald Trump gets out of line, well, what happens? The NRA cracks that whip. And really, it's not just the NRA. Like there is these dynamics between gun interest groups that is going on that is leading to radicalization on this issue because what we are essentially seeing is a lot of politicians and the NRA effectively advocate for gun anarchy. That's exactly what they want. There's a Texas lawmaker that was tweeting about how absolutely no course of action should be taken. This is my God given right to have access to, you know, any type of gun. Now, he stopped short of arguing for us to have tanks and nuclear weapons. But nonetheless, you know, they've become increasingly radicalized with regard to this issue and it's because of the NRA. But the NRA has taken a more hard line stance because of gun owners for America. There are a lot more, I think, insane, if you will, when it comes to, you know, the issue of guns and when the NRA almost buckled after Sandy Hook, well, what did gun owners for America do? Well, they ended up fundraising off of the NRA, saying that they're essentially selling out their members and then the NRA backed away from it. So you see basically, GOA putting pressure on NRA, who is in return, putting pressure on the Republican Party. So we see this human centipede like situation where gun owners of America is shitting into the mouths of the NRA and the NRA is shitting into the mouths of Republican Party lawmakers. And until we sever these ties, until we get Republicans out of power, there will be no action when it comes to this issue. This will continue to happen. And Republicans will continue to offer thoughts and prayers, maybe once in a while signal support for just the most minimal thing imaginable like universal background checks, but not even be able to hold true there because they're so corrupt. So the fact that Donald Trump flip flopped that soon, he should be embarrassed. He flip flopped literally just weeks after he signaled support for universal background checks. It's embarrassing. And you would think that these types of individuals would have some type of mechanism in their body that is triggered whenever they're called out for their complicity here, especially when people are dying, but they don't have that. They lack that function that other human beings have. They just are completely apathetic or they're hiding how they really feel because they know that policy solutions can be used to effectively address this issue. But they don't care. The money is too good and their puppets. So it's embarrassing, but I mean, they have no shame. Donald Trump has no shame. This isn't surprising. I expected him to flip on this issue, which is why I didn't initially give him credit because Donald Trump can say one thing. But if you see that he is moving a little bit too far away for comfort for his donors, best believe he will get back in line because he is the establishment's biggest puppet. He does any and everything that they say. That's how he has governed as president. It's why he offered tax cuts as his first major policy achievement. That's why, you know, we shouldn't expect him to change here.