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As of Friday morning, a massive manhunt is still underway for an Army reservist who is suspected of killing 18 people in Lewiston, Maine. According to an NBC News report, the mass shooting was the 565th in the U.S. in 2023 and the deadliest so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
It was against this backdrop that new House Speaker Mike Johnson sat down with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, and fielded a question about those advocating new safeguards to prevent future slayings. The Louisiana Republican responded:
At the end of the day, the problem is the human heart. It’s not guns, it’s not the weapons. At the end of the day, we have to protect the right of the citizens to protect themselves, and that’s the Second Amendment. And that’s why our party stands so strongly for that. ... This is not the time to be talking about legislation. We’re in the middle of that crisis right now.
So, a few things.
First, the idea that the problem is “the human heart” and not firearms is belied by the experiences of pretty much every other country on the planet. There are billions of human hearts in nations around the globe, but mass shootings like these are only common in the United States. Unless the Louisiana Republican is prepared to argue that American hearts are somehow worse than other people’s hearts, this is not an argument to be taken seriously.
Second, it’s true that the crisis in Maine is still unfolding, and efforts to apprehend the suspected shooter are underway. But it’s also true that Johnson and his GOP colleagues will be no more interested in new safeguards after the immediate crisis has subsided than they are now.
Third, the idea that the United States has to choose between the status quo and the Second Amendment is plainly false. There are a great many potentially lifesaving safeguards that policymakers can create that would fall well within constitutional boundaries. It would simply take some political will — which among Republicans, does not appear to exist.
And finally, as disappointing as Johnson’s answer was, there was nothing surprising about it.
Before the new House speaker arrived on Capitol Hill, the Republican delivered public remarks in which he suggested school shootings could be attributed to divorce, “radical feminism,” and reproductive rights.
In the same speech, delivered the year before he became a federal lawmaker, Johnson added, “[W]e’ve taught a whole generation, a couple generations now of Americans, that there’s no right or wrong, that it’s about survival of the fittest, and you evolve from the primordial slime.”
In other words, the then-GOP candidate was complaining about lessons on evolutionary biology.
Johnson proceeded to get elected to Congress anyway, at which point he started voting against every possible gun reform that reached the floor.
If recent history is any guide, the heartbreaking death toll in Maine will again generate public support for new gun safeguards, but those looking to the Johnson-led House are going to be disappointed.