In case you missed it, Columbine survivor Mike Leary penned an op-ed in The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel condemning Michael Bennet's dark money allies for airing an insensitive, shameful TV ad that uses mass shooting tragedies to help Michael Bennet politically.
Read the full op-ed here.
See the highlights below:
On Pro-Bennet Super PACs
In the first place, the decision by these pro-Bennet Super PACs to use the raw footage of shootings at Columbine and Aurora constitutes a new low even by the sleazy standards of American politics. Is there nothing sacred, is there no line of decency that will not be crossed or must everything in our society become a political football?
On Pro-Bennet Super PAC Shameful Ads
O’Dea’s commitment to protecting our kids and our communities is what makes the attack ads targeting him by Washington, D.C. Super PACs so outrageous. These ads feature footage from a number of shootings, including Columbine. The gross politicization of Columbine, the Aurora theater and other tragic shootings by Super PACs promoting Senator Bennet are dishonest, outrageous and an insult to the lives and memories of those lost.
These ads bring back a wave of emotion for survivors and families. To use a tragedy without consideration of victims and survivors is shameful.
What’s more, the advertisements paint a false impression that nothing was done after Columbine and Aurora to try to stop similar shootings. If only we would pass another gun law, the advertisement suggests, these shootings would stop. This, we know, is the most dishonest statement of all by the anti-O’Dea Super PACs.
The attempts to smear Joe by using the images of the tragedies at Columbine and Aurora is disgusting and wrong. Joe O’Dea has a real plan to protect our schools and kids: more cops enforcing existing gun laws, and a more comprehensive approach to identifying and treating mental health issues in our schools and communities.
On Joe O'Dea
President Joe Biden just signed a law ordering the hiring of 87,000 new IRS auditors, agents and staff. O’Dea’s plan is compelling: zero-out those IRS hires, and shift resources to hire more border agents and to support a ramp-up in hiring of local police in communities across the country. It’s not just our schools that are unsafe. Crime is exploding across the country, and we need our leaders to act. O’Dea’s plan is strong and smart. I bet its why O’Dea has been endorsed by sheriffs from around Colorado and by the Denver Police Union.
That is why Joe O’Dea’s approach is appealing. The construction executive and political newcomer running for the United States Senate has a big idea: cut waste in the Washington, D.C. bureaucracy, and use those dollars to get more cops on the street, more law enforcement presence in our schools, and enlarge our commitment to enforcing the hundreds and hundreds of gun laws on our state and federal books.
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That is why I agree with Joe O’Dea. There are enough gun laws. We need more cops in schools and on the street. We need more law enforcement. We need tougher prison sentences for violent offenders. We need to redouble our commitment to early identification of threats, and we need a massive commitment to mental health.
Learn more about Joe O’Dea’s campaign here.
Original source can be found here.
