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GOP Rep: ‘Call Of Duty,’ Hammers, Psychotropic Drugs To Blame For Gun Violence – Not Guns

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Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn (R-TX) on Sunday told CNN’s Candy Crowley that guns aren’t the problem but video games are, because gun owners — like the Norway shooter — use video games for target practice. Blackburn admitted to watching “Call Of Duty,” so no doubt Oslo’s citizens are in lock-down mode, in full freak-out mode, or something, right?

It seems Rep. Blackburn wants the American people to realize that guns don’t kill people, video games kill people. Also, hammers. And hatchets. And “psychiatric and psychotropic drugs.” And cars.

Because Congresswoman Blackburn says what she’s hearing is “first of all, people want to make sure that we protect the Second Amendment.”

Yes, it’s the Second Amendment that needs protection — not people, but the Second Amendment that needs protection. It’s a similar argument to why we need to protect marriage — because gay people might steal it. Or, something.

“Also, I’m hearing from lots of teachers, mental health professionals, physicians, that we need to do a couple of things. Number one is to drill down on the mental health issue and number two is to look at these psychiatric and psychotropic drugs, because that is many times linked to the individuals who carry out these crimes.”

Psychiatric drugs linked to shootings? Yes, it’s not the fact that some (or all) of these shooters have mental health issues, it’s the drugs they’re taking for their illness or conditions that are the problem. Also, I’m not overweight because I sit too much and eat too many sweets, I’m fat because, sugar.

If only America could unite and agree on something to stop these “psychotropic drugs,” something, maybe, like a War On Drugs! That would of course stop these shootings, because there’s absolutely no evidence that the War On Drugs has fueled the shootings. Oh, wait.

“They are also wanting to make certain that we begin to get in behind these video games. I watched a couple of these last night — in preparation for this segment — as a mother and as a grandmother and I was astounded, with some of the things that I was seeing on ‘Call To Duty,’ and of course we know the Norway shooter would go in and use that as target practice.”

Someone, please, call the Norway Police because Congresswoman Blackburn may just very well be thinking about flying over to Oslo, after she’s watched “Call of Duty.”

After Rep Blackburn’s comments, no doubt hardware store owners are saying, “I’ll give you my hammers when you pry them from my cold, dead hands.”

The fact is, maybe violent video games contribute to the 34 gun deaths that happen in America every day, but the fact is also that practically every other country in the world has these video games and they don’t have our 30,000+ gun deaths every year.

The fact is that guns kill, and guns — not hammers, not hatchets, not “psychiatric and psychotropic drugs” — are designed for one purpose: to kill.

Blackburn, (who, by the way, was one of the 67 House Republicans who voted against Hurricane Sandy relief,) and her comrades in the GOP, the Tea Party, the NRA refuse to look the problem straight in the eye and admit there are too many guns in this country, and people like them (ironically, most or all of them are “pro-life”) are fueling the issue by refusing to ban at least some guns.

(Please, ban them all.)

Aviva Shen at Think Progress notes:

America’s gun homicide rate is 19.5 times higher than comparable nations. The FBI estimates that 8,775 people were killed by guns in 2010 — more than an order of magnitude higher than the 540 people killed with blunt objects. Furthermore, despite the gun lobby’s scapegoating of mentally ill individuals, people with mental health problems are not statistically more likely to be violent than the average person.

“You know,” Congresswoman Blackburn tells Crowley, “this is something where you say, number one, let’s keep children safe, and number two, let’s protect our freedoms.”

I wholeheartedly agree with Congresswoman Blackburn. Her idea of “protecting our freedoms” is definitely a load of “number two.”

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Trump Stumbles Over ‘God Bless America’ Lyrics at Veterans Day Ceremony

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November 11, 2025

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At Veterans Day events at Arlington National Cemetery, President Donald Trump, dressed in a long winter coat, with a scarf and gloves, put his hand over his heart as the band played, “God Bless America,” a patriotic song popularized during World War II, and sung by Kate Smith.

But as the assembled crowd sang the famous American tune, President Trump sang, “God bless America” — but stopped after those three words, seemingly unfamiliar with the lyrics or choosing not to sing the rest. His Vice President, JD Vance, next to him, sang the song.

During Tuesday’s ceremony, Trump also declared, “Today is not only Veterans Day, but it’s my proclamation that we are now going to be saying and calling [it] Victory Day for World War I,” The New York Post reported.

“I saw France was celebrating ‘victory day’, but we didn’t. And I saw France was celebrating another ‘victory day’ for World War II, and other countries were celebrating. They were all celebrated. We’re the one that won the wars,” Trump also said.

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This appears to not be the first time the President has had difficulty with “God Bless America.”

“Donald Trump, the president, either does not know or does not care about the lyrics to ‘God Bless America,'” Mashable reported in June 2018, during Trump’s first term.

That same day, The New York Times reported that Trump had stumbled through the lyrics of “God Bless America.”

“The president closed his ‘Celebration of America’ event with a rendition of the patriotic tune, but didn’t quite get all the words.”

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White House Says Inflation’s ‘Way Down’ — Americans Aren’t Buying It

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November 11, 2025

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Kevin Hassett, director of the White House’s National Economic Council, insists that despite five months of rising prices, inflation is actually “way down.” But polls and recent election results suggest voters see things differently.

Hassett on Tuesday told CNBC, “we’re comfortable that inflation has come way down — the 5% on average, for Joe Biden.”

“It’s probably a little less than half of that right now,” he continued. “And the trajectory is really, really, really good.”

Inflation for the month of December 2024, President Joe Biden’s last full month in office, was 2.9%. It increased to 3.0% in the month of January 2025.

Inflation for the month of September 2025, the last month for which there is Bureau of Labor Statistics data, was 3.0%.

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Hassett went on to say that “inflation is one of those things that has a lot of momentum, if you look at the charts…”

“Even though it’s been increasing for five straight months as of September?” CNBC’s Carl Quintanilla asked.

“Well, I guess if you look at it from January, there’s ups and downs and seasonals, but yeah, it surprised on the downside, people were expecting it to accelerate it and it didn’t.”

Economist Justin Wolfers on Tuesday appeared to mock Hassett’s claims by posting a graph.

Voters one week ago took to the polls and delivered a resounding message to Republicans and President Donald Trump. Exit polls show that voters’ number one concern was the economy and affordability, as they decided to put Democrats into office.

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And national polls show the same result: the high cost of living, the state of the economy, and affordability are all top of mind for voters, who give President Trump low marks in those areas.

One week ago on Monday, the day before the election, CNN reported, “61% of Americans think Trump has made the economy worse. Could that impact tomorrow’s elections?”

The New York Times shows President Trump’s current average approval rating is 42%, and disapproval rating is 55%.

In mid-October, CNBC reported that on the economy, Trump’s approval was “the lowest of any CNBC survey during either of Trump’s two terms.”

READ MORE: ‘The Whole Thing Is Imploding’: Chaos and Rebellion at America’s Top Right-Wing Think Tank

 

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White House Denies Post-Election Pivot as Trump Prepares New Affordability Push

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8 hours ago

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November 11, 2025

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In the days following last Tuesday’s sweeping Democratic victories, Trump administration officials fanned out across news outlets to highlight the administration’s focus on affordability, assuring Americans that prices have fallen under President Donald Trump. The president himself reiterated his claim—made many times before—that grocery prices are “way down.”

Critics say that overall, prices largely have not come down, and inflation remains around 3%—roughly the same level as when President Trump took office earlier this year.

Last Wednesday, Politico reported that a person close to the White House told the news outlet that “The President hasn’t talked about the cost of living in months.”

And White House deputy chief of staff James Blair told Politico, “You’ll see the president talk a lot about cost of living as we turn … into the new year.”

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But now the White House is insisting the focus has been there all along, and denies any post-election ramp up.

“It’s not something where we called a meeting Wednesday morning after the election and said, ‘We have to get stuff on the board now,’” an unnamed White House source told Politico on Tuesday. “At both a systemic level and more targeted micro examples, we have been consistently focused on addressing affordability.”

Late last week, the Associated Press confirmed the President’s new messaging focus.

“President Donald Trump is adjusting his messaging strategy to win over voters who are worried about the cost of living with plans to emphasize new tax breaks and show progress on fighting inflation,” the AP reported. “The messaging is centered around affordability, and the push comes after inflation emerged as a major vulnerability for Trump and Republicans in Tuesday’s elections, in which voters overwhelmingly said the economy was their biggest concern.”

Politico on Tuesday also noted the increase in messaging.

“In the wake of last week’s bruising off-year elections that underscored just how vulnerable the GOP is heading into 2026, Trump has announced a bevy of policies that may ease the pressure on household budgets.”

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Those include a claim he will send low- and middle-income Americans $2,000 tariff dividend checks, and a deal with pharmaceutical companies to sell popular GLP-1 weight loss drugs at reduced prices.

On Sunday, he also proposed sending Americans money for health savings accounts in what appeared to be an attack on Obamacare and insurance companies.

CNBC reported on Tuesday that economists say some of these ideas “are not likely to become policy anytime soon.”

As prices remain high at grocery store checkouts, President Trump, however, has been pushing back on Americans’ affordability focus, while insisting his job is already done.

Last week, Trump “bragged that the price of Walmart’s pre-assembled Thanksgiving Dinner has been reduced by 25% this year,” a Monday USA Today opinion piece by Chris Brennan noted. Also reduced were the number of items in the meal.

“I don’t want to hear about the affordability,” Trump said on November 6, Brennan noted, as he “defended his administration’s attempts to resist a judge’s order to make full federal food assistance program payments, known as SNAP, to 42 million Americans, during the federal government shutdown.”

One day later, “Trump insisted that the recent focus on ‘affordability’ was a ‘con job’ by Democrats.”

Trump repeated his “con job” claim Monday night on Fox News, along with some other incorrect claims, such as the price of gas.

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