Blake Masters, a Republican candidate in Arizona for the U.S. Senate, was recently endorsed this year by President Donald Trump. He said that “Black people frankly” are to blame America’s problem with gun violence.
Masters stated that there is a problem with gun violence in the country and that it is gang violence. Masters spoke on “The Jeff Oravits show” in April. “It’s gangs. It’s Chicagoans and St. Louisans shooting each other. It happens quite often, you’ll see, Black people. The Democrats aren’t going to do anything about it.”
Masters claimed that Democrats are “weak on crime” and “don’t like the Second Amendment” as it “blocks a lot of their plans.”
Masters also spoke out about Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination for the Supreme Court, which was made by President Joe Biden. Masters stated that she was a “horrible pick” and was an “affirmative-action candidate.”
Masters did not respond to a Tuesday request for comment.
Masters has promoted Trump’s false claims about the theft of the 2020 election. Masters has repeatedly repeated the “great substitute theory”, a conspiracy theory of white supremacists that a plot is underway to reduce the influence of white Americans in the U.S. He baselessly claimed that Democrats want to give amnesty for thousands of illegal immigrants to “make them vote.”
A gunman aged 18 and white opened fire on a Buffalo supermarket, New York. He is suspected to have subscribed the “great substitution theory”. The attack killed 10 people and injured three others, nearly all of whom were Black, authorities stated. The incident was described by authorities as a hate crime motivated by racism.
Two weeks later, a gunman shot and killed 19 children, two teachers, and inflicted more than a dozen other victims at an elementary school located in Uvalde Texas.
When asked about stricter gun laws to prevent mass shootings, a number of Republicans singled out large metropolitan areas.
Governor. Greg Abbott cited Chicago as an example of how tough gun laws do not prevent gun violence.
Abbott blamed the shooting for a mental health crisis.
Abbott stated at a May 25 news conference that “we need to recognize that people who believe that, ‘Well… if we could just enforce tougher gun laws it’s going to fix it,’ Chicago, L.A., and New York disprove this thesis.”
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot all condemned his comments.
Pritzker sent the tweet, “Shame upon you, @GovAbbott,” referring to a report that showed that most of the guns used in Chicago crime came from other states. “Don’t fall for the false narrative about Chicago or Illinois. It’s an excuse politicians like to use to stop federal legislation that would keep guns from the hands of dangerous persons.
