Two deadly tragedies are capturing national attention this week. Last Saturday, a man shot and killed five people and injured at least 25 at Club Q, a Colorado LGBT nightclub. One week before, four University of Idaho students were brutally stabbed to death by a still unknown murderer. Both killings were grotesque, traumatized their respective communities, and have garnered national headlines and mourning. Only one of these mass killings, however, was addressed by President Joe Biden.
“While no motive in this attack is yet clear, we know that the LGBTQI+ community has been subjected to horrific hate violence in recent years,” Biden said in a statement about last Saturday’s nightclub shooting. “We must drive out the inequities that contribute to violence against LGBTQI+ people. We cannot and must not tolerate hate.”
We now know that Biden and other Democrats jumped the gun by suggesting the shooting was the result of LGBT “hate.” On Tuesday, it was reported that the 22-year-old alleged nightclub shooter identifies as “non-binary” and uses the plural “they” and “them” pronouns, making him part of the LGBT coalition himself.
The president also used the shooting to promote his anti-Second Amendment agenda. “We must address the public health epidemic of gun violence in all of its forms,” Biden said. “Earlier this year, I signed the most significant gun safety law in nearly three decades, in addition to taking other historic actions. But we must do more. We need to enact an assault weapons ban to get weapons of war off America’s streets.”
Perhaps Biden is ignoring the tragic deaths of four young college kids in Idaho because their murders did not involve a gun. Madison Mogen, 21, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Xana’s boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, 20, were brutally stabbed to death with what police are calling a Rambo-like knife.
The killings took place sometime after 3 a.m. while the students were sleeping in a home near the university campus. Mysteriously, two roommates and a dog who also lived in the house were spared by the killer. The murderer is still at large, and local authorities have not yet named a suspect, which is terrifying the local community.
The students are so disturbed by what happened that many left campus early for Thanksgiving break. The president of the university even announced that students and professors have the option to use remote learning for the remainder of the fall semester.
Since their deaths, heartbreaking old photos and TikTok videos have emerged of the young friends enjoying life and the college experience. The victims of this crime don’t check off any intersectional boxes. They were white college kids living in a flyover state. Their cause of death won’t help congressional Democrats push gun laws or score points with minorities or LGBT Americans. Publicly speaking about these murders and showing compassion for the victims and their families also won’t give them the benefit of blaming Republicans for somehow “inciting” violence.
The truth is, tragedy can and will strike no matter how many gun laws are passed. Chicago has some of the strictest gun laws in the country. Yet every week countless, mostly black residents, are shot and killed. Just this morning a teen was murdered in the Windy City. Chicago is a leftist utopia, complete with a radical mayor, tough gun laws, and an attorney general who refuses to prosecute violent criminals, including murderers, in the name of equity, so the president and corporate media have no comment for the bloody streets of Chicago. It’s not politically advantageous.
If guns are illegal, a criminal will still find a way to get one, just as they do in Chicago, and those who can’t use a gun will use a knife or a car. There is evil in our fallen world, and there always will be. Placing a tragedy on the shoulders of a political opponent is ugly.
It is also gross for the president of the United States to make statements only about national tragedies that are politically useful to him. “I promise you this,” wrote Biden before taking office, “I will be a President for all Americans.”
If Biden were sincere, he would acknowledge the killings that occur every day in Chicago, and he would treat the deaths of the four young Idaho college students with the same compassion and urgency that he afforded those who died at Club Q in Colorado.