opinion

Montini: Former GOP chair would ban guns...from blacks

When faced with ignorant comments at a high level, it is sometimes best to simply get out of the way and allow the speaker the room he requires to open his mouth and insert his foot.

And so it is with former Arizona Republican Party chairman and failed State Treasurer candidate Randy Pullen.

He tweeted furiously during the Democratic presidential debate Tuesday and at one point tweeted:

"Yes black lives matter. The best way to end the slaughter of young black men is to take guns away from blacks as they are the main killers."

I'll leave it to you to decide if such a comment is racially insensitive or not.

What of the facts? Is Pullen correct?

Actually, yes.

When Pullen says most black murder victims were killed by black murderers, that's true.

The FBI puts out statistics about such things just about every year. And an overwhelming number of murders committed (mostly) by young black men involve black victims.

So, should we take their guns away?

Well, before we do so, we might take a look at the murder statistics for white people.

You see, it is also true that most white murder victims were killed by white murderers, that the overwhelming number of murders committed (mostly) by young white men involve white victims.

Given that, we'd have to expand on Pullen's suggestion.

If we take away guns from blacks because they are more likely to kill other blacks, we'll also have to take away guns from whites because they are more likely to kill other whites.

Pullen hasn't tweeted that yet, so far as I can tell.

I'd love to see the feedback he got from his Republican brothers and sisters.