What’s the evidence that the Congressman’s surrogate-pointed remarks have 3 fingers pointing back at himself? Why, Marshall’s column the previous day. He proclaims proud cosponsorship of the Congressional STOP act. STOP aims to fortify schools and apportion funds to “behavioral health” and early reporting of potentially violent persons. To be fair, this at least initiates action for school safety.
But.
First, being one of 33 cosponsors of a bill introduced more than a year before does not mean you crafted the legislation. Second, it has not been passed by the Senate, so is not actual law. Third, fortification does not necessarily mean safety, since ‘one entry’ guarantees a choke point, where large numbers can be taken out in a single burst. Fourth, money to identify early violence doesn’t begin to address the multi-billion-dollar need for truly sufficient mental health care.
Fifth, and most important, there is nary a word here about making the public at large safer from guns: for example, automatic background checks, common-sense gun registration, and banning bump stocks and assault weapons.
In short, this attempt at public relations is a joke.
Anyone who has heard Alan LaPolice knows his grasp of the issues, his vision across party lines for real change in Kansas and the country, his rejection of big-money influence, and his pointedly sharp ability to cut through the brown matter, clarify green policy, and re-establish respect for the red, white, and blue.
If you have heard him. That is exactly what the Republican establishment does not want you to do. That is exactly why the Congressman refuses to debate in the First District. That is why he appears only in venues like small-town nursing homes. That reveals both arrogance and fear.
Alan LaPolice is not the joke candidate. And if you vote thinking he is, well, the joke will be on you.
David Norlin is Chairman of the Salina Planning Commission, former President of Salina Access TV, and a former College Director of Broadcasting and English Department Chair. He has twice run for Kansas State Office.