It has been 24 hours since three children and three adults lost their lives in yesterday’s Covenant School shooting in Nashville, Tennessee. (The horrific incident was the 129th mass shooting of 2023). Reactions have been constant and varied as politicians, celebrities, and activists take to social media to share their support or disdain for gun reform in America. Among them is actor and respected activist George Takei, who is no stranger to offering his unvarnished opinion on political issues such as these.
Takei’s immediate take on the Covenant School shooting was of apparent disappointment and anger as he criticized Tennessee’s governor Bill Lee for his poor choice of words in response to the shooting. Since then, Takei has also shared a few choice words of his own.
“In case it’s not yet clear, the problem is the Republicans,” he wrote on Twitter.
A proud Democrat, Takei has a reputation for criticizing Republicans such as Donald Trump Jr., Andrew Tate, and Ron DeSantis, who are just a few examples of far-right figureheads with problematic rhetoric who Takei challenges on a regular basis.
Unfortunately, the rhetoric often heard spewing out of the mouths of the aforementioned people — in addition to U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) — also happens to coincide with the country’s gun violence epidemic. President Joe Biden’s push for federally mandated background checks and a ban on assault rifles such as the kind used by the Covenant School shooter, Audrey Hale, continue to be shot down by Trump, Greene, DeSantis, and a majority of other Republicans in Congress.
The correlation between unregulated gun control and mass shootings has become increasingly apparent over the years, and yet, they keep happening. Only two months prior, Takei took to Twitter to speak out once again about the need for gun reform in the aftermath of the Lunar New Year mass shooting in Monterey Park, CA.
“A whole community wracked by gun violence and death, on what should have been a joyous Lunar New Year celebration,” he said. “We must act to end the ability of murderers to take so many lives so brutally.”
