Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal published a self-described “rant” about mass shootings and gun control on his website Tuesday.
Jindal, who ranks seventh in the Washington Examiner‘s newest presidential power rankings, receives the support of 0.5 percent of GOP voters, according to a RealClearPolitics average of national polls. He has previously sought attention by unusual means, including posting a video about Donald Trump that feature clips from “Zoolander.”
Jindal’s essay decries “shallow and simple-minded liberals” who blame “pieces of hardware” (i.e. guns) for problems of mass shootings nationwide. After warning his audience that he would deliver a sermon about the topic of mass shootings and gun violence, he took issue with President Obama’s approach.
“Another week, another mass shooting, another press conference by the president lecturing us on the need for gun control, and now Hillary and Obama are in a race to see which of them can be the most extreme in trying to destroy the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States,” Jindal wrote. “If anyone is at all serious about changing any of this, they must address the root problems, and those are cultural decay, the glorification of evil, the devaluation of human life, the breakdown of the family and specifically the complete abdication of fathers.”
Jindal listed 13 bullet points that contributed to the culture’s “brew of decay,” and wrote about his view on the Oregon mass shooting before getting to his final point.
“Let’s get really politically incorrect here and talk specifically about this horror in Oregon. This killer’s father is now lecturing us on the need for gun control and he says he has no idea how or where his son got the guns,” Jindal wrote. “Of course he doesn’t know. You know why he doesn’t know? Because he is not, and has never been in his son’s life. He’s a complete failure as a father, he should be embarrassed to even show his face in public. He’s the problem here.”
Jindal closed by saying, “The simple truth is, as long as we place no value on human life, as long as we glorify senseless violence and evil, we will get the exact same result.”
His campaign has touted a new NBC News poll of Iowan voters that shows Jindal tied with Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida in fifth place at six percentage points. Whether Jindal can gain momentum may rely in part on his ability to maintain the public’s attention, which his latest blog post aims to do.
