Tennessee Congressman Tim Burchett Wins Award for Most F–ked-Up Response to Covenant School Shooting

Hours after three children and three adults were murdered at the Covenant School in Tennessee on Monday, Republican congressman Tim Burchett beat out all his conservative peers to win the award for the most callous, f–ked-up response to the mass shooting, the 38th since the start of this month. Note: This award isn’t actually real and there’s no medal or monetary sum to be collected for coming in first, making Burchett’s response all the more jaw-dropping.

Speaking to reporters, outside the Capitol, Burchett said that what had happened was “a horrible, horrible situation”—and then declared: “we’re not going to fix it.” (Emphasis ours.) To be clear, the lawmaker wasn’t saying this to underscore the collective frustration and feelings of rage millions of Americans feel for politicians who continue to allow these types of “situation[s]” to occur, offer “thoughts and prayers,” and then refuse to pass meaningful gun control legislation; he was saying “we’re not going to fix it” because he thinks that’s correct course of action. “Criminals are going to be criminals,” he continued, adding: “And my daddy fought in the Second World War, fought in the Pacific, fought the Japanese, and he told me, he said, ‘Buddy,’ he said, ‘if somebody wants to take you out and doesn’t mind losing their life, there’s not a whole heck of a lot you can do about it.’”

Incredibly, he went on: Asked if he thinks “there’s any role for Congress to play in reaction [to Covenant School shooting],” Burchett doubled down, saying: “I don’t see any real role that we could do other than mess things up honestly because of the situation…I don’t think our criminals are going to stop from [getting] guns, you know you can print them out on the computer now, 3D printing…I don’t think you’re going to stop the gun violence. I think you’ve got to change people’s hearts. As a Christian as we talk about in the church, I’ve said this many times, I think we really need a revival in this country.”