In a rare speech from the well of the chamber Friday morning, House Speaker Paul Ryan strongly denounced the massacre of police officers in Dallas late Thursday, calling for a compassionate and civil political discussion as the process of seeking healing and justice begins. Watch:
An attack on the people who protect us is an attack on all of us. Let justice be done, and let healing be done too. pic.twitter.com/Kv01WROYEu
— Paul Ryan (@SpeakerRyan) July 8, 2016
Despite Ryan's aspirational tone, a fraught partisan melee already appears to be beginning. Members of the Congressional Black Caucus have already renewed calls for increased gun control measures, as President Obama condemned 'powerful weapons' in his remarks -- which also condemned the atrocity in appropriately harsh terms:
'Vicious, calculated and despicable': @BarackObama comments on the attack in #Dallashttps://t.co/lFtew9I7kR
— Business Insider (@businessinsider) July 8, 2016
The Dallas attacker killed by police said he was motivated to murder white police officers, apparently inspired by the usually -- but not always -- peaceful Black Lives Matter movement. He and any potential accomplices are to blame for this horror; not guns, and not political rhetoric or protests. This shocking assault comes with days of two extremely suspect lethal police shootings of black civilians, and less than one month after 49 Americans were slaughtered by an Islamist terrorist at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. Dark days in America.