That’s not exactly breaking news. Saying that Lucas acted in a foolish manner that put others at risk is a bit like noting that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west.
Dangerous and dumb might as well be his brand.
His latest stunt involved flashing his firearm at a group of Muncie high school students who came to the Statehouse to express their concern about gun violence.
Lucas saw the students from Burris Laboratory School on an elevator at the Statehouse and beckoned them to talk with him. The students wore bright red “Students Demand Action” t-shirts, so it was clear from the start that they had concerns about guns.
Lucas asked if they wanted to talk.
By that, he meant—as he always does—that he wanted them to listen to him. (Listening is for other people, not for Lucas.)
For more than 10 minutes—as video taken by one of the students shows—Lucas dominated the discussion, spouting his half-baked, National-Rifle-Association-approved list of gun-love talking points.
Lucas outsources all his thinking to the NRA. If an original thought entered that man’s mind, it soon would die of loneliness.
At one point, because he thinks everyone has the same gun fetish he does, Lucas pulled back his jacket to show the students his gun. One told him that seeing the firearm didn’t make her feel safe. Others murmured agreement.
Lucas did not apologize for making the students feel uncomfortable or even threatened. He didn’t even ask what it was that worried them.
He just charged ahead with his agenda, which involves putting a higher priority on guns than people.
When the students began to push back earnestly on his more outlandish points, he cut the kids off, saying they were “irrational,” and stomped away.
Later, when a reporter from TheStatehouseFile.com questioned him about the incident, he suggested that it was the kids’ responsibility to be the adult in the room, not his. They were the ones who had the duty to have an “adult conversation.”
Typical Lucas.
This, after all, is the same man who last year climbed behind the wheel of his truck when he was both drunk and high. He lost control of the vehicle while driving back to Seymour, careened down an embankment and crashed through barricades, destroying the fencing, on Interstate 65.
He then drove the wrong way up an entrance ramp to get back onto the road where he lost control. His truck by this time had only one intact tire, so he drove on the rims of the other three for a bit until he found a place where he could hide his vehicle.
He parked it behind a business and set off walking.
Police found him in the middle of the road a little while later. When they took him into custody, he was carrying both a gun—with a round in the chamber—and a knife.
Lucas told the arresting officers that he lost control of his truck because a deer spooked him.
That fabrication fell apart when tests revealed that his blood alcohol level was way 25% above the legal limit and that he’d smoked pot before taking the wheel.
Local politics being local politics, he received little more than a slap on the wrist from the prosecutor, a sentence so generous that the local newspaper called it “a sweetheart deal.”
Somehow, following that, Lucas still thinks he has the moral standing to lecture anyone about anything.
But that’s Lucas being Lucas.
He didn’t learn anything from that episode because he never thinks he has anything to learn. (Again, listening and learning are for other people, not him.)
So, the issue here isn’t Jim Lucas.
He is what he is, a guy who doesn’t see anything wrong in brandishing a gun in front of children.
But what about his fellow Republicans?
Do they care?
This can’t be a partisan concern. They can’t be concerned about holding onto his seat. A pet rock that ran as a Republican in his gerrymandered district would win 75% of the vote.
Lucas himself gets anywhere from 58% to 74% when he runs.
No, it must be that they’re okay with Jim Lucas driving drunk and high and scaring schoolchildren with guns.
Maybe they want to make dangerous and dumb their brand, too.
