Just a few weeks after the shooting in Arizona, we still have moronic Republicans out there using gun metaphors:

A state senator in Alabama said Monday his call for Republicans to “empty the clip” on the issue of illegal immigration was taken out of context.

At a Republican breakfast in Cullman County, Alabama, last weekend, State Sen. Scott Beason reportedly urged his fellow Republicans to “empty the clip and do what has to be done” to enact stricter immigration laws, the Cullman Times reported.

Beason has since been flooded with angry calls denouncing the remark, which came in the wake of the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson last month. That tragedy saw 19 people shot and six killed, including a nine-year-old girl, sparking a debate about the use of violent metaphors in American politics.

And here’s the problem:

Beason on Monday told the media the comment was taken out of context, and he did not mean to suggest violence against illegal immigrants.

Republicans have a serious inability to take responsibility. There is nothing there to take out of context, just like Sarah Palin’s map with gun sights and using the phrase “locked and loaded” in connection with it was a very clear statement. Either these people are trying to make excuses, or they are they have a serious problem with communication, in the most basic sense.

But why aren’t these people being held to the same standard as you and me? If I went out and started saying someone should “empty the clip” in Beason, I would be visited by the police, and rightfully so. Yet politicians and even the big talkers like Rush Limbaugh get away with it all the time.

While we do have a freedom of speech in this country, you still can’t do certain things like yell “fire!” in a crowded theater. With any right comes a responsibility, and to many on the right ignore the latter half of that. That’s why are society is in the high speed lane on the highway to hell. That’s why we need law enforcement and elected leaders to start taking serious actions against this kind of violent rhetoric.