Gun violence is a horrible, horrible thing. No sane, rational person actually wants gun violence to occur. No sane, rational person actually wants people seriously injured or killed (whether with a firearm or not). So, when I ask who is really to blame for gun violence, that isn’t meant as a trick question or a rhetorical question. No, it’s a question that people should be asking but usually are not.
So, we’re going to ask it today.
Of course, the anti-2A side of this gun discussion argues that legal gun owners directly or indirectly are to blame for gun violence. After all (they argue), if legal gun owners didn’t have guns, then, criminals wouldn’t be able to get them. Or they say that legal gun owners are actually who are committing violence.
Is that even remotely true, though?
No, the actual truth is that criminals are the people to blame for gun violence. And anti-2A people are guilty of enabling and empowering criminals in causing gun violence by preventing people who would like to be legal gun owners from being able to arm themselves in order to scare off criminals or from being able to actually defend themselves with the same tools that violent criminals already have at their disposal.
There is another way that anti-2A people like Democrat nominee Kamala Harris are guilty of aiding and abetting criminals, including those who commit gun violence. Cortney Weil writes,
Now, some outlets are attempting to obscure Harris’ record once again, this time about her support for the Minnesota Freedom Fund, a nonprofit that posted bail for violent rioters in the wake of George Floyd’s death in 2020.
“If you’re able to, chip in now to the @MNFreedomFund to help post bail for those protesting on the ground in Minnesota,” Harris posted on June 1, 2020, to her personal account on the platform then known as Twitter.
The tweet has never been taken down, and a similar post to Harris’ personal Facebook account likewise remains active.
Two weeks after issuing those posts, she hinted on an appearance with late-night host Stephen Colbert that she knew many protesters had engaged in violence but that she still supported their actions. “Everyone beware because they’re not gonna stop,” she told Colbert. “… Everyone should take note of that, on both levels, that they’re not going to let up — and they should not. And we should not.”
Weil continues:
But of course, the Minnesota Freedom Fund did ultimately collect some $41 million, a small percentage of which was used to bail out protesters, violent or otherwise. According to Fox News, the vast majority of the group’s funds were actually spent bailing out other violent suspects, including a man with a criminal record who went on to murder a man just a few weeks after the fund sprang him from jail.
On August 5, 2021, George Howard, a then-48-year-old man with a criminal record, was arrested in connection with an alleged domestic assault. Thanks to bond money from the Minnesota Freedom Fund, however, Howard was back out on the streets less than a week later.
By August 29, he was back behind bars, this time for gunning down 38-year-old Luis Damian Martinez Ortiz following a road-rage incident that took place along I-94 in Minneapolis. Howard later pled guilty and is currently serving a 15-year sentence.
That’s right, those on the political side of the spectrum who advocate for gun control are the ones who actively bailed out violent protesters including those who went on to commit further violent crimes, including murder.
So, who is responsible for gun violence in America? Criminals and the anti-2A zealots who give aid and support to criminals allowing them to commit crimes again and again.
This is the untold truth of gun control that the American people deserve to hear because the American people deserve to know who is really to blame.