When it comes to mass shootings, the first thing that is clear is that it shouldn’t have happened. Innocent people being injured and killed is never an acceptable situation in any society.
In their efforts to stop mass shootings, though, anti-2A activists keep looking at the wrong thing. They want to talk about the firearm(s) involved in the incident and to ban the firearms that are used in these horrible events.
Or so they keep telling people.
The truth of the matter, though, is that anti-2A activists keep focusing on banning firearms that are rarely used in mass shootings, and details from a recent mass shooting in New Mexico gives an example of just this situation. Tom Ozimek writes,
Las Cruces Police Chief Jeremy Story said at a Saturday press briefing that the shooting took place at the scene of an “unsanctioned car show.”
Story said that there was an altercation between two groups of people, which escalated into an outbreak of gunfire. He added that an individual seen holding an AR-15 rifle at the scene of the incident—according to photographs circulating on social media—has already been interviewed and is not a suspect in the shooting.
Story added that all of the bullet casings retrieved at the scene were from handguns, not rifles.
So, to be clear, an AR-15 was on site where the shooting occurred, but it looks like the person who had the AR-15 wasn’t involved in the shooting.
In fact, only handguns were used in the shooting, as evidenced by the casings that were found on site.
And this situation lines up with data for mass shootings in general. Rifles of any kind, including AR-15s, are rarely used for mass shootings. Most mass shootings are committed with handguns.
But the press and anti-2A activists keep wanting to harp on AR-15s which weren’t involved in the shooting (and usually aren’t even at the scene at all).
The fact that handguns, and not rifles, are what are used for mass shootings is an “inconvenient truth” for anti-gun activists because they don’t get the same knee-jerk emotional reactions from talking about a pistol that they get from uninformed people when the activists screech about “assault rifles.”
There are people who have those knee-jerk emotional reactions, though, and that’s why we need to keep vigilant and to keep educating people about the reality around firearms which is that guns don’t kill people; people with evil intentions do.
The big question the media and those who support the second amendment! NEVER ASK Is very simple! WHY ARE THE GUN HATERS BEING PROTECTED WITH GUNS including the courts INSTEAD OF WITH THEIR GUN FREE ZONE SIGN LIKE THEY GIVE OUR KIDS? Is there a reason none of them, who claim to be adults can’t dial 911 like they tell our kids? Why do those who claim to hate guns demand we pay for their armed protection while they stop ours? There is absolutely no reason for the tax payer to pay to protect these people when they take ours! If they need armed protection they can follow their own rules and pay for it themselves! They can go out and pay for a class, a gun and ammo or go without like they tell us! As we all know the criminals all listen to these idiots and follow their laws! (sarcasm) Maybe if we take their protection on our dime. They just might see the stupid in their ideas of disarming the country! As only them have fully automatic guns not the people! Time for equal justice for all not just them!
EEEEeevil black rifle must be banned! It’s just an oversexed .22 semi automatic that RESEMBLES a military rifle issued during the VN era. Of course, they can’t stand the fact that these rifles are inexpensive and easy to shoot. They will invent multitudes of excuses in order to ban them.
The rifle cited in the report about this atrocity was never fired and likely was never pointed at anyone, yet Police Chief Story had to mention it. Were any of the handguns fired during the incident modified to fire full auto? How many other citizens at the scene were armed and did not fire their weapons?
The supreme court must be made to deliver a definitive and final decision regarding the true meaning of the Second Amendment.
Apparently, the “oversexed .22” (.223/5.56x45mm) rounds that anti-gun folks claim are so “overpowered” and “dangerous” that the U.S. Military deemed it necessary to replace them with the even more powerful 6.8x51mm round!
It’s the person, not the weapon, that is responsible for the killing … a fact that way too many politicians, law enforcement officials, lawyers, and judges are too stupid and/or unwilling to recognize. These individuals and agencies need to direct their time, effort, and resources to catching, prosecuting, and (if convicted) punishing the perpetrators as well as addressing the society problems/mental health issues that lead to the violence.