Bill Nelson: School Shootings Will Not End Without Ban on AR-15s, Private Gun Sales

Following the February 14, 2018, Parkland high school attack, Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) encouraged Florida lawmakers to get all the gun control they can.

He claimed the criminal use of guns in schools will not end until AR-15s and other commonly owned semiautomatic firearms are banned.

Tragically, the deadliest shooting at an institution of higher learning–the April 16, 2007, Virginia Tech attack–cost the lives of 32 people and was carried out by an individual armed with two handguns.

The Tallahassee Democrat reports that Florida’s legislative session was close to ending when the Parkland shooting occurred, so Nelson encouraged them to get all the gun they could get with the time remaining, then push an “assault weapons” ban upon reconvening in December.

He stressed that criminal use of guns in schools will not end until private possession of commonly owned semiautomatic firearms are banned: “You are not going to solve the problem until you get the assault rifles off the street and until you can get a criminal background check on every transfer of a gun.”

His attack on private gun sales overlooks the fact that Parkland high school attacker did not acquire his gun via a private sale. Rather, he got is via a background check at retail.

In fact, every high profile attacker since the Virginia Tech attack–school, workplace, or otherwise–has acquired his or her guns via a background check except two. Both of those two, the Sandy Hook Elementary School attacker and the Clackamas Town Center attacker, stole their guns.

The bottom line is that Nelson’s gun controls would do absolutely nothing to stop the attacks we have witnessed in the 21st century, and that is because those attacks are not due to a certain type of gun or certain means of firearm acquisition. Sadly, they are due to soft targets created by gun-free zones and the Democrats insidious gun control agenda, which does little to disarm criminals but goes a long way in discouraging law-abiding citizens from acquiring guns.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets with AWR Hawkins, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.