St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Biden Can Make Gun Control Dreams Come True

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch used a February 20, 2021, editorial to suggest President Joe Biden could make the left’s gun control dreams come true.

The editorial opened with:

Three years ago last Sunday, a gunman opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, killing 17. The deadliest high school shooting in U.S. history mobilized students and others to demand sane national gun policy, only to be thwarted by an obstinate Republican Party in the thrall of the National Rifle Association. If the Biden administration and the new Democrat-dominated Congress do nothing else in the coming two years, it’s crucial they institute universal background checks and other rational reforms.

Ironically, universal background checks would not have prevented the Parkland shooting, yet the Post-Dispatch editorial board lists such checks as a “rational” response.

In fact, universal background checks would not have prevented the overwhelming majority of mass public attacks that occurred over the last decade, because the attackers acquired their guns at retail via background checks.

Here is just a partial list of mass public attackers who acquired their guns via background checks:

• Virginia Beach attacker (May 31, 2019)
• Poway Synagogue attacker (April 27, 2019)
• Tree of Life Synagogue  attacker (October 27, 2018)
• Parkland high school attacker (February 14, 2018)
• Texas church attacker (November 5, 2017)
• Las Vegas attacker (October 1, 2017)
• the Alexandria attacker (June 14, 2017))
• Orlando attacker (June 12, 2016)
• the UCLA gunman (June 1, 2016))
• the San Bernardino attackers (December 2, 2015)
• the Colorado Springs attacker (October 31, 2015)
• the Umpqua Community College attacker (October 1, 2015)
• Alison Parker’s attacker (August 26, 2015)
• the Lafayette movie theater attacker (July 23, 2015)
• the Chattanooga attacker (July 16, 2015)
• the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal attacker (Jun 17, 2015)
• the Muhammad Carton Contest attackers (May 3, 2014)
• the Las Vegas cop killers (June 9, 2015)
• the Santa Barbara attacker (May 23, 2014)
• the Fort Hood attacker (April 2, 2014)
• the Arapahoe High School attacker (December 13, 2013)
• the D.C. Navy Yard attacker (September 16, 2013)
• the Aurora movie theater attacker (July 20, 2012)
• Gabby Giffords’ attacker (January 8, 2011)
• the Fort Hood attacker (November 5, 2009)
• the Virginia Tech attacker (April 16, 2007)

Universal background checks would not have stopped a single one of the above-listed attacks, because the attackers got their guns at retail.

However, universal background checks will make it a crime for a neighbor to sell a 5-shot revolver to a lifelong neighbor or coworker, unless the transaction is carried out via a background check conducted by the FBI.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News 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.