Breitbart News spoke with presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy (R) about the left’s knee-jerk gun control reaction to high profile shootings and noted his conviction that the focus should be on things such as mental health and the breakdown of the nuclear family, rather than firearm laws.
The left’s eagerness to push gun control has been evidenced in instances where President Biden has pushed an “assault weapons” ban in response to handgun attacks. He did this following a January 21, 2023, pistol attack in California, the February 13, 2023, after the handgun attack at Michigan State University, and most recently pushed an “assault weapons” ban after the April 15,2023, attack on a birthday party in Dadeville, Alabama.
On April 17, 2023, Breitbart News reported that those investigating the birthday party attack said the shell casings indicated no rifles were used, all “handguns.”
Breitbart News spoke with Ramaswamy about these gun control efforts and how it seems every high profile firearm-based crime is used to push gun control that may or may not even be related to the incident.
Ramaswamy responded by looking beyond simple answers, saying, “We need to go upstream and address the root cause: the mental health issue in this country. Let’s deal with addictive social media, loss of purpose and meaning, fatherlessness, the destruction of the nuclear family.”
He added, “Follow the facts: many of the cities with the strictest gun control laws have the highest degree of violent crime. Nearly all Americans agree we need to put a stop to violent crime, but this is how we get to the root of the it.”
Five days after the heinous attack in which a portfolio banker shot and killed five fellow bank personnel in Louisville, Kentucky, on April 10, 2023, Breitbart News reported a Rasmussen Reports survey showing more likely voters blame mental health for mass shootings than blame guns.
According to Rasmussen, 42 percent of likely voters blame mass shootings on mental health issues while 29 percent place the blame on “access to firearms.”
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 and a Turning Point USA Ambassador. AWR Hawkins holds a Ph.D. in Military History, with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com