On November 15, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America founder Shannon Watts said her group will not be silenced by Donald Trump’s presidential victory, and she warned that gun grabbers must stay vigilant to prevent the repeal of existing gun controls.
Moms Demand Action founder Watts admitted wallowing in disappointment following the tremendous loss gun controllers suffered via the defeat of Hillary Clinton. Then she turned from self-loathing to suggest, “an army of angry mothers” stands ready to fight against any efforts to lessen the gun control burden currently in place for law-abiding citizens.
Writing in the Huffington Post, Watts referenced the December 2012 attack on Sandy Hook Elementary then suggested that “background checks” are a “common sense law” that works. She did not mention that background checks were already in place when Adam Lanza attacked Sandy Hook, but he bypassed them by stealing his guns. Nor did she mention that background checks are actually most mass public attackers’ method of choice for acquiring firearms. Here is a list of attackers and alleged attackers who have purchased their guns via background checks:
- the New York City bombing suspect (September 19)
- the Orlando attacker (June 12)
- the UCLA gunman (June 1)
- 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 alleged 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), and many others.
Yet background checks are one of the laws that Watts wants “angry mothers” to defend?
Watts also pushed to expand background checks so that they cover private sales, treating them as retail. Hillary Clinton referred to such checks as “comprehensive background checks,” and they are frequently called universal background checks as well. Watts did not mention that California, Colorado, Washington state, and Paris have universal background checks, yet they have also witnessed some of the most publicized high-profile attacks of the last year.
For example, three innocents were gunned down in the streets of Colorado Springs on October 31, 2015. A month later — on November 27, 2015 — three innocents were shot and killed at a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood. The bottom line: Universal background checks were impotent to stop the attacks. On December 2, 2015, two well-armed attackers killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California. Again, universal background checks were no hindrance. On September 23, 2016, a gunman shot and killed five innocents in a Burlington, Washington, mall — universal background checks notwithstanding.
And we cannot overlook the January 7, 2015, Charlie Hebdo attack — in which 12 were shot and killed — or the November 13 Paris attacks, in which 130 were shot and killed. Paris’s universal background checks were powerless to prevent determined attackers from carrying out their evil intentions.
Yet Watts is trying to rally the troops, trying to be sure “an army of angry mothers” is ready to defend the very background check that Gabby Giffords’s attacker passed to acquire the gun he used to injure her.
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of “Bullets with AWR Hawkins,” a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.