On January 6, the day that Esteban Santiago allegedly pulled a gun from checked baggage and opened fire on innocents in a Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood International gun-free zone, the New York Daily News (NYDN) contended that “five … dead and even more … wounded” were not sufficient grounds for removing the gun-free policy so law-abiding citizens could be armed for self-defense.
In fact, the NYDN mocked Florida state Senator Greg Steube’s (R-23) ongoing efforts to let concealed carry permit holders have their guns on their persons in the unsecured parts of airports.
According to the NYDN:
We are supposed to think it is perfectly normal that it is now legal in the state of Texas, thanks to a Republican-controlled legislature, to carry concealed weapons on a college campus. So why wouldn’t a state senator in Florida like Steube, whoever he is, be just fine with people carrying guns through his state’s airports? If the bill becomes law in Florida, even after what happened at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International on Friday, make sure you send up a flare — or send out a tweet — the next time some passenger carrying a gun in an airport like that saves a single life. It will be like the Second Amendment on steroids.
It appears the author of this NYDN article, Mike Lupica, does not know that 44 states allow concealed carry permit holders to be armed in the unsecured portions of their airports. Or, to put it another way, he failed to note that Florida is one of only six states that mandates law-abiding citizens be disarmed in unsecured portions of airports.
NYDN takes a swipe at the NRA for consistently fighting for Americans’ right to defend themselves, as well, deriding the idea of being armed for self-defense as something that “would expand the opportunities for a real good shootout between the baggage carousels the next time somebody like Santiago did what he reportedly did on Friday.”
The newspaper adds, “Mouth-breathers like Wayne LaPierre of the National Rifle Association still insist that only good guys with guns can stop bad guys with guns, as if once the shooting starts, a whole squadron of Wyatt Earps will suddenly appear out of nowhere to save the day.”
Despite the fact that five innocent lives were taken in cold blood, and many others were shot and wounded, the NYDN criticizes those who want to change the law so innocents have a fighting chance should such an attack occur again.
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.