Gun control proponent Gabby Giffords responded to the April 10 alleged murder-suicide at North Park Elementary in California by lamenting current levels of gun control and wishing more could be passed.
California is a state with universal background checks, gun registration laws, an “assault weapons” ban, a 10-day waiting period on gun purchases, gun confiscation laws based on mental health records, Gun Violence Restraining Orders, a ban on “high-capacity” magazines, a “good cause” requirement for issuance of concealed carry permits, and myriad other gun controls.
Far from proving one more gun control is needed, the heinous murder-suicide — that also cost an 8-year-old child his life — is actually more proof that gun control empowers evil people while putting law-abiding citizens at a marked disadvantage.
Nevertheless, Yahoo News quoted Giffords’ framing the murder-suicide as a “mass shooting” and also quoted her saying, “We can no longer call events like this ‘unimaginable,’ because they happen with alarming frequency. It’s time that all Americans have the courage to truly fight this crisis by standing up and demanding the smart gun laws we know save lives.”
What are these “smart gun laws?” Would they include a ban on semiautomatic handguns? Well, that would not have helped because the North Park Elementary School shooter allegedly used a revolver.
Yahoo News tried to flesh out “smart gun laws” by reminding readers that Giffords supported expanding background checks to include the terror watch list after the December 2, 2015, San Bernardino attack. But what would that have done? The San Bernardino terrorists were not on a terror watch list.
Giffords appears trapped in a paradigm of her making. No matter what the question, gun control is the answer. No matter what the problem, gun control is the solution. No matter how many gun controls exist, more gun control is needed. All the while, law-abiding citizens are losing their ability to acquire the guns they need to defend themselves from the people who ignore laws.
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.