Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) used a tweet Tuesday to suggest the April 16, 2007, handgun-based attack on Virginia Tech is reason for more gun control right now.
Feinstein mentioned that the attack was handgun-based, then called for more gun control without mentioning what type of gun control she wants. Her go-to gun control for decades has been an “assault weapons” ban, and lately she is pushing for a ban similar to that in Australia and New Zealand. But such a ban would not have prevented the Virginia Tech attack, as the attacker used handguns.
She also pushes universal background checks, but those would not have done any good, as the attacker passed a background check to acquire his firearms.
Feinstein did not mention that the Virginia Tech attack occurred in a gun-free zone, just like the attacks on Sandy Hook Elementary, Umpqua Community College, and the Parkland high school. Nor did she address Crime Prevention Research Center figures showing that 97.8 percent of mass shootings in the U.S. between 1950 and May 2018 occurred in a gun-free zone. Instead, it is full steam ahead in pursuit of more gun control rather than fighting to give law-abiding citizens better access to firearms for self-defense.
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.