President Joe Biden marked February 14, 2021–the third anniversary of the Parkland school shooting–by calling on Congress to pass more gun control.
He used a tweet to recount the heinous attack, writing, “In seconds, the lives of dozens of families, and the life of an American community, was changed forever.”
Biden referenced the “lone gunman [who] took the lives of 14 students and three educators” and also directed attention toward violence in certain cities across America. He suggested singled out the “gun violence disproportionately devastating Black and Brown individuals in our cities.”
He concluded, in part, by writing:
Today, I am calling on Congress to enact commonsense gun law reforms, including requiring background checks on all gun sales, banning assault weapons and high capacity magazines, and eliminating immunity for gun manufacturers who knowingly put weapons of war on our streets.
A number of things needs to be noted.
First, the Parkland shooter acquired his gun “legally,” according to USA Today. That terminology means he went through a background check, so expanding checks from retail alone to retail and private sales would have done nothing to prevent the attack.
Secondly, the Parkland attack was not carried out “in seconds.” Rather, ABC News reported that the gunman had enough time to “[stop] firing five times to reload his” firearm.
In fact, the Atlanta Constitution-Journal reported the length of the attack at “six minutes.”
This means the attacker could have caused mayhem with any size magazine–he could swap empty mags for full ones–because he had time.
When the commission investigating the Parkland shooting put forward its findings, one key suggestion was to enable teachers to be armed so any future, would-be attacker, would not have the benefit of carrying out his evil deeds without armed response. On January 3, 2019, Breitbart News noted that the commission’s report recommended that teachers “who volunteer to undergo firearms training, should be allowed to carry guns.”
But Biden has made clear no federal funds will be used to train teachers to use guns for classroom defense.
Moreover, Biden mentioned the cities where gun violence is surging but did not note that some of the most violent cities already have the controls he wants federally.
For example, South L.A. saw a 742 percent surge in shooting victims during the first 16 days of 2021, although California has universal background checks and “assault weapons” ban.
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 at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.