An August 17 Tampa Bay Times editorial board op-ed points to mass shootings in which the attacker passed background checks as a way of arguing for background checks.
The editorial board referred to a July survey and claimed that “large majorities in both parties told researchers they support universal background checks and a mandatory waiting period for anyone trying to purchase a weapon.”
They then pressure Florida officeholders, writing, “Just because an overwhelming majority of Floridians apparently support changes that would save lives doesn’t mean our elected officials have the political courage to make them happen.”
The editorial board then attempts to show that Florida has been hurt because of the lack of universal background checks; i.e., because of the lack of a requirement that private gun buyers undergo a background check like retail gun buyers.
The op-ed says:
Florida, unfortunately, has felt more pain than most states. Forty-nine people were killed at the Pulse nightclub shootings in Orlando six years ago. In 2018, another 17 people were murdered — many of them students — when a former student opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. Both of those mass slaughters were facilitated by the shooters’ easy access to weapons.
The editorial board failed to mention that the Pulse nightclub attacker and the Parkland attacker both acquired their guns at retail via background checks, so an expansion of background checks to cover private sales would not have prevented either attack.
Anthony Borges, a freshman soccer player at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, is recovering in the hospital after he was shot five times while using his body as a shield to protect his fellow classmates from the bullets during the Parkland, Florida, high school shooting. (photo: Broward County Sheriff’s office)
Moreover, the Pulse nightclub attacker also underwent a three-day waiting period for his handgun, so the focus on waiting periods is misplaced as well.
On July 1, 2016, just weeks after the Orlando Pulse shooting, Breitbart News reported a Quinnipiac University poll showed a vast majority of voters believed background checks should be expanded to cover private sales in the same way they apply to retail sales. Respondents appeared unimpacted by the fact that background checks were the means by which nearly every mass shooter in recent memory, including those in Orlando and Parkland, acquired their guns.
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 and a Turning Point USA Ambassador. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. Reach him at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.