Here we go again. Executive summary: asshole loser shoots three people dead for no reason other than, apparently, their race. Doubleplusungood: with an AR-15. Tripleplusungood: AR-15 had swastikas painted on it.
Before the Weepies and Gun-Fearing Wussies get going with “Ban all eeeevil assault rifles NOW!”, let’s just face a couple facts.
- Said scumbag was 21, so no age ban would have affected him.
- The AR-15 was legally purchased (as was the Glock the asshole was carrying).
- Had the AR-15 been banned, and assuming he couldn’t get his hands on one illegally, he could have used the (legally-purchased) Glock to do the same job.
- Had he preferred to use a non-AR-type semi-auto rifle instead of a Glock, he could have used one of these (which would never be included in an AR-style ban) because hunting rifles (as evidenced by the wooden stock):
…but which function identically to the AR-15.
Listen, I don’t want to downplay this tragedy. Society has no place for scumbags like this, and had I been there and in a position to intervene, I would have shot this little cunt in the back of the head without a second thought, before he had a chance to off himself.
Maybe his parents (with whom he was still living) could have done something ahead of time to prevent this, and maybe they couldn’t. There’s not much a parent can do with grown kids — they’re gonna do what they’re gonna do.
Sadly, freedom does not come without its abuse, and the Second Amendment is no different. But nothing we do can prevent them being abused, and that’s just the tragedy of it.
And just to be clear on the topic: there neither is nor could be any new law which would have prevented this. Random assholes will always find a way to do their evil deeds, and that’s the truth of it.
Crazies gonna crazy.
The fact that news coverage only emphasizes race in one direction has made me completely ignore these stories. When “White kills Black” is a headline, and “Black kills Black” or “Black kills White” is a non-story, there is no value in any of the stories.
This incident ticks a lot of, shall we say, convenient boxes:
– Shooter was white.
– Victims were black.
– Gun was covered in white-supremacist iconography.
– Guns used were an AR-15 and a Glock.
– Guns used were *legally purchased*.
– Incident happened in Florida.
So it can be used to:
– Promote the view that white supremacy really is the leading source of terrorism in the US.
– It’s not only stolen guns that are used in mass shootings and thus bans and confiscation really are needed.
– Reflect badly on Florida and, in particular, its current Governor who has become very popular on the right and just so happens to be running for president.
If I was going to come up with an incident that maximized the ability of the left to promote it’s various agendas, I’d be hard-pressed to think of a better one, or at least a better one that was at least somewhat plausible.
While I don’t think it’s likely this was a false-flag operation, not least of which because the shooter would have known his death was likely, I’m not going to rule it out, either. It’s certainly possible that someone offered this young man a deal he felt he couldn’t refuse, even at the cost of his own life. It’s just so perfect, that there has to be a non-zero probability of that being the case.
When I start hearing ‘ban this’ or ‘ban that’ IOW, ‘outlaw something’, I’ve
started responding with something along the lines of –
There is no place in the United States where murder is legal. Period.
The same is true, if memory serves correctly, for crack cocaine.
BUT murders and cocaine usage happens a LOT, every day and almost
any place you care to mention.
When you can COMPLETELY stop murders and illegal
drug use using JUST LAWS and prosecution then and ONLY then will
I even CONSIDER ‘banning’ a firearm, ANY firearm !
Law, ANY law(s) WILL NOT STOP THIS ! Hell, we have what,
25 to 30 THOUSAND ‘gun laws’ on the books NOW and ?????????
Wallace,
I’m going to steal your line about murder and cocaine already being illegal yet still happen.
the arguments have been made and they all fall far short to justify squashing our rights. I usually ask how does creating disarmed victims stop armed criminals from acting on their evil ideas? So far none of the gun ban crowd has answered that question
JQ