Gun Owners of America president Erich Pratt has issues the following statement in response to the Mandalay Bay massacre:
GOA Statement on Las Vegas Shooting
Springfield, VA – Executive Director of Gun Owners of America (GOA) Erich Pratt stated the following after the tragic shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada:
“Everyone at Gun Owners of America was extremely troubled and saddened to see the tragic and terrifying report of the shooting in Las Vegas. GOA and all our employees send their sincerest prayers to the victims, their families, and all involved in this heartbreaking incident.
“Nonetheless, it is disturbing to see anti-gun politicians and celebrities politicizing the tragedy by calling for further restrictions on guns.
“We cannot blame gun owners, the gun itself, or the liberties protected in the Second Amendment for how evil people abuse that freedom.
“The vast majority of gun owners handle their firearms responsibly. Guns are used up to 100 times more often to save a life than take life (according to Obama’s Center for Disease Control in 2013). Even so-called ‘assault weapons’ are used in self-defense. Consider the Texan homeowner who successfully used an AR-15 to defend himself against a drive-by attack involving three shooters.
“Furthermore, terrorists and evil doers use other instruments, such as trucks, to take lives as shown in the tragic attack in Nice, France, where 86 people lost their lives.
“Again, GOA is heartbroken over this tragedy and our deepest sympathies go to out to all involved.”
Erich Pratt, or another GOA spokesperson, is available for interviews. Gun Owners of America is a nonprofit lobbying organization dedicated to protecting the right to keep and bear arms without compromise. GOA represents over 1.5 million members and activists. For more information, visit GOA’s Newsroom.
Since I don’t know any of the victims I’m saddest about the death of the HPA. We were closer than ever.
Yep, silencers would have made it impossible to determine where the shots were being fired. Silencers would have completely eliminated any gun fire at all. Silencers would have made the bullets go faster. Silencers would have have allowed more injuries per bullet fired. Silencers would have caused people at the concert to spontaneously combust in the hundreds and hundreds.
Silencers ! The most evil and most dangerous weapons in the world.
Facts don’t matter to the media or a goodly number of Congress “men”
Either my sarcasm detector is broken or some village has lost yet another one of its idiots.
I would say that in this case, perhaps the receiver is the failing element.
Your sarcasm detector is broken
You are an idiot – its obvious you have never fired a suppressor using ammo in a semi auto (must be supersonic). You twit.
If you think that was a serious post, you should know that you are also mistaken about who the idiot is in this series of commenters.
You are the one who did not recognize sarcasm and ridicule. And I am the “twit”? Maybe I used too many cill lobals.
“Maybe I used too many cill lobals.”
cill lobals??? Now that’s funny…
🙂
You can say that silencers will cause people to spontaneously combust, and yet they think you’re serious? Does the inanity never end???
No, it never does. If stupidity were fuel, we could kiss the Mohammedan thieves in Saudi Arabia good-bye, sink them economically, and run the country for the next 5 or 6 centuries without a problem.
Sometimes I have to really work at impersonating a leftist/liberal/statist/anti-gunner.
“…I’m saddest about the death of the HPA.”
It ain’t dead yet.
3 years we have. 3 years to ram it down their throat the same way the rammed the ACA down ours.
Sheesh…
Now it is.
US citizens own about 300,000,000 guns, which aren’t used for anything like this massacre, or even casually brandished, ever.
The gun owners of America aren’t this guy. Gun Owners of America, the organization, stands with any effort to stop whack-jobs from massacring people at concerts, with guns or any tool.
If you double that number, you’re a lot closer to the actual facts.
In my humble opinion, of course.
From Ace of Spades http://ace.mu.nu/
When you announce that We Must Do Something About Guns without having the slightest sdea what guns were used or how they were acquired, You Give the Game Away — You’re not interested in reducing gun crime, but in reducing gun ownership
No, the left are interested in control and you can’t control we the people unless you disarm us. I still say good luck trying to take our guns.
Again, the call goes out to disarm those that had nothing to do with this atrocity.
here’s my “statement” …. i don’t believe a bloody word of it……
this whole she-bang is as bogus as a $3 bill!
In response to the massacre, I bought some toys.
I got batteries so they’ll keep on going and going and going…
Perhaps suppressors will not be the sacrificial scapegoat of this incident, but I would bet bump-fire stocks will. I back the 2ns Am 100%, but it’s hard to argue for the utility of bump-fire stocks. What possible purpose beyond recreational shooting could they fill? And it’s clear this sociopath was using them to spray more bullets in a shorter time than would be the case with regular semi-auto fire.
I think, though, defenders of the 2nd have to look into Paddock’s motives. A video has surfaced of a man who bears a strong resemblance to him in a pro-Crooked p*ssy protest last August, complete with idiot pink p*ssy hat and all; his Hispanic or Asian girlfriend is standing nearby wearing sunglasses. It’s beginning to look as though the months of hate-filled riots and agit-prop sponsored by the Left (in the US aka the Democrat Party) are bearing their predictably rotten fruit. First Steve Scalise, now this. (It’s not fortuitous that he chose a country music concert to attack. Most of the folks there were very probably conservative in their beliefs.)
“What possible purpose beyond recreational shooting could they fill?” Why, to help fulfill the entire premise behind the Second Amendment.
A bump stock would be real handy for a voter in Catalonia being brutalized by police for the crime of casting a vote.
No, it wouldn’t. In fact, it would have only one clear result, viz. the quick and violent death of anyone silly enough to use this toy on the cops. Spanish police have weapons and they know how to use them, believe me. It’s this kind of macho nonsense by an insignificant minority of yahoos that gives gun owners a bad name. If you want to be taken seriously, you have at least to talk and post like a serious person.
WHAT? WAIT?
When we begin to discuss capitulation, no matter how slight, every time some maniac goes maniacal, then the haters of life, liberty, and freedom win hands down. There is only one right side and it is worth defending at all times.
I didn’t advocate capitulation. I said it’s HARD TO ARGUE for their utility. Meadowser (above) implies they might be useful somehow for defense against tyranny, but just try to make that argument in the public square. Other than for that (rather weak) point and for recreational shooting, though, how can they possibly be used? So, all I was saying is this: given no utility argument that will pass public muster in the US, bump-fire stocks are almost certain to be declared illegal by ATF. I don’t give them 6 weeks more, frankly.
“but just try to make that argument in the public square” ? F the public then, the Threepers’ll tell you how many were in solid with the last bunch. If they could live that long, some F’ers would still be sitting on the fence.
Paragraph 2 of the Declaration of Independence doesn’t demand a plurality, or even a good reason, for setting up new guards for your liberty.
Anyone needing an armed escort to the public square, let me know
Brave talk, but futile. We live in a republic where public sentiment and opinion DOES count, big time. Amendments to the Constitution CAN be repealed. If you don’t believe that’s so, you simply haven’t studied any history. Gun owners are generally the most responsible citizens one could meet. Don’t let them paint us as hotheads or firebrands as your post would suggest.
All it takes is basic firearm knowledge and a file and you have a fully automatic firearm.
You’ve obviously never attempted to do this. Several armorers tell me it’s not at all as easy as you pretend here.
If true, do NOT trust any of these armorers with gunsmith work; it is grossly obvious they have no idea what they are talking about. Any SA auto can be converted easily. Think about it; the shell is ejected, the new round is in the chamber, and the hammer is cocked. It requires a mechanism to STOP it from firing again. Removing that mechanism causes fully automatic fire.
But – besides being illegal – there is no logical USE for this, other than rapidly depleting your ammo supply!
In reply to Richard: At best your comment is uninformed urban legend, and belies a misunderstanding of the mechanics of firearm function. You are wrong and I will refrain from any sort of personal attack. I do however, encourage you to learn more about the functions of various firearms so as not to appear so ignorant in a public forum.
Richard is correct. With a little basic knowledge, some round stock, and some pipe(plus a lot of filing time… a drill would reduce that considerably) an open bolt full auto, like a sten or a “grease gun”, can be built in a garage. Building the magazine is a lot tougher than building the gun.
You are confusing “full auto” with “select fire”. Closed bolt select fire IS difficult, for reasons too technical to go into here.
Richard is correct; anyone with a smidgen of skill can convert a firearm to full auto. It is illegal, so it is not normally done. I have caused a 1911 pistol to run full auto by merely assembling it wrong!!
The cowardly murderer not only committed murder but in doing so he abused his second amendment rights . As a result the libs want to take away our second amendment rights. So when the media reports false information and outright lies, why don’t they loose their first amendment rights. Pull their broadcasting license’s.
Exactly, it boils down to nothing more than propaganda, just like the Germans did. The left are so mindless and brainwashed they believe everything the news media tells them, they are completely void of anything factual.
The cowardly murderer that did the shooting in Vegas , in addition to murder and a long list of other crimes, also abused and betrayed his second amendment rights. Now because of this, they will want to curb our second amendment rights. Since the media abuses and betrays their first amendment rights by reporting fake news, propaganda and outright slanderous lies then lets pull their broadcasting licensing.