The common refrain from the Obama Administration is that if we had simply implemented “common sense” gun laws then some of these “gun violence tragedies” would not have occurred. That’s the same logic they are using to present their latest demand for increased restrictions on the civil liberties of law abiding Americans, pointing to the on-air shooting of two reporters as proof positive that we need to “do something” to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill. There’s just one small problem: the proposed laws would have done exactly nothing to stop that shooting. And on Friday, the Obama Administration admitted it.
From the Washington Times:
The White House conceded Friday that new gun regulations probably wouldn’t have prevented the gunman who murdered two television journalists in southwestern Virginia this week.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest said it appears that a proposal championed by President Obama to require background checks on purchases at gun shows “would not have applied in this particular case.”
Law enforcement officials said gunman Vester Flanagan used a Glock handgun in Wednesday’s shooting, one of two that he bought last month. He legally bought two Glock model 19 handguns from a Virginia dealer.
Mr. Earnest said the White House has never suggested that one piece of gun legislation would prevent all gun violence in the U.S. But Mr. Earnest said the proposal on background checks, which failed in the Senate in 2013, would prevent other shooting deaths around the country every day.
“There are similarly shocking acts of violence that don’t get as much attention that could be prevented … if Congress weren’t scared of the NRA,” he said.
The shooter in this case legally purchased a handgun through a federally licensed firearms dealer. He passed the usual NICS background check, which means the “evil gun show loophole” was not used in this case. None of the usual rallying cries from the gun control activist crowd would have stopped this situation. In fact, the only thing that would have stopped this is if the people involved focused on the person in question and insisted on getting them some mental health help. But no, they didn’t do that, and now they’re trying to find a way to blame the inanimate object instead of their own inaction for this tragedy.
There’s no way that “common sense” gun laws would have stopped this shooting, much like “common sense” gun laws wouldn’t do much to stop any of the other shootings that the White House regularly and publicly bemoans. They have even admitted it now, on the record. But that won’t stop them from trying anyway. Because guns are evil, don’t you see? Blame the guns! Not the people.