Strangely, the video above is titled McDonald’s shooter purchased gun legally in Maine. Odd because the report makes no mention of this fact. I reckon the news hounds at WMTW-TV got the information after the report aired and figured it was really important. It isn’t. In fact, I’m sick of the media’s fascination with where a bad guy got his gun – as if a shooting could have been avoided if only the bad guy didn’t get a gun. As our President recently pointed out, there are parts of this country where it’s easier to buy a gun than finding a single Democrat who supports gun rights (or something like that). Don’t get me wrong . . .
I appreciate the need to trace a “crime gun” to see if it was bought by a straw-purchaser – someone who isn’t prohibited from purchasing a gun who lies on their ATF form 4473, and knowingly buys a heater for a prohibited person. People who “lie for the other guy” should be prosecuted for their crime.
That said, the media’s focus on the source of a gun used in a crime plays straight into the hands of the civilian disarmament industrial complex, who want fence straddlers to believe that gun control stops crime. It doesn’t.
In a country of over 300 million firearms, one way or another, bad people will get guns. One need only look at firearms-related crime in countries with total or near-total gun bans (Mexico, Venezuela, Australia, Ireland, etc.) to see the futility of trying to stop bad people from obtaining firearms by limiting citizens’ ability to legally purchase one.
Equally, does the media highlight the source of a knife used in a crime? A baseball bat? They do not. Sure it’s interesting to know where a criminal got his gun, but it’s far less important than the perp’s criminal record, and the justice system’s failure to remove these violent people from society.