The recent mass-murder tragedies in El Paso and Dayton will exercise the gun control advocates and the gun control tyrants like Democratic Presidential candidate “Beto” O’Rourke. Almost all of the Democratic candidates shamelessly and corruptly blamed President Trump for the tragedies.
I ask my Democratic friends – did Republicans blame Bernie Sanders for the shooting by a Sanders supporter of Republican Congressman at a baseball park two years ago? Did Republicans blame Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, who called the Homeland Security detention centers “concentration camps”, when a democratic supporter tried to bomb a Seattle detention center? I do not recall a ranking Republican placing blame anyone in these two instances except the shooter and the attempted bomber.
The crux of the problem in these mass shootings is mental illness. I fervently favor the “Red Flag” laws that seize weapons and prevent the purchasing of weapons by someone who has demonstrated a mental illness and a propensity for violence. Almost all of the recent shooters with the exception of the Las Vegas shooter had exhibited mental problems. I also favor universal background checks, including weapons purchased at gun shows.
I do not own an “assault” rifle (AR-15 or similar weapons). I hope I never have to need one. No self-respecting hunter would hunt with such a rifle because they are designed to cause maximum tissue damage. The small, high velocity bullet generates a tremendous “shock wave” that explodes in the wound and causes massive bleeding. No hunter wants a large portion of the meat of his target animal destroyed.
Therefore, gun control advocates ask why not ban these weapons? They do not seem to understand why law-abiding citizens own these weapons. To educate the advocates and the prospective, political tyrants out there – people own these weapons for self and family protection and most importantly, to protect them from a tyrannical government. The government is supposed to fear the governed. Only the criminals are supposed to fear the government.
