We’ve had some time to process the tragedy in Texas. The liberals are squawking their usual nonsense. They have now taken to blaming prayer for mass shootings. It might be funny if it wasn’t so sad. And predictable.
The worst part of their politicization of such a sad tragedy is that they continue to miss the most important points. Existing gun control laws already banned the events in Texas. Not only is murder illegal, but the shooter was already among a small group of Americans who are completely prohibited from owning or possessing a firearm. Those prohibitions proved just as futile as any law in the face of a determined killer.
The Letter of the Law
For years now, federal law has prohibited the sale of firearms to anyone dishonorably discharged from the military. It’s actually pretty tough to get kicked out, so the assumption is that anyone that bad has been given due process and really shouldn’t be trusted with a firearm. It’s right up there with felons. Here’s where things get ugly.
The Texas church shooter served in the Air Force. In 2012, he was convicted of domestic abuse. This conviction alone is enough to get someone banned from buying firearms, but this case was so bad he fractured a child’s skull. The court martial had him spend a year in military prison (another hard punishment to earn), and then he was dishonorably discharged.
By the letter of the law, it was illegal for him to purchase firearms and he knew it, but things went wrong. The Air Force is responsible for registering dishonorable discharges in a federal database. We’re still not fully sure how or why this mistake happened, but the end result is that the shooter wasn’t flagged as he should have been and managed to pass a standard background check.
Buying the Gun
The shop that sold the now infamous weapon is not at fault here. They ran the required checks and got no hits. Without that failure in the system, they would have denied a mass shooter access to a deadly weapon. Instead, they were under the impression that everything was above board.
The murky waters here are that the sale was still technically illegal, even though the background check failed to work properly. This means the shooter used an illegal firearm to commit mass murder. That said, we can reiterate that the shop involved is absolved of any responsibility.
The Gun Control Debate
This brings us full circle to the age-old debates. The liberals want to focus on harsher regulations. They have Congress distracted with cries against suppressors (that literally can’t contribute to crime in any way) and cosmetic enhancements. Literally everything recommended in the most recent assault weapons ban document is only targeting cosmetics that have no impact on lethality. The problem with these outcries isn’t just that they’re stupid and ridiculous. They draw resources away from a very real problem.
In a Texas Church, 27 people were murdered by an illegal weapon. The fail safes that already exist to prevent this situation didn’t work. Perhaps instead of arguing about regulation, we could audit the existing process to weed out such deadly mistakes.
Regardless, this is unequivocal proof of the most important concept: laws don’t prevent crimes. Laws only exist to provide accountability, and in this case that accountability already exists.
There will be hell to pay when the person or people at fault of the Air Force clerical error are fully identified. Additional bans would in no way impact what happened in that poor church.
As usual, the left is devoted to distractions instead of facing the real issue. Mass shooters almost always die in the event, and they know that going in. Until we can address the driving force motivating these terrible acts, there will be no law that will deter a person ready to die in an act of violence.
27 Dead, Not 26
I’m going to leave you with a bit of a sidetracked note. You’ll see most publications report 26 dead, but some are saying 27. Why the discrepancy? One of the victims was a pregnant woman. Her unborn child was also lost in this tragedy. As sad as that is, you can quickly see how many agencies are relentlessly reporting that the widower husband in fact did not lose a child. If you want a fast way to measure any major news outlet, you need look no further than this simple number. Do they believe the murder of unborn children is newsworthy or not?
~ American Liberty Report
