One of the themes I remember the late, great Rush Limbaugh returning to again and again was how the mainstream media tried to give SUVs a bad name by portraying them as gas-guzzling killers. Reporters would write of how an SUV killed people, as though the vehicle operated on its own. Media outlets rarely led with the drivers who were at fault.
The left uses similar tactics in its anti-gun crusade. More often than not, the media makes the gun the culprit — unless it can find a way to blame a shooting on Donald Trump or Republicans in general. The prevailing narrative after any shooting is that guns are inherently bad; therefore, we must get rid of them.
After the horrific shooting in Jacksonville, Fla., in which an abject racist — not the recipient of a leftist epithet but an actual hate-filled racist — killed three black people on Sunday at a Dollar General store before killing himself, both President Joe Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland focused on the hate-crime angle.
“As news of the racially-motivated attack on customers at a Dollar General in Jacksonville broke over the weekend, gun control activists were quick to point the finger at Florida’s permitless carry laws and the ‘easy availability’ of firearms in the state,” reports Cam Edwards at Bearing Arms. So the gun control crowd has already begun to crow.
The local sheriff, who serves as both Duval County Sheriff and Jacksonville Police Chief under the joint city-county government, spoke out, destroying the “guns are bad” narrative. Sheriff T.K. Waters spoke at a press conference on Sunday afternoon when a reporter asked a typical mainstream media question.
“Knowing that he possessed these guns legally, what could have been done? What should have been done?” the reporter asked. Waters replied that the problem in situations like this isn’t the gun; it’s the person doing the shooting.
SHERIFF T.K. WATERS: "The story is always about guns — people are bad — this guy's a bad guy. If I could take my gun off right now, and I lay it on this counter, nothing will happen. It'll sit there — but as soon as wicked person grabs ahold of that handgun and starts shooting… pic.twitter.com/NNSziC4Vs5
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) August 27, 2023
Twitchy points out that “To be clear, this was not an overtly political statement by the sheriff (elected as a Republican). He was simply making an obvious statement about the nature of criminals who commit such despicable acts of violence.”
Recommended: KDJ’s ‘Gun Myth’ Fact Check: Liberals vs. Americans, Part 2: Mass Shootings
Edwards goes on to explain that the shooter may have had no business legally owning a gun.
“According to authorities the killer was able to lawfully purchase two firearms earlier this year despite previously being ‘involved’ in a domestic violence incident and had been subject to a mental health hold in 2017,” he reports. “Neither incident led to formal criminal charges or an adjudication of mental illness, which would have blocked him from legally acquiring a firearm, though we still don’t know the details of those previous encounters with law enforcement.”
Naturally, as Twitchly also reports, leftists pounced on Waters on Twitter, with many of them making the false equivalence between guns and illegal drugs. On the flip side, the sheriff also received plenty of social media support for his common-sense remarks.
Since Waters spoke some undeniable truth about who bears the responsibility for shootings, we can be sure that the mainstream media will bury his remarks. At the same time, you’d better believe we’ll see plenty of breathless coverage of jerks booing Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) when he showed up at a vigil for the victims. After all, leftists gonna leftist.
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