Following the tragedy at Pulse in Orlando, the American left renewed their calls to ban the AR-15 and similar so-called “assault weapons.” Since that awful day, there have been a number of high-profile cases of mass murder. The numbers killed are staggering. However, the weapons chosen by the killers have not matched the left’s prescription for ending the violence.
On July 14, a man named Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel drove a cargo truck into a crowd, killing 84 people and injuring more than 300 others. He killed and injured more people with a truck than any rampaging shooter has in American history. He didn’t need a gun, explosives, or anything else strictly controlled. Just a vehicle routinely used to move things from one place to the next.
In Dallas, six police officers were killed when a gunman opened fire during a protest march. Additionally, he injured nine other people. Initially, many gun control advocates took to social media claiming that this latest event was proof the AR-15 and similar weapons needed to be banned.
Unfortunately for them, Micah Xavier Johnson — the gunman in the attack — didn’t use an AR-15 or any other so-called “assault weapon.” No, he used an SKS. For those unfamiliar with the rifle, the SKS is a weapon developed by the Soviet Union just after World War II. It has an internal 10-round magazine that is fed by stripper clips through the open bolt.
It would be exempt from pretty much any assault weapon ban that has been proposed.
In fact, of the incidents since Orlando, Baton Rouge is the only attack where an AR-15 was present. It also is the one with the lowest body count. The loss of one life is a tragedy, but let’s be honest for a moment. If the AR-15 is the most devastating weapon out there, why is the only attack that involved one the attack with the least loss of life?
There is a saying that the true weapon is the mind.
In both Nice and Dallas, the killers carefully selected places where there would be plenty of targets. In fact, in Dallas, more would likely have been killed if Johnson hadn’t been specifically targeting police rather than the public in general.
In Baton Rouge, the killer ambushed officers responding to a 911 call. That meant fewer potential targets for the murderer.
The number of people killed has more to do with the planning phase of an attack and less to do with the weapons used.
Since U.S. violent crime has been cut in half since the 1990s while the number of guns in the hands of private citizens has doubled, claiming gun control would help anything is disingenuous at best, and an intentional lie at worst.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member