Rush Limbaugh, the late great, was always returning to the same theme. The mainstream media was trying to paint SUVs as gas-guzzling killers. Reporters would describe how SUVs killed people as if the vehicle was operating on its own. The media rarely focuses on the drivers at fault.
Leftists use similar tactics to fight gun ownership. The media is more likely to blame the gun for a shooting unless they can find a way of blaming Donald Trump or the Republicans as a whole. After any shooting, the dominant narrative is that guns are bad and we should get rid of them.
Both President Joe Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland focused on the hate crime angle after the shooting that took place in Jacksonville, Fla. on Sunday, where an abject, hate-filled, racist killed three blacks at a Dollar General before committing suicide.
Cam Edwards of Bearing Arms reports that “gun control activists were quick in pointing the finger to Florida’s permitless carrying laws and ‘easy accessibility’ of firearms within the state as news broke of the racially motivated attack on Dollar General customers in Jacksonville over the weekend.” The gun control crowd is already raving.
The local sheriff who is also the Duval County Sheriff as well as the Jacksonville Police Chief in the joint city and county government spoke out to dispel the narrative that “guns are bad”. Sheriff T.K. Waters was speaking at a Sunday afternoon press conference when a reporter posed a standard mainstream media question.
What could you have done, knowing that he had these guns in his possession legally? The reporter asked, “What should have happened?” Waters responded that in such situations, the problem is not the gun but the person who is 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 emphasizes that “To make it clear, this wasn’t an overtly partisan statement by the Sheriff (elected as Republican).” He was making a clear statement about the criminals who committed such despicable crimes of violence.
Edwards continues to explain that it is possible the shooter had no right to own a firearm.
He reports that “according to authorities, the killer was able legally to purchase two firearms this year despite being previously ‘involved” in a domestic abuse incident and having been subjected to a mental health hold in 2017,” he reports. “Neither incident resulted in formal criminal charges, or an adjudication for mental illness that would have prevented him from legally purchasing a gun, although we still do not know the details.”
As Twitchly reports, many leftists attacked Waters on Twitter. They falsely equated guns with illegal drugs. The sheriff, on the other hand, received a lot of support from social media for his commonsense remarks.
We can be certain that mainstream media will ignore Waters’ remarks because he spoke the truth about who is responsible for shootings. You can be sure that we will see lots of coverage about jerks who boo Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., who was at the vigil to honor the victims when he arrived. Leftists will always be leftists.
