By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
In the aftermath of the tragic shooting in Kansas City, Missouri following the Super Bowl victory celebration, anti-gunners are pushing for more gun control, with reporters at KCUR complaining that Missouri Gov. Mike Parson was “blamed the shooting on seemingly everything but guns.”
Gov. Parsons gave a local talk show host an answer the NPR station didn’t like.
“We can’t let some thugs and criminals take over and ruin what happened,” Parson reportedly said. “It’s just sad. I was there yesterday. I feel for these parents, these kids, everything that went on, it was such a wonderful day and then all of a sudden you end with that.”
The main complaint appears to be that Missouri’s state preemption law won’t allow Democrat-run city governments to adopt their own gun control measures.
But in reaction, author Charles C.W. Cooke, writing for the National Review, observed how tiresome it gets to repeatedly explain that this criminal act, and others like it, will not be prevented by heaping more gun control laws on the backs of law-abiding citizens.
“The suspects were not legally allowed to buy, possess, or carry firearms,” Cooke noted.
A few lines later, Cooke wrote, “That the characterization of this incident as being reflective of ‘weak gun laws is ridiculous. Per NPR, “city officials” in Kansas City ‘have their hands tied by the state of Missouri when it comes to passing meaningful gun safety laws.’ But, even if that were true, what could it possibly have to do with this crime? Every single thing that happened here was already illegal. It is illegal for juveniles to possess handguns. It is illegal for them to carry those handguns. It is illegal for them to shoot at each other in a public place. What law relates to this, exactly? That isn’t rhetoric; I’d like an answer. Absent banning and confiscating all firearms, it’s difficult to see how this is preventable with legislation. There are more than half a billion privately owned firearms in the United States.”
The NPR report repeatedly referred to gun control as “gun safety.” Second Amendment activists sometimes refer to this as “camo speak,” using words to camouflage true intentions. Missing is any acknowledgement that the crime occurred in violation of existing gun control laws.
Cooke had this observation: “Once again, the media is exhibiting a chronic lack of imagination in its coverage of gun-related crime, which is invariably marked out by a fanatical obsession with gun-control and a total lack of interest in anything else.”
Missouri is one of some 40-plus states with preemption statutes. These laws place sole authority for gun regulation in the hands of the state legislature. That’s where gun rights activists say such authority belongs, so gun laws across any state are uniform.
Expect Missouri gun control advocates to use this tragedy—one woman died and several other people were injured—to press their gun control agenda.
