By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
Anti-gunners, including a couple of basketball coaches, have called for new gun control efforts in the wake of Saturday’s mass shooting at Brown University in Rhode Island, apparently ignoring the fact that the smallest state in the nation already has some of the toughest gun laws, as noted by the Providence Journal.
Two people killed in the attack have been identified, according to The Guardian. They were Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov and Ella Cook. Nine other people were injured in the attack, and authorities have released the “person of interest” they had in custody.
Fox News reported that “USC Trojans women’s basketball head coach Lindsay Gottlieb blamed guns for the shooting.”
Sporty.com is reporting that Golden State Warriors Coach Steve Kerr is calling for “common sense” gun laws, while acknowledging, “The vast majority of gun owners in this country are responsible, law-abiding citizens. They have every right to own a gun.”
The Providence Journal offered a list of all the gun laws now on the books in Rhode Island.
The Guardian is reporting that anti-gun Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) was drawing parallels between the Brown shooting and the attack on Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., in 2012. The newspaper, citing data from the Gun Violence Archive, is claiming there have been “at least 389” mass shootings in the U.S. this year.
However, the Christian Science Monitor last week reported there have been only 17 mass killings this year, based on data maintained by Northeastern University, in partnership with USA Today and the Associated Press. Of those 17 incidents, 14 involved firearms, CSM reported.
After noting that Brown University is a “gun-free zone” and that Rhode Island gun control laws are very strict, Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms observed,
“Those who advocate for more restrictions on personal freedom in response to criminal violence are admitting they don’t have any real solutions. They refuse to acknowledge their policies have accomplished nothing, while creating scapegoats to hide their own failures…It is no surprise that so many more people are buying and carrying firearms for their own protection, and that of their loved ones.”
