Whenever a mass shooting occurs, it’s standard playbook procedure for Democrats and those who lean far left to blame the gun, not the shooter. A seasoned weapons possession lawyer will be the first to attest that guns are meant to protect innocent people from mass shooters, not make the situation more dangerous.
Yet, in blue locales like New York State, for instance, constitutional-bending laws and politically expedient executive actions have created “Gun Free Zones” in “soft targets” like New York’s Times Square, for instance, making these places far more attractive to mass shooters and the carnage they wish to inflict on innocent lives.
Despite the left’s almost obsessive effort to quell the Second Amendment, which gives every American the right to carry a firearm for self-protection and the protection of his or her family, gun sales in the U.S. have skyrocketed. Add to this the left’s “Defund the Police” movement, and innocent citizens feel they have no choice but to take the law into their own hands.
According to a new article, high-profile mass shootings such as the one that occurred in Highland Park, Illinois, on July 4, 2022, where a mentally deranged shooter opened fire on parade goers from a rooftop, fatally wounding at least five innocent people, is one of the top reasons legal gun owners say they feel the need to own at least one firearm.
Simply said, they are anxious over their personal safety in these times of spiking crime, no-bail “reform,” and social justice-motivated laws that favor criminals over innocent citizens.
Says a professor of law and legal studies at Stanford University, the right to self-protection is the most common reason people seek out legal means to own a pistol. Legal applications and FBI background checks rise immediately after mass shootings and answer to left-leaning politicians who campaign for cash donations on the idealistic premise of doing away with guns altogether (something that makes a population vulnerable to a tyrannical government).
Spikes in Background Checks
Say the experts, around 1 million FBI background checks for handgun purchases, long-guns like AR15s, shotguns, and more, have been occurring every month since 2009. The figures have skyrocketed after major news events of mass shootings and the political threat of gun confiscation.
The three highest months on recent record are March 2020, after the COVID-19 pandemic was officially declared; December 2012, following the horrible Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting; and December 2015, immediately following a Sand Bernadino, CA, mass shooting.
Gun sales increased to an incredible 2 million in and around June of 2020, and the summer of bloodshed as Black Lives Matter riots erupted in cities throughout the country. The violence was only made worse by a “Defund the Police” movement initiated by a tweet from former Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton’s press secretary (Her campaign is said to have donated $75,000+ to the “Defund” movement, or so her tax documents prove).
The mainstream media also exacerbated it like CNN’s now fired correspondent, Chris Cuomo, who proclaimed, “Where does it say protests have to be peaceful?” While cities burned, store owners were killed, and the criminals were allowed back onto the streets immediately after arrest, average citizens rightly feared for their lives.
The solution? Purchase a firearm for your own protection.
Restrictions Come at the Wrong Time
Immediately after the recent, and these days rare, elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, a package of reforms swiftly moved through Congress. However, data recorded in the aftermath of other mass shootings suggests that rather than convince gun owners this is the perfect time to enact more regulations, restrictions, and executive orders, the new anti-gun legislation actually makes average citizens “dig their heels in even more.”
While for the left, it’s a matter of politics, power, and votes, for gun owners, it’s a matter of both safety, and a government bent on taking away a constitutional right and uniquely American freedom. According to experts, gun proposals engineered to lower the levels of fear actually have the opposite effect on those citizens who view their guns as a necessary tool for their personal safety and the safety of their loved ones.
These policies almost always become “non-starters,” and they continue to be non-starters for millions of Americans who view legally owned firearms as essential tools for self-preservation. It should also be noted that one of the major reasons America has avoided an all-out attack by a major foreign enemy is due to the proliferation of legally owned guns. An invading army would literally be forced into fighting, house to house. A losing proposition, to be certain.
Lynn Martelli is an editor at Readability. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University and has worked as an editor for over 10 years. Lynn has edited a wide variety of books, including fiction, non-fiction, memoirs, and more. In her free time, Lynn enjoys reading, writing, and spending time with her family and friends.
