Gun control activists will use any high-profile crime committed with a firearm to demand more restrictions on lawful gun owners, and as my colleague Tom Knighton covered on Friday, that’s exactly what’s happening in Missouri after a convicted felon from Kansas allegedly pulled a gun and shot at least three people, two of them fatally.
Tom, though, didn’t delve into the specifics of what Democrats are actually demanding, and I think it’s important to do so, because once again the gun laws they’re calling for in response to a crime would not have prevented the crime from taking place.
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas and Jackson County Prosecutor Melesa Johnson have both blamed Missouri’s self-defense laws for the shooting, with Lucas claiming the state’s Stand Your Ground law is leading to people getting away with murder in Kansas City.
“The first and most important thing we can do is reevaluate our laws that are akin to ‘stand your ground,’” Lucas told the Kansas City Star. “Reevaluate the excessive self-defense laws we have in this state, which, I think, frankly, encourage people to bring firearms to crowded places.”
Johnson echoed that argument in an interview, in which she also pointed to an opinion piece she recently wrote in The Star addressing Missouri’s self-defense law. She used the Chiefs rally shooting as an example.
“It is very, very difficult to charge anybody in some of these shootings if it is not clear who the initial aggressor is,” said Johnson, who is a gun owner. “That can be extremely difficult when you literally have a group of people that are kind of raising tensions and an inner argument with each other and then everybody pulls out their gun essentially at the same time and starts firing.”
When asked specifically which gun laws could prevent something like the weekend shooting in Kansas City in the future, Johnson suggested lawmakers adopt a slew of changes including licensing, background checks and red flag laws. State law could also curtail certain types of guns, like the high-capacity, handheld firearm used in the nightclub shooting, Johnson said. But that shooting also illustrated that even gun laws on the books aren’t being enforced properly, she said. “This particular person shouldn’t have had a gun in the first place because he was a felon out of Kansas,” Johnson said. “We need to enforce what we already have so that we can continue to build on it.”
If Johnson knows of a way to proactively prevent prohibited people from illegally acquiring a gun, she should share that information with the rest of us. I, for one, would love to know how to do that.
But none of the laws that Johnson demanded would have prevented this shooting from taking place. According to authorities, Dontae M. Brooks was on federal supervised probation after a conviction for possession of a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking when he allegedly opened fire in the crowded nightclub. He wasn’t allowed to touch a gun or ammunition, and however he allegedly acquired a gun, it wasn’t though any legal channels.
Missouri’s self-defense laws don’t come into play here either. Police say surveillance video shows a man whispering in Brooks’s ear moments before Brooks pulled out a handgun and started shooting at a third man who was on the dance floor. There’s no indication that individual actively posed a threat to Brooks at the time, or that he was even armed.
Even states with restrictive gun like California have seen similar shootings, despite having every law in place that Johnson wants to see in Missouri. More gun control isn’t the answer, and neither is depriving people of their right to self-defense. Missouri lawmakers should reject these calls for more restrictions on our right to keep and bear arms.. and should work to eradicate restrictions that are already in place like the state’s ban on concealed carry on public transit. A bill repealing that prohibition will be heard in committee on Monday, February 23, and Missouri gun owners need to light up the capitol switchboard in support of that legislation.
Editor’s Note: The mainstream media continues to lie about gun owners and the Second Amendment.
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