The Parkland shooting was, without a doubt, a horrific event for anyone involved. It was especially horrific for those who lost loved ones in the massacre. I can’t imagine losing a child at all, much less to something like this, and I’ve come close enough to have a better idea than most.
Without a doubt, after something like this, many will become vehemently anti-gun. They probably shouldn’t, especially after a shooting with so many law enforcement failures, but they do.
But not all of them do, which is why I get really bothered when the media pretends that one parent who lost a child at Parkland speaks for the parents universally.
That’s exactly what happened with a report by CBS News, titled, “Parkland parents condemn Florida bill lowering gun purchase age.”
The father of a Parkland school shooting victim is speaking out after the Florida House passed a bill to lower the minimum age for purchasing a firearm from 21 to 18.
Manny Oliver, whose son Joaquin was one of 17 people killed in the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, unveiled a mural in Washington, D.C., urging lawmakers to strengthen, not weaken, gun laws.
“It’s a mile away from the White House and a couple of blocks away from the state capitol and it’s a permanent graphic that will remind our politicians, legislators and people in general that we need to change,” Oliver said.
Parkland parents push for stricter gun laws
Oliver named the mural We Demand Change, calling for a ban on assault weapons and other gun restrictions he believes could have saved his son’s life.
“A ban on assault weapons would be nice. If we had that, Joaquin would be alive. Raising the age would be nice. If we had that, Joaquin would be alive,” he said.
First, Manuel Oliver–a man so overcome with grief that he’s unable to process that he was kicked out of a White House event under the Biden administration, where the president was actually pushing gun control–does not speak for all parents of those lost at Parkland. Hell, I halfway expect that even many of the anti-gun parents from Parkland want nothing to do with him and his antics.
But second of all, who is to say that a ban on “assault weapons” would have saved Joaquin’s life? The worst school shooting in American history was Virginia Tech, where the killer had a couple of handguns. An AR-15 isn’t necessary to kill a bunch of people, especially when everyone else there is forcibly disarmed by law.
Would an age restriction have stopped the killer? In an era when guns can be made at home so easily, I’m skeptical–and even a ban on so-called ghost guns wouldn’t have stopped him, either.
Now, I’m used to Oliver saying stuff that makes no sense if you just look at the facts, but CBS News should know better than to use the word “parents” while only including one single name. Sure, one might argue that Oliver’s wife would be part of this effort, too, but that’s still far from a universal effort from those who lost loved ones that day.
The thing is that they know good and well many don’t really look much beyond the headline and the first few paragraphs. They’ll think Oliver is just the first parent named, they’ll see what is happening, and just assume that this is a broad coalition of families impacted that day.
And, to be fair, it may be. If so, Oliver is probably the dumbest spokesperson they could have chosen considering his antics in the past, but people make stupid decisions all the time.
However, I’m more than a little bothered at how they didn’t seem interested in talking with any of the pro-gun parents like Andrew Pollack or our own Ryan Petty. Funny, that.
Then again, Heaven forbid people realize that not everyone impacted by a mass shooting is anti-gun.
Read the full article here
