Another tragic scene unfolded in California on Sunday night at the Gilroy Garlic festival as 3 were killed and 15 injured by a gunman leading to calls of gun control by Democrats. Police were still hunting for the gunman, who was later shot and killed by police, when Kamala Harris took to Twitter.
Joe Biden, Cory Booker and Beto O’Rourke all made statements on Sunday night after the shooting. Joe Biden’s statement referred to broken gun laws. Cory Booker called out a gun violence “epidemic.” Beto O’Rourke said he was sending love to all those affected by 40,000 gun deaths each year in America.
At the time of this writing, we still do not know the cause of the shooting, the reasoning for the shooting or any contributing factors. We’re nearly 12 hours after the shooting began, yet Democrats have already made a gun violence political play instead of showing compassion to their fellow Americans who had to deal with a tragic situation.
We should not be surprised at this, these types of responses have been consistent from Democrats for years. President Barack Obama led the charge in years past and now Democrats have no shame in hiding their desire is to control guns and gun ownership.
Gun deaths are not even in the top 10 causes of deaths in the US each year. According to the CDC, you are more likely to die from heart disease, cancer, respiratory disease, stroke or diabetes. You are more likely to die from the flu than you are to die from Gun violence. The only presidential candidate that comes close to addressing any of these leading causes of death is Bernie Sanders, who is busy campaigning in Canada at pharmacies than in the US addressing issues.
I’ve written about gun violence in the past on the blog and the left blaming gun violence on the NRA and gun owners in America. I am an avid firearms advocate and I love to carry and shoot my own guns. I am a lifetime member of the NRA as well. Am I to blame for this shooting in California? Absolutely not! I did not purposefully choose to pick up my gun and fire it at someone in an effort to take their life. I have never witnessed one of my guns attempt to take someone’s life.
The issue with gun violence in America is not the presence of firearms, it is the failure of the US to address the issues that lead to the use of firearms. O’Rourke referenced 40,000 firearm incidents in the United States. According the the data, firearm related deaths were actually down in 2018 compared to 2017. Of those incidents, the overwhelming majority of deaths were related to suicide as opposed to shootings such as this one.
Whenever we decide to address the issues of mental health and the normalization of a violent culture, we can start to truly move the needle on gun violence in America. The problem is not the guns, the problem is the people holding the guns.
You can contact JD through the Liberty Loft website or by Twitter.
