Media Still Pushing Reform Despite Gun Control's Failures

The last week has seen a lot of violence. Most of that was finishing up last week, to be fair, when we saw three high-profile shootings in just three days. Such a time is typically when you see the heat turn up to push gun control. After all, isn’t that supposed to be the only possible answer for such shootings? There can’t be another potential answer, just restricting the rights of people who didn’t do a damn thing wrong.

Advertisement

Well, make no mistake. The media sure is trying to do just that.

The issue of gun reform is back in the headlines after several days of gun violence which saw people killed across the country.

But while the issue is back in the news, it’s not getting much traction in the Senate or the White House.

Since Thursday, nine people have died in mass shootings. Two at a high school in Santa Clarita, Ca.; three outside a Duncan, Ok., Walmart; and four at a house party in Fresno, Ca., the home district of California Congressman Jim Costa.

“Children were present at this meaningless act while they were watching a football game,” Costa said of the Fresno crime.

The debate over gun reform is on again in Washington.

“There hasn’t been as much movement from the White House or the Senate as we’d like to see,” said Kyleanne Hunter of Brady, a gun control advocacy group.

Maybe that’s because three of those four shootings–they fail to mention the San Diego triple-murder-suicide that also happened–took place in California, a state so consumed with anti-gun sentiment that the only thing holding them back is fear of the Supreme Court overturning everything? Just a hunch here.

Advertisement

You see, that’s the big problem here. We have four high-profile shootings and we also have people screaming about how this is grounds for more gun control, that we need it. However, as noted previously, California is a rather anti-gun state. They have gun control laws that even the Democrats in Congress would be scared to introduce.

Despite that, though, these shootings happened.

While Duncan, Oklahoma was troubling at the time and is still a tragedy, it wasn’t some mass shooting. It appears to be more personal in nature, the kind of murder that typically goes unremarked upon in places like Chicago–another anti-gun locale.

The media here is trying to push for more gun control, using these tragedies to advance that narrative, but it’s not working. Not this time, anyway.

You see, they could make that push after El Paso and Odessa because Texas is a pro-gun state. They could do it after Dayton because Ohio is moving to be a very pro-gun state. After Parkland, the same thing because Florida is a pro-gun state. In each case, they could make the argument that their pro-gun nature played a role in what happened. While vehemently pro-gun people knew better, the rank and file voter figured that sounded plausible.

Advertisement

This time, though, we’ve got a very anti-gun state that seems plagued by these shootings over the last week or so. If gun control laws prevent these kinds of things, then just how is this happening in California of all places?

Even the regular Joe on the streets who doesn’t really care about guns can look at this and raise a questioning eyebrow.

So no, Republicans and the White House aren’t going to trip all over themselves to talk gun reform. Especially when no one can tell us a single law being discussed at the federal level that California doesn’t already have on the books that would potentially have prevented any of these incidents from happening.

Join the conversation as a VIP Member