One of the reasons I have guns is because they’re human. I know that no matter how much local law enforcement wants to protect me–they’re not required to do so, by the way, but more on that later–they simply cannot be everywhere.

Like they say, when seconds count, police are just minutes away.

Yet in Philadelphia, the mayor thinks that if you “Back the Blue,” then you must support restrictions on guns as a matter of course.

Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney (D) addressed the shooting death of Temple University police officer Christopher Fitzgerald and made clear his view that one cannot claim to back the blue if they do not back gun control.

Breitbart News reported that Fitzgerald was shot and killed while investigating a carjacking Saturday night. The alleged cop killer, 18-year-old Miles Pfeffer, was arrested Sunday morning without incident.

The Philadelphia Inquirer quoted Kenney reacting to the slaying, saying, “There’s too many [guns] and they’re too easy to get.”

Kenney added, “You can say you back the blue, but if you don’t back gun control and gun availability, you don’t back the blue. We owe it to them to do everything we can to stop this nonsense and stop this tragedy.”

Well, that’s fine to say and all, but let’s evaluate some of the facts here.

Fitzgerald tried to arrest Pfeffer for carjacking. According to the above-linked report on the shooting from Breitbart, Fitzgerald searched the suspect and “tried to take his gun” that was found in the pocket.

That means we’re talking about a handgun.

I’m not sure Kenney is aware of this, but handguns are already restricted to those 21 years of age or older. Pfeffer, at just 18, wouldn’t be able to lawfully purchase one himself.

That means that Pfeffer likely obtained the gun illegally, through either theft or via the black market. As such, Fitzgerald’s death is the result of a failure of gun control, as is the case in so many other homicides.

So no, backing the blue doesn’t require one to support still more gun control laws in the first place. People are more than capable of supporting law enforcement and refusing to give up their gun rights and there be no inconsistency at all.

Especially in light of the court cases that make it clear law enforcement has no duty to protect you.

See, that’s something Kenney is ignoring here. He’s glossing over the fact that the people buying guns lawfully under current regulations aren’t shooting cops. They’re trying to protect themselves from people like Pfeffer, people who will kill any who gets in their way, including police officers.

Standing with law enforcement doesn’t require anyone to give up their guns, and this instant is an absolutely terrible one to try and make that case with.

But for Kenney, it’s not about Fitzgerald’s death. It’s about pawning off his own culpability in what happened. Philadelphia is a violent city, all things considered, and Kenney’s leadership has done nothing to address it. Blaming guns is just an easy scapegoat for him.

So rather than take a step back and try to address the underlying issues that lead to violence in the first place, he pretends that somehow Fitzgerald would be better off if he’d been stabbed to death rather than shot, because it’s clear that Pfeffer (allegedly) was more than willing to take a life that day.

Kenney wants you to be disarmed, but those who would do this aren’t going to be inhibited. They’re not now and they won’t be in the future.

It’s time some people got that through their skulls.