Politicians use Atlanta shooting to push gun control

AP Photo/John Bazemore

As you may have heard, there was a shooting in midtown Atlanta on Wednesday. One person was killed and a number of others were injured.

While this will undoubtedly show up on some listings of mass shootings, it won’t on others. That won’t stop some from pushing gun control.

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First, we have Sen. Raphael Warnock:

U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock urged his colleagues on the Senate floor Wednesday afternoon to take further legislative action to crack down on gun control in the wake of Atlanta’s Midtown shooting.

“I rise today in shock and sorrow and in grief for my home state and, if I am honest, I rise really with a deep sense of anger about what is happening in our country in the area of gun violence and death,” he said.

Warnock warned that gun violence touches many lives, even if people aren’t directly impacted.
“This is knocking on all of our doors, and I feel it this afternoon in a very real sense. I feel it in my bones because my own two children were on lockdown this afternoon,” he said.

He said that although Congress recently passed significant gun safety, it does not go far enough.

“Shame on us if we allow this to happen and we do absolutely nothing,” Warnock said.

Of course, Warnock calls for more gun control, yet neglects to mention his own private security. He figures his safety matters, but if you’re not able to outsource that security, well, sucks to be you.

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Yet Warnock was far from alone in his calls.

Atlanta City Councilman Amir Farokhi released a statement calling for increased gun control measures while police still search for the suspect of a shooting in his Midtown district.

“I hope APD apprehends the shooter quickly,” Farokhi told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “My heart hurts for those injured and the family of the deceased. Gun violence has become a daily occurrence in our country.

“We cannot let it become normalized,” he added. “The time is past due for common sense gun reform. We all deserve to feel safe everywhere.”

Of course, they were saying this before we knew anything at all about the accused, how he got his gun, whether he could lawfully own a firearm or much of anything.

Funny how that happens, isn’t it?

Now, let’s understand that the killer had some run-ins with the law, but nothing that rose to the level of felony. As a result, under pretty much every gun control proposal out there, he’d have still likely been able to have that gun.

“But constitutional carry!”

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This was a guy who was inclined to kill people. Do you really think he needed a law to justify carrying a gun? We have laws against driving while intoxicated, but the guy accused of this had a DUI charge. Why would you think he wouldn’t have a gun on his person?

It should be noted that these two aren’t the only ones who called for more gun control. While most of Georgia is pretty pro-gun, Atlanta isn’t. It’s the big blue sphincter in an otherwise pretty good state.

Yet what no one is doing is talking brass tacks.

Instead, we get vague calls for gun control from lawmakers who really don’t care how our rights get restricted, just so long as they do.

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