PA Bill Number: HB1661
Title: Further providing for schedules of controlled substances; and providing for secure storage of xylazine.
Description: Further providing for schedules of controlled substances; and providing for secure storage of xylazine. ...
Last Action: Act No. 17 of 2024
Last Action Date: May 15, 2024
Roaring silence from gun prohibitionists after another 'gun-free zone' fail :: 07/20/2015
While Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is getting lots of ink for statements made yesterday in the wake of the Chattanooga shooting that killed four Marines at a recruiting office clearly marked as a “gun-free zone,” there seems to be a roaring silence from the gun prohibition movement about the failure of a sign to stop a barrage of bullets.
Perhaps that’s because yesterday’s inability of a "no guns" sign in a glass door to stop a killer is just the latest example of the “zone of happy thoughts” stupidity. No matter where such signs are posted, they represent a monumental failure of the common sense that anti-gunners so often mention when they talk about eroding the right to keep and bear arms.
UPDATE: According to Guns.com, some gun control groups are making statements, typically calling for more gun control laws. The Brady Center issued this statement.
Gun-free zones don’t discriminate. And, in the wake of this incident, and the one in Garland, Texas in May, it is becoming increasingly clear that violent attacks can happen anywhere, they’re not done on a pre-arranged schedule and killers don’t call ahead to tell anyone they’re coming.
For example, the Seattle Times is recalling in a small sidebar this morning that just over four years ago – July 5, 2011 – two men identified as Abu Khalid Abdul-Latif and Walli Mujahihd were planning to attack the Military Entrance Processing Station on East Marginal Way, next door to a day-care center for children. They were convicted of this plot and sent to prison.
Had they carried out this attack, there would have been a lot of collateral casualties. That is, unless someone had been able to fight back. Yesterday’s attack, carried out by Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez, a native of Kuwait and naturalized U.S. citizen, shows once again the result of Pollyanna thinking.
Trump told Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly last night that the fact military personnel are not allowed to carry firearms “is absolutely ridiculous” and “absolutely disgraceful.” This policy apparently began back in the Bush 41 administration with Bill Clinton continuing it, and Trump says it is time to change things.
The flamboyant businessman-turned-politician is half-right, because any such change should apply to everyone. Gun-free zones provide a false sense of security, as the body counts from such places as churches, schools, shopping malls and movie theaters will attest.
During a press briefing yesterday, one FBI spokesman confirmed that federal buildings are gun-free unless someone has permission to carry. That prohibition applies to federal offices anywhere, including national park visitor centers, Forest Service ranger stations, post offices and the parking lots surrounding them, military bases and other facilities.
If the Second Amendment should apply anywhere, it would seem most appropriate on federal property, would it not? After all, the Second Amendment is part of the federal constitution and it was written as a limit on the federal government, wasn’t it? Certainly there are people who would argue this point.
The fact that Abdulazeez wasn’t even a blip on the radar screen until yesterday is a signal that this sort of thing could happen again. Private citizens have just as much a right to defend themselves as soldiers. It is a misnomer to categorically dismiss armed citizens as being less qualified than military personnel with firearms. A lot of civilians served in the military. Many people have attended advanced courses on firearms and self-defense.
Once the authorities reveal where yesterday’s killer got his guns, watch the prohibitionists quickly try to shift the focus away from gun-free zones to gun control. They do not want to acknowledge that their make-believe safe areas are anything but while they continue efforts to dismantle the one fundamental civil right that gives everyone a chance against terrorist loons.
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