One of the victims of the horrible mass shooting that took place in Las Vegas two days ago (everyone at that event is a victim, whether or not they were hit by a bullet, they all have to live with the memories) is Caleb Keeter, and he is apparently a guitarist for one of the country bands that was playing at the venue. I’ll have to take everyone’s word on that as I am not a country music fan. He took to social media a scant few hours after it to profess his change of heart regarding gun control.
In his own words, “I’ve been a proponent of the 2nd amendment my entire life. Until the events of last night. I cannot express how wrong I was.” He followed that several paragraphs later with “We need gun control RIGHT. NOW. My biggest regret is that I stubbornly didn’t realize it until my brothers on the road and myself were threatened by it.”
The leftist, anti-gun media outlets immediately jumped all over this. The Washington Post ran a story titled “‘I cannot express how wrong I was’: Country guitarist changes mind on gun control after Vegas.” Huffington Post ran a similar story, “Guitarist Caleb Keeter Says Seeing Vegas Shooting Changed His Mind On Gun Control.” Slate ran “Country Musician Caleb Keeter Changed His Mind on Gun Control After Getting Caught in the Las Vegas Shooting” while Business Insider ran “Country musician flips on gun control after surviving Las Vegas shooting: ‘I cannot express how wrong I was.’” The list goes on and on.
I get it, I really do. Fear and emotions are very hard to control. It is not surprising that someone who experienced such a horrible event would immediately question their own convictions. It happens to all of us. It has happened to me personally on more than one occasion, both after being shot at myself and after having multiple coworkers murdered. Most recently, it happened to me when Sacramento Deputy Bob French was murdered by an AK wielding suspect.
However, there are reasons why laws should never be based on emotion or fear. There are reasons why logic should always be the basis for legislation.
When the emotion fades, when the fear subsides, and logic begins to take over, you have to stop and think about the feasibility of being able to prevent a tragic event like what happened in Las Vegas through legislation. No law can ever prevent evil. It just can’t happen. It is impossible.
Looking at this specific event. The guy was a multimillionaire (reportedly). He could buy any gun he wanted, legally or illegally. If it were illegal for him to buy one, he could easily have purchased the means (a CNC machine) to make his own. No law or set of laws could have stopped him.
Looking at the murder of Deputy French, which occurred in California, one of the strictest states in terms of gun control. The suspect was a multi-time convicted felon with lots of priors for weapons. He was on active parole, and was out of jail on bail for a recent arrest involving guns and drugs. Not only was he still able to acquire multiple firearms, he was able to acquire guns that are already illegal to possess in California. He also acquired “high capacity” magazines which have also been illegal to sell in this state for a number of years.
A huge collection of the strictest gun control laws in the country were completely unable to stop a known felon, on parole, with a long history of gun crimes from getting his hands on the weapons he wanted. How on earth would any laws stop a millionaire from getting something he wanted, no matter if it were legal or not?
There are very good reasons that the overwhelming majority of cops do not favor gun control, and it is not because we like being murdered. We have a very personal understanding that laws only affect the law abiding. Gun control laws only make the criminals safer as they disarm the victims.
I sincerely feel for everyone who experienced that horrible event, but no law or set of laws could have prevented what happened. Stop pushing for laws based on your emotions.