Wrong reactions to shooting sprees make us more vulnerable

March 12, 9:54 AMGun Rights ExaminerDavid Codrea

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(AP Photo/Steve Cannon)

True to form and as we all knew would happen, the gunhaters have exploited the carnage in Alabama  to demonize a class of firearms and demand they be banned.  In a joint statement with other gun prohibition...I mean "common sense reasonable restriction" groups, the Brady Campaign didn't take long to get to the point:

America needs an effective federal assault weapons ban to stop the mass production and marketing by the gun industry of these anti-personnel weapons. Today we call on the U.S. Congress to pass a federal assault weapons ban modeled on California's effective law that would ban these weapons once and for all.

Right. "Effective."

Still, legislatively, some aren't waiting to act.  In Illinois we learn:

Among the restrictions approved by the House Executive Committee include an assault weapons ban and legislation allowing only one gun purchase a month.

Meanwhile, news has come out that the killer was briefly a police officer:

The gunman who authorities said launched a shooting rampage over three south Alabama towns, slaying 10 people in his path before killing himself, was once a police officer in Samson, the small town hit hardest by the deadliest crime in the state's history.

It is noted that he did not last long and he washed out at the academy.  Still, it's legitimate to highlight this fact, if for no other reason than to acknowledge that LEOs come from the general population and possess no special inherent superiority to justify their being the "only ones" we can trust with firearms.

Another development adds an element of wondering just what is going on in Samson.  Why has the Army been deployed to patrol Samson, and how is that not a Possee Comitatus Act violation?  Is military involvement in domestic crime incidents a reaction we can expect to see more of in the future?  On a larger scale?  And why can we find so few reports on the deployment?

The story continues to unfold. And it's important that we can get perspective that more traditional media, typically not knowledgeable about guns nor sympathetic to gun rights, provides.  After all, just yesterday I linked to a Bloomberg News report claiming the killer the killer "fired about 30 rounds from an automatic weapon..." and that story has since been edited to delete the word "automatic."

To that end, I encourage you to read what my Gun Rights Examiner colleagues have written, particularly since it is clear that an evil, abnormal freak's actions are being manipulated to make the rest of us even more vulnerable to such monsters.

In the name of public safety...

Additional observations on recent shootings from Gun Rights Examiners:

Multiple victim public homicide: Lessons of shootings in Alabama & Germany

Another school shooting makes gun control the topic of the day

Shootings in the news: How do we respond?

Another Shooting, and the worst possible response time.

Another Shooting: reactions can be irrational, too.

Tragedies in Alabama, Germany will fuel frenzy to ban guns while ignoring root causes of violence

Call to ban so-called 'assault weapons' has already begun

Two vastly different sets of gun laws; two very similar outcomes