‘Solutions to Disarm Criminals Must Safeguard 2A,’ Says Texas Governor

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott cautioned reporters that solutions to violent crime must protect the Second Amendment. (Screen snip, YouTube, CBS This Morning)

U.S.A.-(Ammoland.com)- News agencies are reporting—to their credit—that the man who went on a shooting rampage in West Texas over Labor Day weekend “had previously failed a background check” but had a gun, anyway, yet gun control proponents, rather than admit their agenda has failed again, are reflexively calling for more gun control laws, the New York Times reported.

But while the national media is focused on Saturday’s shooting spree in Texas, by comparison there is little attention being paid to the bloody Labor Day weekend in Chicago that produced a slightly higher body count and left more people wounded, as reported by WLS News.

The shooting, in Midland and Odessa, left seven people dead and 22 wounded, according to published reports.

In Chicago, eight people are dead and at least 34 more were wounded over the three-day holiday weekend.

Texas authorities are investigating the spree killing by the 36-year-old suspect, who was fatally shot by responding police officers Saturday. The dead man reportedly had a criminal history with the state Department of Public Safety, according to the Austin American-Statesman. His name is not being used here.

The Caller Times reported that Texas State Rep. Matt Schaefer (R-Tyler) declared, “I am NOT going to use the evil acts of a handful of people to diminish the God-given rights of my fellow Texans. Period. None of these so-called gun-control solutions will work to stop a person with evil intent.”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott told reporters that the gunman hadn’t gone through a background check to obtain what has been described as “an AR-type rifle.” The killer had just been fired from his job, and when a state trooper reportedly tried to pull him over for failing to signal a left turn along Interstate 20, he aimed a rifle out the rear window and opened fire, the Statesman said.

In a press conference, Gov. Abbott stated, “We need solutions that will keep guns out of the hands of criminals like the killer here in Odessa, while also insuring that we safeguard Second Amendment rights.”

When Congress returns to Capitol Hill Sept. 9, lawmakers are expected to quickly take up gun control proposals.

It was the second mass shooting in less than a month for the Lone Star State. Twenty-two people were killed Aug. 3 in El Paso at a Walmart. The suspect in those slayings is in custody.

It’s not clear how many, if any suspects are in custody in Chicago. According to WLS, the violent Windy City weekend wrapped up with the shooting of four men at a Chicago Transit Authority Green Line station Monday night. All four are expected to recover.

But it is the violence in Texas, not Chicago, that seems to be fueling the current push for additional gun restrictions. The New York Times reported that President Donald Trump “pledged to find a way to ‘substantially reduce’ mass shootings,” although it is not clear how he plans to accomplish this.

Texas officials have reportedly not explained when or why the alleged spree shooter failed a background check. CBS News reported that the killer had contacted police and the FBI shortly before the Saturday afternoon attack.

While all of these facts may explain his state of mind, none explains how the suspect obtained the rifle he used in the shooting. It is debatable whether a law requiring so-called “universal background checks” would have prevented the shooting, yet background checks on all firearm transfers is an idea that is enjoying increasing support.

It is even less certain whether a “universal background check” law would make any difference in the ongoing slaughter in Chicago. Much of that violence can be traced to gang and drug activity.

A war of words erupted between Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) when the senator noted in a tweet that “gun control doesn’t work.” Lightfoot tried to blame Republicans for Chicago violence because they will not pass what she considers “commonsense gun legislation.”

She apparently did not define what such legislation might include, and in the past when lawmakers in Illinois passed gun control legislation, it was routinely defined as “commonsense.”

This raises the question, do anti-gun politicians honestly think they can prevent criminal misuse of firearms by adopting “more-of-the-same” types of laws, or do they just want it to appear they are “doing something?”


About Dave Workman

Dave Workman

Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.

 

Dave Workman
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Will Flatt

If someone must be disarmed, then they most likely need to be kept locked up. Yet politicians keep letting people like that out on the streets while demanding peaceable Americans surrender their rights. Well screw that. We need to start limiting politicians to two terms; one in office and one in prison. And if you murder someone in cold blood, you should get a speedy trial and an even speedier execution, no exceptions!!

Rock

I agree 100% ! The Dems/libs want to disarm the LAW ABIDING CITIZEN instead of dealing with the perps, because it’s cruel and inhumane to lock them up and separate them from the abundance of hit and run sex children they have for most parts ALREADY abandoned everywhere. AND the Demd/libs have eliminated the death penalty damn near everywhere everywhere, because god forbid, we can’t execute someone who has murdered another human being !!!! They can STILL vote for a FREE RIDE Dem somehow. Yeah, DEAL with the perps as they SHOULD be dealt with…………….. Bring back and USE the… Read more »

Wild Bill

@Gentlemen, Seems like rehabilitation and good treatment are failed theories. We should go back to what works, but the four words that terrify politicians and libtards alike are: Return to the Constitution.

joefoam

Exactly! The basic flaw of ‘red flag’ laws are that they leave the ‘threat’ out on the street. If they are a danger to themselves shouldn’t they be in supervised custody? If they are a danger to the general public shouldn’t they be confined as well rather to leave them to devise another method to commit murder rather than just separating them from guns? The liberals will never be able to pass the kind of legislation that locks people up, instead they will go after something easier to sell. After all 2/3 of the nation don’t own guns and will… Read more »

Will Flatt

Yeah – they go after the inanimate object, because inanimate objects don’t have RIGHTS.

Arny

Why not remove the person to supervised care ? Giving them the option to have the firearms entrusted into the hands of a family member. And if taken into custody the persons job should be held for a reasonable time to see if they will be able to return. When they disarm one unstable person from a household they will in fact take the rights of the rest of the household to protection. Again the innocent paying the price for the actions of a few.

Will Flatt

Come on, we all know this isn’t about fixing mental healthcare, or allowing the firearms to be entrusted to a safe family member or friend. It’s backdoor gun confiscation and the progressive disability of ever-increasing segments of society until NO ONE is allowed to have guns!!! Why? because they know that if they try to take everyone’s guns all at once, they’ll have an unwinnable war on their hands!!

Will Flatt

Exactamundo! THAT IS THE PLAN!

tetejaun

If you read the writings of the Founding Fathers in the Federalist Papers and in their letters concerning the Second Amendment, the militia and the private use of arms, you will see the Founding Fathers expected the American People to carry their arms at all times and shoot the criminals. Just as there is no Constitutional authority for local police, it was expected the Militia, or the armed populace at large, would handle such matters. IN A REPUBLIC, THE PEOPLE ARE THE RULERS AND ARE EXPECTED TO BE ACTIVELY INVOLVED. There is no ‘secure free state’ when the government runs… Read more »

Courageous Lion - Hear Me Roar - Jus Meum Tuebor

SOMEONE has it figured out! The MILITIA was UNCONSTITUTIONALY disbanded in 1903 with the Dick Act. Those first 13 words of the 2nd amendment may be the most important words in the whole Constitution. Otherwise you have a tyrannical government with a standing army running roughshod over the rights of the people. It is the only place where the word NECESSARY is used in the whole Constitution. Do you suppose the MILITIA was NECESSARY? I sure do. And unless we get it back expect a war of the flea.

Wild Bill

” Times reported that President Donald Trump “pledged to find a way to ‘substantially reduce’ mass shootings,” although it is not clear how he plans to accomplish this…”
Studies, including many individual interviews with felons, indicate that swift and sure punishment prevents crime. People control themselves when they they know that harsh punishment for misbehavior is imminent and certain.
Hang a few in public. Put it on TV. Crime will diminish.

JoeUSooner

Agreed, WB. The “imminent and certain” part is most important. The severity of punishment does not act as an effective deterrent to crime… while the certainty of punishment acts as a very effective deterrent. [Add the two together, and you have a real winner!]

ps hope you had a great holiday weekend, my friend

Wild Bill

@JoeUS, Perhaps, but it is less interesting to jail them on TV … than hang them on TV!
We are taking a lot of special precautions to keep the live stock alive in this heat.

TheRevelator

@USA

All hat and no cattle. Livestock are valuable, and often a source of livelihood both financially as well as in a collapse, oh as an example should our country devolve into another civil war. While we can often times make do with changes in weather readily, animals which are kept in place because they have no option to migrate have their means of dealing with it restricted. That means ranchers take special precautions with them to keep them alive.

There are more worthwhile ways you could show ignorance on a topic than this one.

Wild Bill

@Rev, Apparently, he does not know that if one dies then many are in the same situation. One is a bad financial loss. Many is catastrophic. Horses, too!

Wild Bill

@OV, Yes … garden or livestock, either, are more valuable than some people.

TheRevelator

@Oldvet

I’m plenty Familiar with Snake Pliskin.

TheRevelator

@USA If you are directing that at me, I really don’t care one way or the other if you like me. I’m fairly certain Wild Bill feels the same, though he is free to correct me on that. What I do care about is the truth, and the constitution. You post some statements which are good, well thought out and reasoned, but then you turn around and blend in the dumbest baseless conspiracy BS right beside it. I give credit for the good, and call out for the bad as is due. If you have a problem with that, too… Read more »

Wild Bill

@Usa, It is 99 and 86 percent humidity, here, Feels like temp is 109. Did you ever dig a hole to bury a cow?

Wild Bill

@USA, You should have stopped at No, I never dug a hole for a cow…

TheRevelator

Nice, So the alien mutilated Cattle are in @USA’s yard now. Either someone’s stealing beef, or that “Rancher” in question is starting to become a whole lot clearer about his identity.

TheRevelator

@wjd and Wild Bill

How’s the dirt where you guys are at. Up here burying animals or critters we might as well get mining equipment. Clay as hard as set concrete all the way down.

Can take the better part of two hours to dig a 12 inch hole 5 feet down with a Texas Backhoe sometimes.

Wild Bill

@Rev, I work hard to for stall that inevitability, but when it becomes necessary … I hire someone else!

Arizona Don

Arizona discovered several years ago now how to cut down on gun crimes. However, no one wants to listen because it does not meet the goal of the communist democrats. The main stream media will never even mention it. Several years ago Arizona within the Phoenix valley was quickly becoming the car jack and kidnap capital of the United States. This was happening even through we had a CCW in place. Many Arizonans if not most all Arizonans saw that CCW permit as a form of gun registration and refused to get one. Consequently, the number of gun carriers did… Read more »

Wild Bill

@AZD, Ok, I like all of that, except what is a gun crime?

mlhtd51

WB, Mobile Gall ows, Judge, Jury, Execution In Just ONE HOUR, Just Like Your Photos.

Wild Bill

@51, just like Jiffy Lube. Hey! We could call it Jiffy Loop! Restore the Republic.

Wild Bill

@OV, Long time no smoke signals. What did the Hon. Roy B say?

USMC0351Grunt

We should do this and then if any snowflake liberals complain about it just incarcerate the Felon along with the snowflakes?

nrringlee

OK, so where to start with this one. The Odessa shooter was a prohibited person. Details are coming out on his mental health history and that is probably the cause of his entry in to NICS. This is validated by his rejection on a background check. So if an FFL could determine this guy was prohibited why not the local PD? This clown called federal authorities numerous times raging and out of his mind. He routinely discharged firearms within a built up area, a municipality, which is a misdemeanor in most states. PD was called. Did no one ask whether… Read more »

Truth

A question to answer is what types of anti-psychotic meds was he on? Most mass shooters were on some powerful meds which could be a “cause-and-effect” relationship. Then there is the question(s) What was his family background like; was he abused or bullied; was he part of an MK-Ultra project like so many others?

Rock

Makes you wonder if they left him alone, maybe to make sure he voted for one of the FREE RIDE Dems in 2020. A pattern of DOING NOTHING by the police/ feds or whatever LAW ENFORCEMENT is emerging on most of the shooters. They are KNOWN to be dangerous yet NOTHING is done, then it is all dumped on the law abiding citizens rights to be taken away… I don’t think so CHUCK !

Wild Bill

@ring, I have also heard that he was a registered democrat, but I do not know if that is true.

JPM

The press are the ones who are fueling this assault on the 2nd Amendment because it sells and makes money for them in the form of increased advertising. The vast herd of inbred, ignorant, brain-dead morons out there who believe everything they see or read (if they can read) in the media are the meat and potatoes of the press because they not only support the media, but vote as directed by the press which is owned and operated by liberals. The American population has been “dumbed-down” by government sponsored programs and public schools, colleges and universities with the support… Read more »

Arizona Don

Today’s American democrat is in essence a socialist communist. Fascists, marxist and communists are all socialists. There is little difference among them. All lead to dictatorships at one time or another and all fail in creating prosperity for people except the small group on the top giving the orders and collecting and redistributing the money. So 99% of the people barely survive and one percent more or less get everything they desire. That is exactly why they have to become dictatorships to continue. There is no freedom(s) within any socialist organization including communism, marxism or fascism. They are all kept… Read more »

Wild Bill

@Dubi, The communists, etc used to all run separate candidates. I remember Gus Hall was the American Communist Party candidate for years. That approach insured defeat. So they infiltrated the dmc and are on the verge of taking that over. Quite clever.
We should have hanged them when hanging was popular.

USMC0351Grunt

Felony for an innocent life was taken? Public hanging. Felony or an innocent person is wounded or maimed? Publicly cut off both trigger fingers. THAT will be the first signal that that individual cannot EVER purchase firearm. Snowflake liberals want to piss and moan about these methods? Get out the back hoe and just bury them… or let them spend a month in federal prison with, that big 300-pound sex-starved prisoner named Bubba!

ras52

Will, you’re right about that. If he betrays Texas gun owners he will lose next time.

Wild Bill

@wjd and ras, It is incumbent upon us to happily apprise Abbott of this fact .. very happily.

toomanyhobbies

you guys need to have a look at the pie chart on their other page, of all deaths in the US 0.6% are murders. Of all the murders 0.3% are mass shootings…. statistically speaking an insignificant number…

Rockman1977

Lt. Governor Patrick has finally decided to show his true colors! He is another Left Wing Liberal disguised as a Republican! He must go, his re-election is out the window!