Misguided Calls to Action After the Tennessee School Shooting (Shutterstock, JPL Designs)
March 29, 2023
By Mark Chesnut
The tragic mass murder at a private Presbyterian Christian school in Nashville by a troubled transgender person with an undisclosed “emotional disorder” resulted in immediate calls for stronger gun laws as a solution. And just like always, those calls simply reflect the Left’s desire to control American citizens, and their demands would not have changed a thing in the Tennessee grade school.
As soon as the media reported that the murderer had taken two “assault” weapons into the school during the attack, the blame-it-on-the-gun crowd was quick to jump into action. And the political posturing went all the way to the top. Following the shooting, President Joe Biden called on Congress to pass a ban on so-called “assault weapons.” Later in the day, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre doubled down on Biden’s demand, adding a few more restrictions to his list.
“How many more children have to be murdered before Republicans in Congress will step up and act to pass the assault weapons ban; to close loopholes in our background check system; or to require the safe storage of guns?” Jean-Pierre asked during a press briefing.
Let’s take a brief look at those demands. Would banning popular semi-auto rifles really have stopped this attack? The answer is, “No.” Given the fact that the killer was in the school for 14 minutes before being confronted, even a shooter with a revolver could have easily killed more than six people. The real miracle is that more people were not killed or injured.
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In this case, Biden’s dream of so-called “universal” (I say “so-called” because criminals would ignore it) background checks would have done nothing to stop the attack, either. Police officials announced after the murders that the suspect had legally purchased seven guns from five different stores.
As for requiring safe storage, most gun owners know that it is their responsibility to ensure their gun is taken care of in a safe manner whether carried on their person, in their vehicle or stored in their home. It’s hard to see how Jean-Pierre could think that a safe storage law could have kept the killer from accessing the firearms used in the attack. Unfortunately, it seems that each day radical trans activists are veering more and more toward violence. Slogans like “Trans Rights … Or Else” combined with pictures of ARs and AKs seem to be more than just veiled threats.
Crude responses by trans activists to the mass murders in the Christian school were all too common. One activist tweeted, “I still think TN got what it deserved today. You can’t victimize people nonstop and expect something bad not to happen.” The Trans Resistance Network went further, saying that the killer felt they “had no other effective way to be seen than to lash out by taking the life of others…” The group’s statement also said, “Hate has consequences.”
People pray during a community vigil held for the people killed during the Covenant School shooting on March 28, 2023, in Mount Juliet, Tenn. (Shutterstock, Chirag Nagpal) Even the press secretary for Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs got in on the action. Josslyn Berry tweeted a GIF from the 1980 movie “Gloria,” which showed actress Gena Rowlands with two drawn handguns. She added the caption, “Us when we see transphobes.”
If banning guns and instituting so-called “universal” background checks isn’t the answer, then what is? One logical solution to the problem of mass murders in America’s schools is to harden the targets by providing more barriers to entrance and more armed security personnel on campuses. In fact, based on what Nashville Metro Police Chief John Drake said during an update to the press, such measures actually saved teachers and students at another Nashville school the morning of the murders. At the press conference, Drake said that investigators have determined the suspect had considered a different target to attack, “but because of threat assessment by the suspect, too much security, they decided not to.”
As with other mass murders in American schools, the answer isn’t to further whittle away at the rights of lawful gun owners. Schoolchildren and teachers need more protection. Taking away guns from the law-abiding won’t accomplish that.
About the Author Freelance writer and editor Mark Chesnut is the owner/editorial director at Red Setter Communications LLC. An avid hunter, shooter and political observer, he has been covering Second Amendment issues and politics on a near-daily basis for over 20 years.
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