A mentally ill gunman killed two and injured at least seven more people before taking his own life at a crowded movie theater in Lafayette, Louisiana, late Thursday night. As seems to always happen within minutes of these types of shootings being reported, the gun control crowd immediately moved to politicize the incident:
Don't pray. Push for gun control.
Rachel Zarrell (@rachelzarrell) July 24, 2015
Rachel Zarrell, the author of the “don’t pray” tweet above, is a news editor for BuzzFeed. Luke O’Neil, who displayed his anti-gun violence bona fides by pining for the mass murder of all gun owners, is a Boston-based journalist who’s written for publications such as Slate, the Boston Globe, and Esquire.
Interestingly enough, the mass shooting happened in precisely the type of environment demanded by journalist gun controllers like Zarrell and O’Neil: a gun-free zone. That’s right. The Grand 16 Theater in Lafayette is a gun-free zone that explicitly bans the possession of any and all firearms, concealed or otherwise, on its premises:
According to the conduct policy on the movie theater’s website, the theater prohibits “[p]ossession of firearms or weapons of any kind regardless of whether openly or concealed, with or without a permit[.]”
While some states do not treat “no guns” or “gun-free zones” as having the force of law, Louisiana does. If a property owner in Louisiana places a sign on the property stating that firearms are prohibited, then they are prohibited. (In many states, a gun-free zone sign is not sufficient to prohibit firearms on private property. Instead, the owner of the manager of the premises must ask an individual lawfully carrying a gun on the property to leave; the individual is only considered to be in violation of the law if he or she refuses that request.)
It is no accident that mass murderers time and time again choose gun-free zones as their killing fields. Violent psychopaths don’t want resistance. They don’t want to be shot and killed before they can wreak havoc. These killers want to make sure their targets are as soft and defenseless as possible. So of course they target gun-free zones.
The solution to gun violence is not gun control. Why? Because guns are mere tools, and the evil mind hell-bent on violence will use any tool at his disposal to effect it. You cannot change the human condition with a new law or two. In the face of evil, however, you can give innocent men and women the right to protect themselves. That, of course, is the rationale for the Second Amendment: we have a God-given right to protect ourselves, our families, and our neighbors.
Mandated gun-free zones nullify that right. They tell the individuals within their boundaries that they have a right to be victims, and nothing more. The continual mass shootings in gun-free zones don’t send the message that we need more gun control. They show the exact opposite: that gun control simply doesn’t work.
