In more than three-quarters of the mass shootings that occurred from 1966 to 2019, the perpetrators legally purchased at least one of their weapons, according to data from the National Institute of Justice. After the Nashville attack this week, Tennessee’s Republican Rep. Tim Burchett said, according to Axios, that the laws are fine and that Congress doesn’t need to act: “We’re not going to fix it, criminals are going to be criminals.”

Rob Pincus, executive vice president of the pro-gun Second Amendment Organization, is among those who feel the debate over banning specific firearms and devices like the stabilizing brace should be refocused on stopping shooters before they act.

“The underlying problem is people are trying to kill people,” Pincus said. “We may never be able to even pretend that we will stop all spree killings involving firearms or otherwise. The important thing is that we do what we can to reduce the number, and that means proactive intervention. At the end of the day, it’s family members, friends, community members and individual gun owners who are watching the behavior of the other people in their world.”

But on the other side of the equation, gun control advocates look at the Nashville attack and see weapons that were used in exactly the way that lawmakers feared when they enacted bans and restrictions like the tightening of rules on stabilizing braces. 

David Pucino, deputy chief counsel at Giffords Law Center, told VICE News an assault weapons ban like the one that Biden called for this week could have prevented the shooter from obtaining two of the three weapons used in the attack, with the exception of the 9mm pistol.

“We’re talking about weapons of different destructive capacities, but at the end of the day, a gun is a gun,” Pucino said. “And as we’ve seen too many times over the years, any gun can kill a child.”

— Keegan Hamilton in The Nashville Shooter’s Arsenal Makes a Mockery of Us Gun Laws

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69 COMMENTS

  1. And it would appear from the reports I’ve seen that the killer used the AR-15 pistol only to shoot out the front doors, then switched to the pistol-caliber carbine for the actual killing.

    Pretty sure she could hav4e gotten through those glass doors with her 9mm pistol.

    • Pretty sure she could have gotten through those glass doors with her 9mm pistol.
      Or a rock. Or a small hammer.

      Heck, if the school had laminate glass for even one set of the doors, it would have significantly slowed the shooter’s access to the interior of the building.

      And if the laminate glass had chicken wire…. Even harder to breach. It doesn’t take much, and it doesn’t have to look like a prison.

      Of course, they do have to be locked, otherwise we get Udvale…

      • Never mind the doors or what kind of gun she brought. Had the GUARD there at the first door been ARMED and TRAINED, she never would have gotten past that door before assuming ambient temperature.

        WHY do they fuss over that tool the perp brought to the show, and IGNORE TOTALLY the FACT that the intended victims never had the chance to SHOOT BACK because of “its our policy” to only have sitting ducks for our defense?

        Its just NOT that complicated.

        • Had the GUARD there at the first door been ARMED and TRAINED,

          Not a GUARD, he was a custodian and he was mopping the floor NOT watching the door… There were no “guards”, guess they thought God or Jesus or whatever would keep the bad guys (or girls) from entering the building… Looks like they had more pressing business elsewhere…

        • That mass shooting could not possibly have occurred. That school was a “Fish In a barrel Zone”…er, my bad….a “Gun Free Zone.”

          Politicians with laws never stop bad guys with guns….evil in their hearts. They only control the good guys, which is their true agenda.

          “….stopping shooters before they act.” Marine Combat Hunter Program, initiated in 2007 by Gen Petrais, focuses on identifying anomalies in the environment…something not quite right….allowing one to act “Left of Bang.” Problem s how to do without implementing a “Police State by Government” our Forefathers warned about??? Relinquishing one’s freedom in return for an illusion of safety is never a smart option.

          For once I agree with Bill O’Reilly. Bad guys shooting people is the price of freedom. Liberty is risky business. That’s why our Founding Fathers recognized our God-given right to shoot back. However, there are the Useful Idiot masses who would rather be controlled for an illusion of safety than live with risk to be free. This is why mama grizzles are so ferocious in protecting their cubs….the world is a risky place, survival of the fittest. It’s not Gun Violence, it’s Defective Citizen Violence in a Libturd Chaos Petri Dish. Never has a gun acted on its own. Guns are tools for good or bad, pending the individual’s intent. The late Col Jeff Cooper commented in 1958, “Killing is a matter of will, not means. You cannot control the intent by passing laws about the means.” But, still, there are calls for just one more law against guns/gun owners above the existing 23,000+ anti-gun laws. Maybe, “Thou Shalt Not Murder”; Murder 1; Murder 2, Manslaughter, et el. Even God passed laws that are ignored. Just one more law. It all started there. Evil, Violence, Mayhem exist, always have, always will. On that day they come no-knock knocking on your door, one is either ready and able to defend themselves and their loved ones, or you are living as a victim-in-waiting contestant in the Evil Lottery. You are your own First Responder.

    • The shooter did not use an AR15 rifle according to the pictures. They looked like 9mm carbines, possibly a KetTec sub 2000 but not sure.

  2. It’s always easier to blame guns and punish 300 million people than it is to get a bunch narcissists who don’t love themselves to break out of the “you’re special, they’re out to get you” echo chambers.

    They’ve all been this way. From Columbine to the race war crowd to the fundie islamists to the incels and now the transor z crowd.

    Plenty of people participate in all the same things these perps did and have access to all the guns they did but they came to accept themselves rather than expect they’re entitled to forcing other people accept them.

    So much of it is just an extension of “I hate you, dad” bullshit. The sort of thing that drives you to edgy music, hair dye and wasting money on useless degrees in your teens. The sort of shit you’re supposed to grow out of. If you loved yourself you’d treat yourself and everyone else better. Why don’t these people love themselves and instead look outward for approval and glom onto fringe, often militant, movements? Because it’s always somebody else’s fault, that’s why.

    All the in your face activism bullshit just tells the world you’re not happy with who you are.

    • (applauds)

      And when these over coddled spoiled brats finally get released from their safe space echo chamber, they discover the world doesn’t care about their self-esteem and their sense of entitlement.

      Most accept reality. Others try to substitute their own. With the latter some break from the strain of the conflict between taking the world as they wish it to be and how it really is.

      I taught my son he can be proud of what he accomplishes. He is not going to get things handed to him. He has to work for it. He is clearly these days an exception to the rule.

  3. “an assault weapons ban like the one that Biden called for this week could have prevented the shooter from obtaining two of the three weapons used in the attack.”

    How could an “assault weapons” ban have prevented her from obtaining the Kel-Tec Sub-2000 pistol caliber (9mm) carbine? That’s not considered an “assault weapon” under New Jersey’s “assault weapons” ban, as the Kel-Tec Sub-2000 is perfectly legal here in the People’s Republic of New Jersey (as long as it doesn’t have a “high-capacity” magazine installed).
    Or is Joe Biden’s new “assault weapons” ban going to be stricter than the old ban, banning anything with even one scary-looking feature (a pistol grip being a “scary, evil” feature)? Is it going to ban the scary-looking Kel-Tec Sub-2000 by name, just because it’s black?

    • That Sub 2000 is illegal in ILLANNOY. Detachable magazine that can hold more than 10 don’t cha know? I had one for awhile. FAR from an a s s a u l t rifle. But easily useable by a deranged wannabe boy🙄🙁

    • “Or is Joe Biden’s new “assault weapons” ban going to be stricter than the old ban”

      They’re only saying assault weapons ban to sell it to the public. They’re shooting for a semi-automatic carbine/rifle ban. Even if they were to get the traditional AWB, they would immediately begin screaming for a semi-automatic carbine/rifle ban.

    • YES,
      Making the AS Ban even larger, this is their goal of naming any gun, as just happened to fit what they want.

  4. 1. Ban “assault weapons.”
    2. Shooting happens anyway.
    3. Ban pistol caliber carbines.
    4. Shooting happens anyway.
    5. Ban 9mm pistols.
    6. Shooting happens anyway.
    7. Ban …

    • In China school killings are done with knives. Perp runs into the school with a knife in each hand and get up to 20 victims before being stopped.

    • Ban all potential weapons.
      Genocide ensues somewhere down the timeline. Always has, always will.

      The late Col Jeff Cooper commented in 1958, “Killing is a matter of will, not means. You cannot control the intent by passing laws about the means.”

  6. The first answer to Gun Control is define Gun Control according to its history of rot. Rot so evil no one other than criminals, bigots, history illiterates and tyrants would look to Gun Control for squat.

    Second answer to Gun Control is purchase firearms Gun Control zealots disdain the most. After all if you and yours are cornered by a criminal you can count on Gun Control zealots being where they always are…NOWHERE.

    • Unfortunately you are dead wrong. People who own firearms legally prevent literally hundreds of potentially deadly situations daily by having their firearms available to do so. As a matter of fact more deaths and violence are prevented daily by people with legally owned firearms than all the deaths by firearms yearly including mass shooting which are minimal and suicides which make up almost 2/3 of gun deaths. Do some research and you will see I am correct. Saving people with firearms far outnumbers gun deaths by criminals or people committing suicide.

  8. Those cheap. worthless, “unreliable”, KelTec and Hi Point guns sure do kill a whole lot of innocent people.
    And those tiny “low power” 22lr firearms, sure do kill a whole lot of the innocent as well.

    My EDC while I was in college was both a long gun and a handgun. And no one knew. Which is the way it’s supposed to be. And I won’t say what long gun I carried to class every day. This web site is “monitored”.

    It’s too bad the janitor didn’t have his own “folder” on his person. A sub 2000 would have given him at least equal odds against the shooter.

    Even a folding ruger charger Equipped with a binary trigger and BX 25 magazines would have provided sufficient fire power, to stop the shooter as well.

    Now, if they could put a binary trigger into a sub 2000, that would be the gun to have.

        • I own the Kel Tec 32. I’m very happy with it as a deep carry option. And I own the SU-16c. A great folding long gun.

          I don’t own any Remington guns that kill their owners. And I don’t own any Sig Sauer Guns that when dropped fire as soon as they hit the ground.

          And I do own a Hi-Point handgun in 45 acp. And I’m very happy with that too. Especially since it was less than $200 brand new. And High Point has never had a safety recall for their guns. But all the major manufacturers have for their guns.

          And I know many of you “are getting erections” over that new 10 mm high point handgun that costs way under $300.

          What type of Disguise do you plan on wearing when you walk into the gun store and buy one at the counter? You do know you can’t lie about your identity on that paperwork?

        • Daniel S Are you kidding? He’s criticising a gun he has NO experience with.
          I personally own a Kel-Tech rifle in .40S&W cal and it works just fine as a self defense-home defense rifle.
          Have you ever fired one of their rifles? Or Pistols?

    • “My EDC while I was in college was both a long gun and a handgun. And no one knew….
      ‘I won’t say what long gun I carried to class every day. This web site is “monitored”.”

      I’ll take shit that never happened for $1000 Alex
      there’s a sale on tinfoil hats over at the nearest wallyworld – it comes with a bowl of soup

      • I’m still not going to tell you what I carried. Or how I did it. I just have a bigger imagination than you do. And it’s okay if you don’t believe me. But if the situation ever came up, at least I would the tools on me at the time.

        To quote the woman who lost her parents at the Luby’s Cafe Massacre.

        “Having a gun on me instead of it being left in my car, would have Giving me a chance. It would at least even the odds.”

        I suggest people spend a little time learning how long guns and handguns are carried. There are many options out there.

        I think we spend far too much time trying to sell people guns. Instead of selling them the gun they really need to have. The correct ammunition for it. And I’m not talking about just the caliber. And they also need to learn how to properly carry the gun. The available types of care options are huge.

    • AQ,

      Have a Sub2000, and I love it. Although, that is after a full M-CARBO upgrade. “Factory-original”? The QC seriously sucks @$$. Their designs are innovative and interesting; their manufacturing QC (and choice of parts) purely sucks.

  10. My wife and i were talking about the Nashville thing. The kids were in the room. Afterwards our 8th grader said “glass doors are stupid and is nobody armed at my school??!!”

    As in, do we have no protection? Even she can see the ridiculousness of a gun free zone. Wish i could send her to school with a 38 snub in her purse. But lord the mayhem that would cause if somebody found out.

    • Schedule a meeting with a member of the school board and inquire about security. If security fails to meet your standards, Home school.

    • Why send her to a government school at all? With all the indoctrination, non-education that most of them seem to amount to these days, what is she gaining by being there? Homeschooling is the only viable option these days, and not as difficult as many may believe.

      • It is a private school. Yes we are awaiting for the response to an email we sent asking about what protections are in place if any.

        • The Nashville school was a private school too. You’ll have to do better than an e-mail. Again I suggest you go one on one with someone in authority. That gun free zone may be what those running the show are stuck on like teachers in Nashville who are rallying today for Gun Control.

          To eliminate the guesswork stand up in front of a board meeting and define Gun Control by its History of Rot for the Gun Control zealots you may be leaving you kids with…and paying for it too.

    • your daughter appears to be more intelligent and aware than ninety percent of politicians. Too bad she is “too young” to hold public office. She’d be a vast improvement over most of them.

      She propbably will never question whether she is a “girl” either.

      When I was in 8th grade several decades back nearly all of my fifty four classmates were very much made of the same stuff. Yes FIFTY FIVE in one classroom with one teacher no assistant. We LEARNED.

  11. “David Pucino, deputy chief counsel at Giffords Law Center, told VICE News an assault weapons ban like the one that Biden called for this week could have prevented the shooter from obtaining two of the three weapons used in the attack, with the exception of the 9mm pistol.”

    The Truth About The Nashville Christian School Shooting Why Gun Control Wouldn’t Have Stopped It.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cB94hP1pLM

    • Not so long ago to demonstrate on film how easy it was to purchase a firearm spaceman giffords went to a Gun Store and attempted to purchase an AR-15. When a savy Gun Sore counterman suspected a straw purchase the spaceman was told to take a hike. The scheme was an insult to injury as to what happened to his wife and others. The perp was a product of a school in camp with the bill ayers’ crowd…The crowd in camp with democRats.

    • Harfden with ARMED SCHOOL STAFF. Ohio’s FASTER Saves Life programme works. And cost the government NOTHING.

  13. “. . . any gun can kill a child.” That is a truth so obvious that even a Giffords gun controller can recognize it.

    Remember, the record (to 1953) GRIZZLEY was taken by a SINGLE round of .22 Long (NOT Long Rifle) https://www.ammoland.com/2017/06/bella-twin-the-22-used-to-take-the-1953-world-record-grizzly-and-more/

    Even if Congress eliminated – effectively – every firearm except a single-shot .22 rimfire, there would remain ample and unfettered ability for mass shootings.

    The only clear means of mitigating innocent casualties is: to shoot back. Everything else is at the other end of the spectrum, akin to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

    We should acknowledge that some prophylactics are marginally effective. E.g., X-ray screening. But they suffer from two serious limitations:

    First, they are prohibitively expensive for widespread use. Yes, the Secret Service can screen venues where the President will speak. But we can’t put X-ray machines at every entrance to every school. The cost would be unacceptable. The diversion of resources from other useful ends would be more costly than the dozens of children killed in mass shootings.

    Second, such marginally effective prophylactics simply shift the perpetrator’s target from one GFZ to another GFZ, lacking protective measures. The GFZ sign is a magnet for mass killers

    • Chicago schools have metal detectors and Chicago police at the entry door. Now all of the “school” shootings occur outside of school buildings.

      • pretty much the same for most urban schools…getting there and getting home is the dangerous part…

  15. For a decade now I have been fighting my former church about church security. They roll their eyes and say “Not this again!”. It won’t happen here, but why do you have no carry signs then? Well, we are worried if we take them down people will be scared.

    • find the video from the security cameras inside the church building where the West Freeway Baptist Church Shooting took place near Dallas Texas a year or two ago. Bring it to the church board meeting and sHOW IT.

      some of the leadership at my church are vigoursly dead set against guns around there, and know I carry. I simply told the main complainer: if you demand I take my gun out of here I will go with it and not come back. Another of the elders politely reminded this guy that his authority as an elder does not extend to this issue.
      I still carry.

      • Yup. The Brits banned bats, and kithcen knives. Took them off the market.
        Guess what? Rocks and bricks still worked. They found that out.
        HOW many of those adherents of the Wee Lidgen of Peas were ever executed for their knife/brick/bat urders? Let me put it in round numbers: a big fat round ZEEEROE.

  18. The one thing no one ever talks about is not only the difficulty of enforcing such a law but the danger in it as well. When American Citizens are buying more than 1 million new firearms a month do the people in Government really believe they are doing so only to have them declared illegal. Some states are trying to ban all types of firearms not just AR15’s or other so called assault weapons. When NJ, NY and CT attempted to either register AR15’s or collect large capacity magazines, it was a total failure. The end result was that all the Governors of those states were told by their State Police Superintendents that they would only enforce the laws if a person was caught committing an associated crime. In other words, no one was going to go door to door collecting firearms because they all know it is far too dangerous. I once asked two friends of mine who were police officers what they would do if asked to collect firearms door to door. One responded he would call in sick and the other indicated many officers would be shot. So there you go!!! No matter what laws they pass do not comply and they will give up eventually.

    • dprato,

      Look up the ESTIMATED compliance rates for the CA, NJ, NY “assault weapons” bans. Now, these stats are wildly understated (all three states dramatically underestimate the number of guns out there; their estimates are based almost entirely on “recorded” gun sales), but even the “official” stats show compliance rates in the high-single digits or VERY low double digits. Same with Oz and Kiwiland. They want to take our guns, but for some stupid reason, they have fully bought in to the “out of sight; out of mind” POV. “We can’t see them, and we made them illegal, so we don’t have to worry about them.

      Comes from the fact that most Leftist/fascists have actual knowledge about guns roughly equivalent to MinorLiar and dacian the demented.

      • I well remember reading about the older woman in Australis who, upin learning a certain male had sexually assaulted her daughter, went to settle the score. Seems she was quite a good shot with her .38 revolver… the one she “did not own” per da gummit. Seems she assured this horny young male would no longer have the capacity to commit such a crime going forward. Yup. She shot him “right there”. Police apparently “looked the other way” regarding the handgn she “no longer possessed” because the government, after all, DID take them all up for destruction. We’ve ALL seen the video reh?

      • Hurricane Katrina went exactly as planned… build a confiscation list err registration list, before an event – when an event happens go door to door with oath violating armed government workers “AGWs” and start stealing the guns from innocent citizens; who now had no means for self protection.

        This gun theft by oath violating AGW’s was then made worse by refusing to provide receipts for the stolen guns, and then refused to return the guns when the citizens attempted to get the guns returned.

  19. The headline on this one seems inaccurate. The Giffords’ functionary is not admitting “assault weapons bans” are a failure. The TTAG narrative notes that he claims that a weapons ban would have been effective, if the ban was law. Even in his statement that “in the end, a gun is a gun”, is not admitting gun control laws are useless, he is declaring that only a total gun ban and confiscation will be effective.

    • they first want to target manufacturing and sales…and we’ve seen efforts made in that direction…after that they’ll depend on your neighbors to rat you out…..

  20. Going on a short fishing trip next week. Might just take a rifle or 2 along.
    “Sorry office, we hit a snag and the boat sunk”. “If you go looking for the boat, watch out for that big alligator”. “If you do find the boat, please fish out my motor”.
    Any firearms ban will cause a lot of boating accidents and mysterious burglaries.
    Ban the scary black rifles. Ban the scary magazines. Ban all semi-automatic weapons.
    Hell of a lot of people were killed with single action revolvers, lever and bolt action rifles and double barreled shotguns. Long bows and cross bows are effective as well. Up close, any number of both edged and blunt weapons do the job. Lacking those, rocks and sharp sticks will do.
    So, sure, outlaw whatever. Murder has been illegal for a very long time. Being illegal hasn’t stopped anyone from killing their fellow human being if they so choose.

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