Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

Implicit in gun grabbers’ efforts to reduce or eliminate civilian gun ownership in the US is the fallacy that we can somehow reach a kind of utopian level of peace and tranquility in which crime is virtually eliminated and what little there may still be is quickly and efficiently handled by the police.

Sunday, following the Virginia Beach shooting, White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney appeared for an ritual public beating interview on Meet the Press. While we’d just once like to hear someone in authority raise the number of defensive uses of firearms in this country, as to the never-ending debate on individual liberty vs. safety, he had this to say . . .

Mulvaney said “there are things that the government can do” but that “we’re never going to protect everybody against everybody who is deranged.”

“You’re never going to make everything perfectly safe, but we’re doing a lot better on enforcement,” he added.

It wasn’t immediately clear what “enforcement” Mulvaney was specifically referring to. The White House did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.

Asked if Trump believes it should be harder to get a gun, Mulvaney said the president believes “very firmly” in the Second Amendment, which protects an individual’s right to keep and bear arms.

“Clearly, people like this are exceptions,” Mulvaney said, referring to the Virginia Beach gunman. “This is not the rule ― 99.9% of people in this, in this country who own a gun are law-abiding gun owners.”

– Hayley Miller in Mick Mulvaney On Gun Reform After Virginia Beach Shooting: Can’t ‘Protect Everybody’

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66 COMMENTS

  1. Make the items used in Va. Beach available for PUBLIC inspection.

    Why all the secrecy ?

    • I have heard reports that it was a .45 cal pistol with a “silencer”.

      No other details. Since it was NOT an “assault weapon” the media is apparently not interested.

      • The local rag in Norfolk, The Virginian Pilot, reported that it was a 45 with a suppressor. I was shocked when they didn’t immediately launch into the usual anti-2nd screed.

        • The suppressor was LEGALLY putchased according to today’s Virginian-Pilot. The lack of news coverage is because the BATF ptocedure for clearance to buy a suppressor is everything the Antis want — and it failed.

        • As John Bock pointed out to me you can get a 15 round extended magazine for a 1911.

        • Likely a Glock, but when I carried a 1911 it was with an 8 rounder in the gun and originally 2 10s as back up, which is technically extended in a 1911. Later I added 2 15s to my belt, which are very plainly extended. For that matter, 20 round 1911 mags used to be available, if fairly unwieldy.

      • There has been some talk of banning suppressers despite the fact they sell them like candy in their European paradise

        • “There has been some talk of banning suppressers despite the fact they sell them like candy in their European paradise”

          Oh yeah. Well. Everybody knows silencers muffle the sound such that you only hear the cycling of the slide. That means a shooter can kill dozens before anyone even knows something is happening. Maybe everybody needs a gun, but nobody needs silencers. They are called silencers for a reason. Silencers are for assassinations and special operations operators operating operationally. Don’t you people read Vince Flynn, deSilva, Brad Thor, Mark Greany, and those guys? Don’t you watch movies where silencers are prominent?

    • “Why all the secrecy?”

      Perhaps because the murderer was not actually deranged, and had instead been infected with an idealogical virus the government is trying to cover up?

      • Local reports said that his Facebook page said he was a christian. Other reports said that he was a black muslim. We may never know the truth.

        • Obviously a Christian Black Muslim Atheist…

          Seriously, though… one thing that always bothers me about these kinds of occurrences is how much time and effort is spent trying to “understand why” a mentally unstable person did something mentally unstable people sometimes do.

          I just wish more attention was directed at making people aware of the need to protect themselves and how best to do that, armed or not. (Preferably armed, of course.)

          There are a whole lot of people walking around with a significant degree of mental illness… and while many (most, even) are not dangerous to anyone but, perhaps, themselves, some are certainly ticking time bombs.

          • Agree wholeheartedly. The problem is, it’s in Virginia, a once proud, conservative Christian state, now infected and infested with democrat traitors who are working 24/7/365 to destroy the constitution.

    • Right? All the Sunday news shows would have been trotting out suppressors and the papers would be printing ridiculous “what is a suppressor” infographs just like always do with the weapons used but this time it’s radio silence. A backpage photo of the perp is all we get.

  2. Unfortunately, the WH statement is standard awkwardness. The wording invites attacks of callousness. Telling people they cannot live in a cotton candy world of safety is not productive.

    Always loved how the flower children and their cast-offs want federal action regarding local problems. “Mommy, make them do right !”

    • “Unfortunately, the WH statement is standard awkwardness. The wording invites attacks of callousness. Telling people they cannot live in a cotton candy world of safety is not productive.”

      Agreed. And, liberals will point to a state like Hawaii (whose strict gun control laws are next only to California) and beseech whoever will listen that yes, utopia is possible. Neglecting to say that there are pockets of violent crime in Hawaii that the HPD turns their back on with a “wink, wink”. All under the watchful eye of powerful Japan based corporations and their ilk.

  3. “Mulvaney: The Government Can’t Protect Everyone Against Every Deranged Individual”

    Which is what law abiding gunowers have been saying for yrs…IF leftists/liberals want to go unarmed, and leave their fate to “divine” intervention, that’s fine, for the rest of us, I’d prefer to have some sort of say in the matter…

  4. Captain Obvious Mulvaney. Nor can the Govt. protect anyone from the Govt. Hence the Declaration of Independence and the 2A.

  5. Fundamentally, the problem boils down to this: So long as the barriers to exercise of the Constitutional right to arms are low-to-modest, there will be innumerable guns in America. The pool of lawfully-owned guns will remain enormous; from which, guns will leak into the black-market. We might as well discuss how to drain Lake Superior as talk about America’s “too many guns”.

    Only by constraining access to arms extremely tightly (e.g., as in Singapore or Japan) could access to arms be reduced to a level that would make a material difference. But this constraint simply can not be made withOUT repealing/revising the 2A. And, such a repeal/revision is out-of-the-question.

    “Reasonable” “common sense” gun controls are nothing more effective than arranging deck chairs on an ocean liner. It’s fiddling around the edges while the root-cause problems that should be focused on continue smoldering.

    All the money we are spending on ATF and corresponding efforts by state/municipal police are largely wasted. Why regulate the hell out of gun shops when felons buy in the black-market? Why enforce UBC when nearly nothing is done about straw-buying in gun shops?

  6. He should have directly cited cases that show that there is no constitutional obligation of the government to protect an individual. There’s a few out there. That’d have gotten the left going real well.

    • Not to be insensitive but my thoughts were apparently the 45 is still as effective as ever. Unfortunately for the victims.

      Remember it was the Blackface Governor who made it illegal to carry in government buildings in Virginia.

  8. Australia had a mass shooting with someone with a shotgun, resulting in 4 dead. It looks like he did not pick a target rich environment, luckily. But, this must be fake news as this never happens in Australia because of their common sense gun safety laws.

    Or maybe when you have 10% of the population of the United States you have 90% fewer problems as your pool of nut jobs is reduced?

    https://7news.com.au/news/crime/darwin-shooting-man-arrested-after-opening-fire-in-cbd-c-148808

    • I think in this case the “victims” were not random. Considering the assailant is known to police and is associated with Outlaw Motorcycle gangs, there’s more yet to be revealed.

  9. Australia suffers second worst mass shooting since 1996
    https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/australia-suffers-second-worst-mass-shooting-since-1996

    A 45-year-old gunman began opening fire with a pump-action shot gun at a motel in the northern city of Darwin before opening fire at other nearby locations in the city’s central business district around 6 p.m. Monday. Pump-action shotguns are largely prohibited in the country under sweeping legislation passed in the aftermath of the Port Arthur shooting, where 35 people were killed.

    Police said the man was out of prison on parole and was wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet. After about an hour police took the suspect into custody.

    In addition to prohibiting pump-action shotguns, the strict gun control measures passed after the Port Arthur shooting also banned automatic and semi-automatic assault rifles, except in rare circumstances. It also created a national gun registry and a temporary buyback program.

    But there were laws against that! What he did was illegal! How could this happen????

  10. Virginia governor announces special session on gun control

    AP

    Speaking to a standing ovation from gun control advocates, state workers and elected officials, Northam said the massacre in Virginia Beach demands that lawmakers put saving lives before party doctrine.

    Northam’s bills include legislation that directly relates to Friday’s shooting, such as a ban on silencers and high capacity ammunition magazines, as well as broadening the ability of local governments to limit guns in city buildings. But he said other recent shootings, including the death last month of a 9-year-old girl who was shot at a community cookout in Richmond, are also driving his call for a special session.

      • “Governor Blackface is at it again. Did he put on his Klan robes for the farce this time?”

        The only people who will fight the Governor IS THE KLAN and all their conservative supporters who out of embarrassment will not admit they are their supports.

        • That’s “supporters”, Vlad.

          Instead of trolling, why don’t you go to NRA headquarters and chain yourself to the main entrance?

          Take a stand. Make a statement. Put some teeth in your belief.

          ;^)

        • The Plan supports gun control when as it applies to black people. Why do you think Governor Blackface is on the case?

        • The REAL Vlad Tepes was Vlad the Impaler, who brutally murdered thousands of people during his reign of terror in the Transylvania region centuries ago. Our Keyboard Warrior Vlad wouldn’t make a pimple on the arse of the real Vald.
          Why on earth would an allegedly peace loving person choose such a screen name unless they were truly deranged.

        • The “Klan”, an organization that was created by the Democratic Party. Perhaps Vlad should read some history.

    • He must be another believer in the ” If it saves one life” lie.
      Yep, maybe they saved one live.
      Meanwhile a man who might have been able to defend himself from a violent attacker could be beaten into a coma and a women who could have stopped her attacker raped and killed because now the rule is the stronger person prevails. Sam Colts was wrong. God made men, the government wants them to follow the law of the jungle. But they could theoretically, maybe,. perhaps save one live somewhere if we can pass just one more infringing law,.

      Another of the “if” folks

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yakZs-_rWQ0

    • It’s always, still, even today, surprising to me that a politician can say something like ‘making it more illegal to carry a gun into a government office will address the problem of a person hell bent on multiple murder in a government office doing so’ without being roundly and thoroughly heckled. That people applaud this absurdity rather than ridiculing it reveals much about the intellect of the average person.

      The dumb have always been with us, but until very recently it was acceptable, when they spoke up, to remind them how dumb they are, and insist they pipe down while their betters discussed and made decisions. Perhaps the most pernicious and destructive effect of the PC culture is that we must now not only endure the screeching of morons, but actually pretend as if they’ve said something meaningful, and thus be forced to address it.

      Much could be gained by a return to informing the stupid of their plight, and ridiculing them merciously and categorically when they refuse to cease demonstrating their stupidity by speaking in public.

  11. Wasn’t it the Blackface Governor who stopped legally armed citizens from carrying in government buildings?

    What’s needed is Constitutional Carry.

    • He’s a complete fool all around. It’s amazing that people like him are in charge. Hopefully, the republicans in the state congress don’t allow this nonsense. Rural VA is very pro 2A.

  12. “Mulvaney: The Government Can’t Protect Everyone Against Every Deranged Individual”

    He must be referring to Nancy Pelosi.

  13. Violence in the world has increased, graphic, and brutal. At issue is not guns per se, but a culture, cultures giving themselves to violence.
    Like it or not, Bill Gates did more than any man in history to program and introduce violent games into every household on the planet, and we hear crickets from him. No apologies, no corrections, no wisdom from the man who used plastic and tin foil for profit.
    Somebody saw this coming from the shooter, but nobody said anything… probably because he was a minority; don’t want to be racist when it comes to Muslims or Black people eh?

    • “Violence in the world has increased, graphic, and brutal. At issue is not guns per se, but a culture, cultures giving themselves to violence.:

      And thank the Greed Monger Gangster Criminal Republicans from blocking each and every Democratic bill that would have made Mental Health Care available and affordable to those that needed it.

      • Care to list some of those blocked bills? How many have been introduced and passed the House, either this year or in 2008-2009? If they didn’t pass then, it’s the Democrats who are preventing it. If they wanted to show the Republicans as evil, they’d pass it and let the Republican-controlled Senate block it. Keep in mind that budgets start in the House, so why isn’t it in this year’s budget? You don’t have to answer — I know you’re just making baseless claims.

    • Your just wrong. By every conceivable metric violent crime domestically nationally, and deaths due to war, and genocide globally have been declining overall since WWII. there are far fewer international or civil wars taking place now than they were even as recently as the 80’s. The whole apocalyptic outlook so many POTG have just assent supported by facts, it just isn’t and it subtly plays right in to the hysterical anti-gun narrative. The country and the world are changing yes, but neither is getting more violent overall.

    • As a student of history and a dealer in facts you are completely incorrect. What you see around you now is the safest, least violent period of human existence. We are not , by any means, living in some dystopic, crime ridden, ultra violent time period, but rather experiencing the lowest levels of violent crime since the early 1970s, which were themselves an almost shocking calm period of time compared to 100 or 1000 years before. What’s changed is twofold: we are much, much more sensitive to violence than we used to be, and every conceivable violent act is replayed on our television screens 24 hours a day. Don’t be fooled by mass media into thinking we are sinking into some sort of abyss. You are safer from violence now than at virtually any period of human history.

  14. He is so right. Anyone claiming to have a lawnmower and has a red gas container can buy gasoline and as I know road flares aren’t registered. That can create havoc like most snowflakes wouldn’t believe!

    • As Cpl. Klinger once said: “I am Section 8 from head to toe. I wear Mark Warner’s bra…”

  17. The biggest laugh of the interview is when Mulvaney said with a completely straight face that they had taken care of the deficiencies in “the back ground check system”. Chuck Todd should have replied ” Liars do not pass go , go straight to jail” game of Monopoly ended.

    • Fix NICS is law now to cover the NICS miss from the Sutherland church shooting. Care to name the missed disqualifying criteria that should have stopped the VA shooter from buying his guns? Oh, that’s right. There wasn’t a reason, and you’re the one who is lying.

      • “Care to name the missed disqualifying criteria”

        Mulvaney was not speaking of the Virginia Mass Shooting , he was bragging about what Republicans have done so far on the gun problem but neglected to admit that what they did on background checks was little more than pissing in the wind. They needed to change background checks to cover all gun purchases. And it remains to be seen if more comprehensive checking (especially mental health records) would have helped flag this guy before this shooting assuming that the nut case did have a mental health record which is also not covered by most current background checks so then again we cannot say at this point if really improving the background check system would have worked this time or not. We still do not have all the background info on the nut case. Remember the Colorado movie theater shooting. This nut case was under the care of a psychiatrist and the back ground check did not have that info because its against the law currently. Pure insanity and more piles of dead bodies.

  18. The victims in Virginia Beach were murdered by a Government Employee. Now we’re supposed to disarm and let the Government protect us – geez – get a grip!

  20. The gun control nut jobs are reaching cuz,

    That event did not fit the narrative for the gun control communist …..the man was not white and it was not a #AR15 and it was in a government controlled gun free zone where all defenseless murderous attacks occur like sheep awaiting slaughter.

    The gun every CCW Citizen carries are of the same or similar type that police used to stop this nut job.

    Had there been a few citizens armed lives would of been saved cuz we know …only cowards attack innocent unarmed civilians they don’t attack seal team 6 team room.

  21. The nwo run by the Godless elite morons can’t enslave and kill all white men while America is armed to the teeth ask any demonrat when they come kill as many as you can better to die on your feet than begging at theirs

  22. Making good people helpless does not make bad people harmless.
    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.
    Killing is a matter of will, not weapons.
    You cannot control the act itself
    by passing laws about the means employed.”
    The late Col Jeff Cooper, 1958
    Handgun expert and founder of Gunsite Academy
    A politician with a law never stops a bad guy with a gun. He only controls the good guys which is his true agenda.

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