2020 Candidates Blame Trump for the Shootings; Which One of Their Proposals Would Have Prevented These Attacks?

Law enforcement from different agencies work the scene of a shooting at a shopping mall in El Paso, Texas, on Saturday, Aug. 3, 2019. Multiple people were killed and one person was in custody after a shooter went on a rampage at a shopping mall, police in the Texas border town of El Paso said. (AP Photo/Rudy Gutierrez)

Law enforcement from different agencies work the scene of a shooting at a shopping mall in El Paso, Texas, on Saturday, Aug. 3, 2019. Multiple people were killed and one person was in custody after a shooter went on a rampage at a shopping mall, police in the Texas border town of El Paso said. (AP Photo/Rudy Gutierrez)

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Immediately after news of the El Paso, TX and Dayton, OH shootings broke, the 2020 Democratic candidates, with one exception, led the charge against President Trump.

The exception was Former Secretary of Housing Julian Castro. To his credit, he said that one person is responsible for the El Paso massacre – “the shooter.”

More than a few of the candidates recalled Trump saying that “there were very fine people on both sides” following the August 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, VA, words which were taken wildly out of context. In fact, that pillar of patriotism, James Comey, said it as well.

Mayor Pete Buttigieg told voters at the Public Service Forum:

White nationalism is evil, and it is inspiring people to commit murder, and it is being condoned at the highest levels of the American government … The president of the United States is condoning white nationalism. … We are the only country in the world with more guns than people. It has not made us safer. We can respect the Second Amendment and not allow it to be a death sentence for thousands of Americans.

Bernie Sanders reacted exactly as one would have expected:

Americans must reject the dangerous and growing culture of bigotry espoused by Trump and his allies. Instead of wasting money putting children in cages, the U.S. needed to address the scourge of violent bigotry and domestic terrorism.

After every tragedy the Senate, intimidated by the NRA’s power, does nothing. This must change. We need a president and congress that listen to Americans, not the ideology of a right-wing extremist organization. We must pass common sense gun safety legislation. …

We must treat this violent racism like the security threat that it is. That means investing in law enforcement resources to combat the growing population of white nationalists who are engaging in violence.

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Beto O’Rourke proclaimed that, “He is a racist and he stokes racism in this country … it fundamentally changes the character of this country and it leads to violence.”

Some, including Elizabeth Warren, used it as a fundraising opportunity. After insulting President Trump, she sent out a tweet which said, “Republicans won’t act—because gun lobbyists are signing their checks. We must take back the Senate in 2020…Will you chip in to help elect Democrats to the Senate? Let’s build a grassroots movement to beat back the gun lobby and end gun violence.”

Kirsten Gillibrand, whose shameless pandering seems to grate most of all, said:

This growth in racism and white nationalism over the last two years is because president Trump has literally poured gasoline on a fire that’s been burning a long time. He is someone who has used racist language from the White House, someone who has used racist language in his tweets and someone whose rally inspired violence across the country…Mitch McConnell should call the Senate back to Washington today to pass common sense gun reform.

Frontrunner Joe Biden offered the standard words that are always uttered by Democrats after a shooting. “This is beyond anything that we should be tolerating…We can beat the NRA. We can beat the gun manufacturers.”

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All of them were long on rhetoric, but short on answers. Their only solution is a generic call for stricter gun control. But I have two questions for them. First, which of their proposals, past or present, do they believe would have stopped either of these shooters from acting?

Second, according to Wikipedia, 66 mass shootings took place during Obama’s presidency. Why was he never blamed for those attacks?

Should we conduct more comprehensive background checks? Surprisingly, neither shooter in this weekend’s attacks had a substantial criminal record.

Would we see fewer mass shootings if we banned assault weapons?

Should we round up all of the guns from law-abiding citizens?

Kamala Harris seems to think that’s a good idea. The Washington Examiner tweeted that she’s “willing to send cops to people’s homes to confiscate banned firearms.” A twitter user responded, “Alternate headline: Kamala Harris willing to ignore the 4th Amendment in order to violate the 2nd.”

Harris’ remedy sounds just like Eric Swalwell, who dropped out of the race last month.

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Drastic as that sounds, it is precisely what many on the left advocate.

Americans own a huge number of guns. According to Vox, “America has 4.4 percent of the world’s population, but almost half of its civilian-owned guns.”

Realistically, a gun control plan that has any hope of getting us down to European levels of violence is going to mean taking a huge number of guns away from a huge number of gun owners.”

This proposal would leave guns in the hands of the criminals. Additionally, it (almost) goes without saying that any attempt to confiscate “a huge number of guns” from “a huge number of gun owners” would not end well. It’s a completely unreasonable proposal.

I don’t pretend to know what the solution is. Or if there’s a solution. I agree with Julian Castro that the only individuals responsible for the weekend massacres were the shooters themselves.

The 2020 candidates attempts to blame President Trump sound pathetic and lame. We know one thing all of these shooters crave is attention. Yet every time this happens, the media broadcasts their names and photos, giving these psychopaths the recognition they crave.

Democrats seem to relish these shootings because it offers them the opportunity to bash the President once again and to lecture us on liberal principles. Yet none of them provide any workable solutions. Clearly, none of their proposals would have prevented either one of last weekends attacks. Of that, I am sure.

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