Second Amendment Foundation Blasts Anti-Gun Comments Following NYC Terror Attack

by Tom Knighton: The Second Amendment Foundation took issue with anti-gun activists following the New York City terrorist attack on Halloween. The problem isn’t so much what they’ve said. It’s more what they haven’t said.

You see, they haven’t said anything.

From a press release from the SAF:
With at least eight people dead and more injured in a truck attack in New York City, the Second Amendment Foundation today condemned the hypocrisy of anti-gunners for remaining silent because the suspect did not use a firearm to create mayhem.

“When are the gun control zealots going to admit that the problem we’re facing isn’t guns, it’s violence,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “While most Americans are alarmed and saddened by Tuesday’s horrible events, the gun control crowd, including Mayor Bill de Blasio, hasn’t immediately started screaming about ‘truck violence’ or ‘truck control.’

“Only when a firearm is used do these extremists focus on the weapon,” he continued. “Nobody’s talking about banning trucks. There hasn’t been a rush to the microphones to demand background checks for people who drive pickups. But if a gun had been this madman’s weapon of choice, you would already be hearing shouts for more restrictions on the Second Amendment.”

“Police shot the suspect and he is now in custody. He left a trail of broken bodies in his path before law enforcement managed to take him down…with a gun,” Gottlieb noted.

“Our hearts and prayers are with the victims and their families,” Gottlieb said. “And our hope is that in the midst of this madness, people can come together and understand that you cannot blame the tool. It’s the black heart of the individual who commits such a heinous act.

“Tens of millions of law-abiding Americans use firearms responsibly every day,” he observed, “and they also drive along our highways, city streets and county roads without harming a soul. Their driving privileges are never threatened when some lunatic runs over a crowd of people, but let one criminal commit a crime with a gun, and suddenly all of us are slandered.

“The problem isn’t gun violence or truck violence,” he said. “The problem is violence, and we’ve got to deal with this problem together.”Gottlieb has a very valid point.

It’s even more valid when you remember that driving is not considered a constitutionally protected right, unlike the right to keep and bear arms. This is a protected right that is constantly under assault despite that status.

He’s also right that the issue is violence. That’s always been the issue, not the weapon used. As has been noted after mass casualty attacks before, the presence or lack of a gun doesn’t have anything to do with whether an attack can happen. In October, we at Bearing Arms reported on three mass attacks. The one in Las Vegas was massive, but on October 18, we noted an attack in Maryland. In that attack, the gunman shot and killed three people. He had a gun and killed three. Three other people were wounded.

In New York City, the terrorist had a truck and killed eight. That’s five more dead than in Maryland, and only two fewer than at the Umpqua Community College shooting in 2015. None of this was even close to the horrors of the Bastille Day attack in Nice last year. That attack also used a truck yet was more deadly than the Las Vegas shooting.

While anti-gun crusaders are heading out to weaken our ability to defend ourselves against the predators in this world, they routinely ignore the reality that violence can come in many forms and can be even more deadly without a firearm. If you want to make the world safer, stop focusing on the weapons used and start addressing the roots of various types of violence.

But then again, that wouldn’t give them quite the opportunity to tell us all how we should be living our lives. Go figure.
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Tom Knighton is a Navy veteran, a former newspaperman, a novelist, and a blogger at Bearing Arms. He lives with his family in Southwest Georgia and contributes to PJ Media.

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