Memphis – -(AmmoLand.com)- The situation with violent crime in Memphis, Tennessee, is horrific and completely unacceptable. It is also something Second Amendment supporters need to mention constantly.
You’ve probably heard of the appalling kidnapping/murder of a 34-year-old kindergarten teacher who was just out for her morning run. How about the live-streaming shooter? The latter, by the way, as a convicted felon (even with the plea-bargain that reduced an attempted murder charge to aggravated assault), was prohibited under 18 USC 922 from even touching a gun.
Yet, he still got his hands on one. Memphis’s mayor is rightly angry about the release, but we, as Second Amendment supporters, should not hesitate to point out that the bad guys are getting guns. When someone has a conviction for attempted murder, even if they’ve served their sentence, they need to be prohibited from owning any sort of firearm.
Of course, we won’t see anti-Second Amendment extremists raising much outrage over the Memphis live-streaming shooter. There would be too many inconvenient questions they’d have to answer. Here’s a list of some of those:
- Do you think plea-bargaining attempted murder to aggravated assault was a good idea?
- Why did this person get out after serving less than a third of his sentence?
- Given the multiple failures of the criminal justice system, do you really think passing new gun laws is the answer?
Honest answers to those questions would make anti-Second Amendment extremists look bad. Trying to spin it into making guns and the National Rifle Association the real problem would look like a blatant yet pathetic attempt to gaslight people. At this point, no wonder they’re doing a disappearing act.
However, while simply slamming the failures in Memphis (and other cities in the same boat) can be enough for gains in the short term, Second Amendment supporters can and should do more in this case. They need to actually solve the problems and break the pattern that leads to too many of these shootings. It is far better to not have a desperate fight to protect our rights at all because we’ve headed off the problem than it is to win a desperate fight in the aftermath of a mass shooting.
It’s not much different form when discussing the events at the Greenwood Mall. Eli Dicken was a hero – that is not in dispute. But the armed citizen needs to be seen as a last resort – and we need to show through words and our efforts on the legislative front and elsewhere that we mean it as a last resort.
Second Amendment supporters will need to work hard to defeat anti-Second Amendment extremists via the ballot box at the federal, state, and local levels later this year. But the long-term fight is going to involve focusing attention on the real reasons for the violent crimes and mass shootings we get scapegoated for.
About Harold Hutchison
Writer Harold Hutchison has more than a dozen years of experience covering military affairs, international events, U.S. politics and Second Amendment issues. Harold was consulting senior editor at Soldier of Fortune magazine and is the author of the novel Strike Group Reagan. He has also written for the Daily Caller, National Review, Patriot Post, Strategypage.com, and other national websites.
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