By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
Just over a month after a deranged killer murdered 18 people in a mass shooting rampage that stretched to two different locations in Lewiston, Maine, the state’s largest newspaper has published an editorial criticizing state lawmakers for having rejected what it called “a handful of simple, unimposing gun control proposals” earlier in the year.
The Portland Press Herald declared in a Sunday editorial, “Come Jan. 3, the same lawmakers have an opportunity to pass emergency legislation that would – at minimum – right the shameful oversights of the first legislative session.”
The 687-word editorial wants background checks on private gun sales, ignoring the fact that Lewiston killer Robert Card bought his guns legally at retail, prior to the incident. He had to have passed a background check. His attempt to purchase a suppressor (silencer) a few months before the rampage tripped him up because he truthfully answered one question on the federal form that he had been in an institution. So the current background check process worked.
The newspaper wants a waiting period, but does not elaborate on how long such a wait should be. Since Card purchased his guns sometime prior to the incident, it is unlikely a waiting period would have made any difference, other than inconveniencing lots of other people who committed no crime.
Elsewhere in the editorial, the Press Herald laments, “The Giffords Law Center (founded by Rep. Gabby Giffords after she survived a shooting in 2011) gives Maine an “F” grade for gun safety, along with 24 other states. There’s absolutely no reason we should still be part of this pitiful group.”
Who put the Giffords Law Center in charge of “grading” states’ gun laws? For that matter, who gave the Giffords Law Center carte blanche to define “gun safety?”
In an earlier editorial, the newspaper stated, “Contrary to what the propaganda has people believing, background checks work.” Well, history suggests this is a “yes and no” answer. A check prevented Card from purchasing the silencer, but it didn’t prevent him from buying the firearm.
Elliot Rodger, the Isla Vista, California killer passed three background checks over the course of weeks or months when he bought three different handguns, all in the Golden State prior to his 2014 rampage during which he fatally shot three people. California also has a ten-day waiting period, and a ban on “large capacity” magazines.
Stephen Paddock, the Las Vegas mass shooter, accumulated firearms over the years in several states, according to Wikipedia. During the lengthy investigation, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives determined his gun purchases were all legal, so he had to have passed multiple background checks.
Audrey Elizabeth Hale, the trans killer at the Covenant School in Nashville, who identified as Aiden Hale, also passed background checks during the purchases of seven firearms over the course of almost two years. Hale had been under care for an “emotional disorder,” according to a Wikipedia account, but had no criminal record which might have prevented the transactions.
Several other high-profile crimes involved perpetrators who all passed background checks, so the newspaper editorial might be considered by critics to include a little “propaganda” of its own.
There are never easy answers following a tragedy, but newspaper editorial boards seem to invariably fall back on gun control as a viable solution, even when it should be obvious the effectiveness of such suggestions is open to question.
