http://twitchy.com/fuzzychimp/2023/08/27/sherriff-t-k-waters-comments-on-the-gun-debate-after-the-jacksonville-murders-n2386632
Sheriff T.K. Waters gave a press conference this afternoon to provide details and answer questions about the racially-motivated murders of three people at a Jacksonville Dollar General store.
As is always the case in these tragedies, the focus of social media, politicians, and the press nearly immediately turned to the politics of the gun debate.
After informing members of the media that the shooter had acquired his firearms legally, a reporter asked ... 'Knowing that he possessed these guns legally, what could have been done? What should have been done?'
Breaking911 (@Breaking911) ~ SHERIFF T.K. WATERS: "The story is always about guns — people are bad — this guy's a bad guy. If I could take my gun off right now, and I lay it on this counter, nothing will happen. It'll sit there — but as soon as wicked person grabs ahold of that handgun and starts shooting people with it — there's the problem."
"The problem is the individual."
http://twitter.com/i/status/1695880638761410904
Sheriff Waters is, of course, right. This is at the core of the gun debate. Bad people do bad things. Those of us who support gun freedoms don't agree with punishing good people because bad people do those things.
The full response by Waters is as follows:
"Well, we have to stop people that have bad intentions. Guns ... the story's always about guns. It's ... the people are bad. This guy's a bad guy. If I could take my gun off right now and lay it on this counter, nothing will happen. It'll sit there, but as soon as a wicked person grabs ahold of that handgun and starts shooting people with it, there's the problem. The problem is the individual. Now, guns are a tool that people use to do horrible things, but it's the individuals that wield these things. So we are working hard to try to stop that, but in this situation, in this case, there was nothing illegal about him owning the firearms."
To be clear, this was not an overtly political statement by the sheriff (elected as a Republican). He was simply making an obvious statement about the nature of criminals who commit such despicable acts of violence.
Until we recognize that our culture is creating monsters, we're not going to prevent these types of atrocities. ...
HOWEVER, everyone needs to realize, IN FACT, we CANNOT do ANYTHING to prevent ALL such atrocities from happening. Troubled people will ALWAYS fall through the cracks from time to time in ANY society, and if a person is committed to perpetrating violence, then more often than not there is NOTHING that can be done to prevent it from happening. The best "preventative" is to have a well-armed society that can react quickly and minimize the damage.
There are some gross political realities here.
Had a black sheriff said people had no business owning 'weapons of war' following the murder of three black Americans, the press would have jumped all over this. We would have wall-to-wall coverage of this statement.
Had a white sheriff spoken the exact same words as Sheriff Waters while managing this horrible situation, the media would have attacked him.
Sheriff Waters will likely be ignored because there's no good angle for the left wing media to fuel a racially divisive gun control argument.
It's disgusting, but that's where we are. For the people of Jacksonville, it's probably for the best because they can move on with healing without the spectacle of politicians using their tragedy for electioneering.
Trevor Zantos (@usgeneral25) ~ I think a lot of people should listen to this sheriff before taking the tragedy in Jacksonville and trying to weaponize it for their own political ends.
Agreed. The sheriff is clearly interested in protecting and serving his community. Politicians will only prolong their grief. ...
Sheriff Waters deserves praise for calling this out. He has to know this type of statement may anger people with political aims, but it's the truth, and he was willing to state it clearly.
The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted. ~ D.H. Lawrence
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