The Oregon Elementary Shooting: Yet Another Reminder that Gun Control is not the Answer

The left has been mysteriously quiet about gun violence and the need to limit access to so-called assault weapons for some time. While Democrats talked endlessly about the obviously horrific tragedies at Sandy Hook and Parkland, the Democratic Party has had very little say about gun control since Trump was elected for his second term in 2024. With the midterms fast approaching, the same left that created the inflation that has led to the current high prices seen throughout the US economy now claims to be ready to solve the so-called affordability crisis. Democrats have largely stayed on the party’s economic-based message over the last month, though, with few mentions of climate change, gun control, and other core issues of the left’s agenda.

This changed on Thursday as news broke of the shooting at an elementary school in Oregon. While the facts are still coming out, initial reports suggest that 4 people were killed by a gunman at Silver Trail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon. Little is currently known about the alleged assailant at this time. The shooting stopped when a good samaritan killed him with gun. Still, despite the lack of clarity surrounding this event, potential presidential candidates such as the Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro were quick to discuss the need for more gun control and other so-called reforms. Well-known Democratic operative Rahm Emmanuel infamously once said that no crisis to go to waste, and the left seemed to once again be taking this concept to heart in the aftermath of the recent tragedy.

The Democratic Party likes to talk about gun control for a number of reasons, but even the most ardent proponents of these policies have had to table their absurd opinions over the last two years as the crime rate has fallen to a near 40-year low. Indeed, the crime rate has plummeted since President Trump was elected in 2024, and the 47th leader of the US accomplished this feat without a single gun control policy. There have been several initiatives that have been very successful at lowering the crime rate over the last several decades, the most notable being the 1994 crime bill, none of these policies have included gun control. Unsurprisingly, there is also no evidence that any of the gun control reforms passed, such as the Brady Bill, had any effect on violence levels whatsoever.

The real reason the left pushes gun control is that these radicals can’t stand the idea that the average citizen has access to firearms that are as powerful as the weapons law enforcement can use. Even though nearly 90 percent of gun violence occurs with handguns, the left focuses exclusively on so-called assault weapons, a political term that cannot even be defined. Also, while nearly 9 out of every 10 gunfire deaths occur with handguns, the remaining 10 percent of lives lost to guns include accidental deaths and suicides. Literally less than 3 percent of gun deaths annually in the US are the result of what Democrats refer to as assault weapons.

The left wants to control the weapons citizens have access to, but these radicals have zero interest in taking any action aimed at the underlying factors that caused the violence. Even though nearly 80 percent of black kids in urban areas are growing up without fathers and almost 90 percent of the gun violence in most cities is black-on-black, the Democratic Party refuses to talk about family values or the need to have two parents in the home. These liberals would rather deflect and focus on imaginary issues such as so-called police brutality, when the streets are too often raising black kids. The main reason why crime was out of control after COVID was because of the Democratic shutdowns and failed experiment with virtual learning that took kids out of the school system during the week. No one should be surprised that 18 of the most violent cities in the US are run by Democrats. The states with the strictest gun laws such as Illinois and California, also tend to have higher rates of gun violence than state with higher rates of gun ownership, such as Texas and Florida. The absurd and misleading claim that red states have a higher rate of violence than blue states is completely disingenuous because the crime is occurring in cities such as Atlanta run by the Democratic Party.

Drunk drivers kill far more people than so-called assault weapons every year. No rational person thinks banning alcohol or cars is the answer, most Americans rightly recognize the issue is a lack of personal responsibility. The same argument holds true for gun violence. The fact is that people kill, not weapons, and those individuals engaging in murder should be brought to justice. There is a reason why the Founding Fathers put the right to bear arms in the Second Amendment, and as former Justice Antonin Scalia stated in the Heller decision, individuals have a clear constitutional right to own guns. With rights come responsibility, and if Americans were asked to give up a right every time someone behaved irresponsibly, the nation would look like Nazi Germany. The left’s attempt to use the recent Oregon shooting, which almost certainly was more of a mental health issue at a time when crime is at a 40-year low in most states, is both patently political and completely misguided.