Breaking news of more tragic gun death in America, as reported by the CBC:
“It’s worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year, so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights,” he said during an April 5, 2023, appearance at the Salt Lake City campus of Awaken Church. “That is a prudent deal.”
[…]
Moments before Kirk was shot on Wednesday, numerous livestreams of the event showed an audience member asking him how many mass shooters in the last 10 years have been transgender Americans.
“Too many,” Kirk responded.
The person said five was the number, then asked Kirk if he knew how many mass shooters in total America had seen in the last 10 years. “Counting or not counting gang violence?” Kirk replied.
Seconds later, a loud crack that sounded like a gunshot rang out and Kirk was seen briefly moving his hand to his neck before falling from his chair…
The victim was known for speeches advocating mass proliferation of guns as the solution to gun violence.
How did we stop all the shootings at gun shows? Notice there’s not a lot of mass shootings at gun shows, there’s all these guns. Because everyone’s armed. If our money and our sporting events and our airplanes have armed guards, why don’t our children?
Because everyone is armed? That sounds like war, and there’s a lot of death in war. The end of killing is denoted by the point where almost everyone puts away their guns. This was the real history of the Old West as well, not the fantasy version, as towns strictly banned guns to keep the peace.
Dodge City, Tombstone, and Deadwood often required visitors to check their firearms with the sheriff upon entering town. Literally the exact opposite of what the victim had been telling his large crowds.
Dodge City formed a municipal government in 1878 and its first ordinance, for example, stated:
Any person or persons found carrying concealed weapons in the city of Dodge or violating the provisions of this ordinance, shall be fined in any sum not exceeding one hundred dollars or be imprisoned not exceeding thirty days.
Tombstone had similar laws, and even the famous O.K. Corral gunfight partially stemmed from the Earps enforcing the town’s gun ordinance, officials removing guns to keep the peace after the Clanton gang had refused to disarm in town.
Josephine Marcus Earp later recalled:
…in all our years together, he [Wyatt Earp] never described a gun battle to me. He considered it a great misfortune that he had lived in such a time and under such circumstances that guns had figured at all in his career.
Kirk’s argument that gun shows don’t have mass shootings because “everyone’s armed” reflects his philosophy that increased danger creates deterrence. This directly contradicts common sense and how actual frontier communities achieved peace, through regulation and control, not proliferation.
His tragic death from gunfire has drawn bipartisan condemnation from political leaders across the spectrum. This violence represents the breakdown of democratic discourse, regardless of one’s position on any particular issue.
The post-Civil War period, despite its many challenges, saw the end of the massive armed conflict precisely because one side laid down their weapons. Or as President Grant put it:
Grant, the greatest General and President in American history, told use to choose peace over the escalation of armed conflict. Having seen more armed conflict than perhaps any American leader, his choice to memorialize “Let us have peace” rather than any celebration of military victory speaks volumes about what he learned from that experience.