One of Gun Owners of America director Larry Pratt’s favorite talking points is that “of the mass murders in the last 20 years, all but one have taken place in a gun free zone.” (That statistic is just plain wrong, but that’s another story).
Speaking with a conservative radio host in Idaho this week, Pratt delved into the one shooting that he counts as an “exception” to this nonexistent trend: the 2011 shooting at Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ “Congress on your Corner” event at a mall in Tucson, which left six dead and Giffords critically injured.
Giffords and the constituents who came to talk with her – including a nine-year-old-girl and a Republican-appointed federal judge -- had it coming, Pratt implies, because “it was a Democrat town hall meeting of a Democrat representative” and Democrats “don’t necessarily, most of them, believe in carrying guns.”
“And so when this dirtbag attacked a town hall meeting,” Pratt continues, “he didn’t find any resistance and he was able to kill a number of people there.”
There was, in fact, a man with a concealed carry permit at the scene in Tucson…and in the confusion of the scene he very nearly shot the wrong man. Meanwhile, the shooter, Jared Loughner was brought down by an unarmed 74-year-old man who tackled him with the help of other bystanders.
Only one out of the mass murders in the last 20 years have been carried out in gun-free zones. And the one, by the way, that was an exception – I’m sorry Democrats that are listening – but it was a Democrat town hall meeting of a Democrat representative in Tucson, Arizona. And, you know, that’s kind of what Democrats are like, they don’t necessarily, most of them, believe in carrying guns. And so when this dirtbag attacked a town hall meeting, he didn’t find any resistance and he was able to kill a number of people there.
