Vice President Kamala Harris reacted to Saturday’s shooting in Jacksonville, Florida, by pushing gun control that would not have prevented the attack.
Harris released a statement Sunday noting the shooting was racially motivated and will be investigated “as a possible hate crime and act of domestic violent extremism.”
She closed her statement by saying, “Every person in every community in America should have the freedom to live safe from gun violence. And Congress must help secure that freedom by banning assault weapons and passing other commonsense gun safety legislation.”
Residents gather for a prayer near the scene of a mass shooting at a Dollar General store, Saturday, Aug. 26, 2023, in Jacksonville, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
It should be noted that Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters pointed out the shooter was armed with two guns, a Glock pistol and an AR-15 style rifle. If the rifle had been denied him, he would still have had the pistol and the attack would not be hindered.
Additionally, universal background checks constitute another piece of “commonsense gun safety legislation” that Democrats are pushing. But the Jacksonville shooter bought his guns “legally,” which indicates he passed background checks for them at retail.
WATCH — AWR Hawkins: Universal Background Checks = Gun Registry:
ahawkinsMoreover, Florida has a red flag law, which is often pushed by Democrats as a way to prevent shootings. But the Washington Post noted Waters saying, “There was no criminal arrest history. There is nothing we could have done to stop [the shooting suspect] from owning a rifle or a handgun. There were no red flags.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and a Turning Point USA Ambassador. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010, a speaker at the 2023 Western Conservative Summit, and he holds a Ph.D. in Military History, with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at
