It is not surprising that the tragic Annapolis shooting that took the lives of five innocent Capital Gazette employees is being used by gun control activists to restrict the sale of firearms across the United States. Equally not surprising is the fact that these activists and the many journalists who back them have not taken time to examine the facts surrounding the shooting and the simple way it could have been prevented without resorting to gun grabbing.
First of all, it is important to note that Maryland has more stringent gun controls that almost any other state in the country. The state bans “assault” weapons, high capacity magazines and bump stocks. Furthermore, the state’s licensing system requires that anyone who guys a firearm in the state provide their fingerprints and undergo training.
Maryland is also one of only a handful of states that has a red flag law which permits law enforcement officials or family members to formally ask a state court to temporarily remove firearms from a person who could pose a danger to the community. This law would have actually stopped gunman Jarrod Ramos from obtaining a weapon due to the fact that he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor harassment charge against a former classmate in 2011, and then tried to sue the Capital Gazette for covering his case. However, the law was only passed this April, and does not come into effect until October.
Thomas Marquardt, who was the publisher of the Capital Gazette at the time when the gunman filed an unsuccessful lawsuit against the paper, reported the gunman’s threats to local police officials back in 2013 but the police didn’t follow up on the matter and the newspaper’s lawyers decided not to file a restraining order against Mr. Ramos even though the publisher made it clear that he felt Mr. Ramos posed a threat to newspaper employees.
It is also worth noting that Jarrod Ramos did not attempt to use an assault weapon; instead, he used a legal pump-action shotgun that he purchased a year before the act. He did not have either a criminal or psychiatric record that would have prevented his from making the purchase. What is more, the mandated background check for non-federally licensed gun dealers championed by gun control advocates such as former congresswoman Gabby Giffords would not have prevented Mr. Ramos from buying a gun.
Nonetheless, the facts surrounding the case have not prevented Democrats in Congress from turning gun control into an issue yet again. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi made it a point to blame Congress for the shooting. Congressman Chris Murphy said that other politicians who do not vocally support gun control are effectively encouraging shooters throughout the country to murder innocent civilians. Senator Tammy Baldwin was not as blunt, but did encourage her fellow senators to back gun control measures in the hope of preventing future shootings.
Shootings are always tragic. The loss of even a single innocent life is not to be taken lightly. It is not surprising that the Capital Gazette staff members that survived the incident, together with the family members of those who lost loved ones in the horrific shooting, are furious that the gunman was able to purchase a firearm and shoot up their building. They, like many others who have survived mass shootings, are naturally inclined to advocate for stricter gun control measures that would ostensibly prevent similar tragic incidences in the future.
However, it is imperative that the government officials who are responsible for making and passing laws at a state and federal level examine the facts surrounding shootings instead of basing decisions on knee-jerk reactions. Many popular gun control measures that gun control advocates have been pushing across the nation were already in place in Maryland, and failed to prevent the tragedy. While some of these laws may prevent some people from buying guns and using them to murder innocent civilians, they cannot prevent an angry, deranged individual who wants to commit murder from doing so.
~ Conservative Zone
The Democrat Party is home base for MS-13, Antifa & BLM and they demand that we give up our guns to them. Come November, we the people are going to show the Fascist, Globalist Democrats the door.
A man just stabbed 9 people last week, do we also ban all knives after all the knife made him do it. Maybe the dem’s would prefer to ban the automobile, after all more people are killed by the automobile each year than with guns and knives combined. Just how stupid will they get, democrats and republicans alike, all are useless. Vote everyone out of office, lets
start with a complete new slate. Trump should start by firing all the Obama holdovers.
Just look at London and you can see just how far they want to go to abolish freedom while protecting criminals by diverting attention to inanimate objects rather than the criminal or actual cause of the crime.
you will also just how badly they failed at “making safe places” despite getting all the BANS they wanted.
GUN CONTROL IS A TREASONOUS ACT AGAINST THE CITIZEN GOVERNMENT OF THIS NATION AND THE DUELY ELECTED BY THE MAJORITY THE POTUS AND HIS ADMINIDTRATION ETC.!!!
the ignorance of palosi and her far left loons who scream gun control are just to dumb to put the blame where it belongd– squre on the backs of the da and the police of Annapolis, the had ample warnings from the owner of the paper and family members
The PURPOSE of the Second Amendment Is to prevent over-reaching Government from taking us over and negating our Constitution. As it happens, that is EXACTLY what the Democrats intend to try to do. They always couch this “for achieving “justice” for the disadvantaged. No, it is not anything of the sort. It is and has always been a PUSH to get power. Our Nation’s founders understood this.
Sanjosemike (no longer in CA)
I’m pretty sure the LEO’s only arrest threats they see with their own eyes…after all the boys in the black robes have said the police aren’t there to protect the citizens, only effect an arrest after the crime has been committed.
We can only speculate or guess on how it exactly happened, but we have one man against a room full of people and he managed to shoot and kill five of them in an enclosed space.
I would guess that they were all totally in shock and may have just frozen making themselves easy victims. The other probability is that this man had a vendetta and was emotionally driven and already in a mindset to kill everyone. And he didn’t go looking for an “Evil black rifle” to carry out his plan, but grabbed what was available.
The point is that despite any gun control measures, he was going to shoot these people and in lieu of a firearm, he’d have used his car or some other type of weapon, set the building on fire, or used any means to get his revenge. Against a person like that, one’s best chances are to be armed as well.
Quote;
Senator Chuck Schumer; “Time and time again,we find progressive laws getting struck down. And it’s always, always, the ones the Constitution is against.
Those right-wing judges don’t think for themselves, they just do what the Constitution says. And it’s time for that to end.
“… they (right-wing judges) just do what the Constitution say. And it’s time for that to end.” Huh?? Say what??
Pete, please say where Schumer said that so I can use it against all my flaming liberal acquaintances! A link will be nice.
I can understand how a handgun may have been slipped in. How did the shooter get bast their security with a shotgun? Those are very hard to conceal. I think there is a lot more we are not being told.
Democrats show no willingness to compromise on gun control.If they were to eliminate all local,extreme gun control measures,for one country wide reasonable law,maybe we could talk.Instead,they want to continue allowing local cities and states to enact extreme anti gun freedom laws,while seeking more gun control on the Federal level.
After thousands of restrictions that FAILED to do as promised or the violations of were outright ignored by the authorities the people are waking up to the fact that it is NOT THE GUNS or the LEGAL GUN OWNERS that are the problem.
The lies they keep spouting have been proven wrong on so many occasions and in so many nations that have already adopted what they want to impose on the US citizens that no one who is intelligent believes them.
Remember under the existing laws in Maryland the man in question was NOT legally in possession of a gun having made outright threats against his now victims for years before carrying out the threats he made.
The question people should be asking themselves is WHY WAS THE CRIMINAL the only one present that was armed not HOW TO DISARM MORE LAW ABIDING CITIZENS. CRIMINALS break existing and future laws they chose to violate making something a law does not STOP the crime all it does is define the action as a crime and what punishment the GOVERNMENT can administer AFTER THE CRIME has happened.
The GUN restrictions they want to impose are All based on the HOPE criminals will suddenly decide to obey the new law even after showing no interest in obeying existing laws that get in their way resulting in places like London where criminals have used FULL AUTO weapons, BOMBS, and chemicals against their UNARMED victims. The governments response is not to do anything about the criminals but to increase their BANS on INANIMATE objects the criminals used to aid their crimes.
Gun control laws will never prevent a shooting. Maryland’s gun control laws are just about as strict as any state’s, and didn’t stop Jarrod Ramos. If Ramos’ guns had been seized for any reason, he would probably have just stolen some. Once someone sets out to kill someone else, he won’t be deterred by any laws.
We’re not ignoring anything, we’re just tired of hearing that the perp was “KNOW TO AUTHORITIES”, or had sent multiples letters and had hundreds of hours of BS on facebook or some other leftist social site.
There are a few misstatements in this article about MD. There is a requirement for training, etc., only for the purchase of a handgun, not for a shotgun or rifle. High capacity magazines are not illegal in MD; it is only illegal to transfer them in MD. If one owns one already or buys one in another state and brings it into MD, it is legal for that individual, and it may be used. The assault weapons list is a joke because, as pro-gun people have been arguing for years now, there are so many functionally identical guns which are not banned. Whenever anyone suggests gun control after something like this I always invite them to write the exact language, without running afoul of the 2nd Amendment as interpreted by SCOTUS, that would have prevented it.
It is so sad that today young one cannot add or subtract simple math without a calculator or computer, try to pay them in cash at a fast-food place and you will see. I have asked some children who claimed to be smart to tell me what happen in history on 12-07-42 at6 0700 in Hawaii. They did not know because true history, reading nor math is really taught in our schools anymore, what is taught is a bunch of so-called political correctness and socialism pile of crap including in elementary/junior high and colleges.
Brainwashed to insanely to believe what America has fought for including Freedom by our proud Veterans who the claims were stupid fools to die with a gun. These young people who now claim “we need to rid America with guns” will reap the dim reality of all third world countries of being dominated by evil, with NO rights or freedom they have today. But to become the peasants of a dictator who will you rather than see you.
History has taught us that the way to peace is with an strong armed defense, a lesson that so many including the members of the federal Government never learned, so they brainwash children like Adolf Hitler did to push their way of thinking and millions here will die if American stays on this unholy path.
Remember the millions who were unarmed around the world under the idiotic of New World Order of the Socialist Democratic Party who believe the American should be overran by Illegal and Radical muslin who claims they have more rights than any true American. USMC.
if one legal law abiding citizen was in each business armed with an ar-15 auto rifle or hand gun it would be impossible for any criminal actor to harm many people inside the business or building ,security is cheap and so are .556 and .45 acp rounds for a pistol.this is what I would never live in an active Democrat gun control state ,
To hell with Gun Controllers, their idiotic fellow travelers, and the ridiculous ideas trumpeted by both.
IN MOST CASE’S THESE EVENTS COULD AND SHOULD HAVE BEEN STOP LONG
BEFORE THE EVENT TOOK PLACE. THE LAW KNEW AND WAS AWARE OF THIS STUFF
WEEKS BEFORE IT HAPPEN. SO, THE FOR IT WAS IN ALL REALITY THE LAW FAULT THAT
THE KILLINGS TOOK PLACE. LIKE FLORIDA THE LAW KNEW AND DID NOTHING TO STOP THESE
KILLINGS THIS GUY SHOULD HAVE BEEN IN JAIL 4 TO 6 WEEKS BEFORE HE DID THESE KILLINGS
WHEN THE LAW GOES TO A PERSONS HOUSE 40 ODD TIMES AND DOES NOTHING. THERE IS
SOMETHING WRONG WITH THE LAW, NOT THE GUNS BEING USED. THE FBI KNEW THE CIA KNEW
THE STATE AND LOCAL PLICE DEPT. KNEW AND ALL DID NOTHING TO STOP THIS GUY.
SO, HOW DO YOU BLAME ” THE GUNS ” BEING USED ‘ THE FAULT ‘
THE FLORIDE LAW FORCE IS TO BLAME FOR ALL THIS MESS. ” NOT THE GUNS ”
YES, THE IGNORANT PEOPLE..’NUTS ” ARE TO BLAME. ” NOT THE GUNS ” GUNS DON’T KILL IGNORANT, NUTS DO KILL..
I’m glad we still have laws in America that support private gun ownership. Gun ownership is more than a Constitutional right, but is a Biblical responsibility. In his book “Bible Law VS The United States Constitution,” Rev Ted Weiland refers to 7 Scriptures that justify owing weapons for protection of self and family: Exodus 22:2-3, Deut 22:23-24, Psalm 149:6-9, Luke 11:21, 12:39, 22:36, and 1Tim 5.