No law would have prevented this tragedy

Once again, after a senseless act of violence, gun ownership opponents — including those in the media — rush to penalize millions of lawful firearms owners for something they didn’t do.

The mayhem in Virginia Beach was the act of a man who legally purchased the two pistols recovered by authorities at the scene. He was an employee of the Public Utilities Department, and reportedly had a good work record.

Since this tragedy unfolded, antigun rights advocates have wondered why our nation can’t simply copy what the New Zealand government did following the tragedy at Christchurch. Our Constitution protects the individual right to keep and bear arms, while New Zealand arbitrarily banned a whole class of firearms without a public vote, much less public debate.

Raising this question, however, reveals what the firearms civil rights community has known for many years. The American gun control movement has become a gun prohibition crusade, and proponents are finally admitting it. They would delight in a government effort to confiscate lawfully owned firearms from U.S. citizens while trying to convince the public that this will provide a panacea to violent crime.

No law on the books now, or that has been proposed, would have prevented the Virginia Beach tragedy. Reports say the killer had no criminal record other than traffic violations. He had a college degree and was a veteran of the Virginia National Guard. He passed multiple background checks.

But the predictable knee-jerk reflex of the gun prohibition crowd is to seek tighter restrictions on millions of people who harmed nobody, just to advance their agenda of public disarmament. That’s not justice, it’s social bigotry by people who would never tolerate a similar broad brush policy were it aimed at the rights of any other group.

What a pity the news media rarely cover incidents in which legally armed Americans save countless innocent lives rather than take lives.