On Wednesday Democrat presidential hopeful Mike Bloomberg pressed President Trump for more gun control before the facts in the Molson Coors attack were even known.
Bloomberg said he concurred with offering prayers for the families that lost loved ones but insisted Trump go further and sign universal background checks into law.
CNN reported Bloomberg saying: “[Trump] said our prayers should be with the families. I’m sympathetic with that. But what he should have said is, ‘and we’re going to do something about background checks to stop guns being sold to people who shouldn’t buy them.'”
At the time that Bloomberg said this, the only facts known about the shooting were that five innocents were killed and the gunman died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
At roughly 7:40 p.m. ET, Breitbart News reported Milwaukee Police Chief Alfonso Morales noting that the gunman was a 51-year-old male, that all his victims were Molson Coors employees, and that no further information would be available until later in the night.
There were no reports on the type of firearm used, much less on the means of acquisition for that firearm, yet Bloomberg called for Trump to enact more gun controls on gun sales.
House Democrats passed universal background check legislation — H.R. 8 — in February of 2019 and the Senate did not take it up. On September 11, 2019, it was explained that the legislation would not have stopped a single mass shooting during the past decade.
Why? Because nearly every mass shooter of the last decade acquired his guns via a background check.
Here is a list of just some of the attackers who got their guns via background checks:
- Dayton, Ohio, attacker (August 4, 2019)
- El Paso, Texas, attacker (August 3, 2019)
- Gilroy Garlic Festival attacker (July 28, 2019)
- Virginia Beach attacker (May 31, 2019)
- Poway Synagogue attacker (April 27, 2019)
- Tree of Life Synagogue attacker (October 27, 2018)
- Parkland high school attacker (February 14, 2018)
- Texas church attacker (November 5, 2017)
- Las Vegas attacker (October 1, 2017)
- Alexandria attacker (June 14, 2017))
- Orlando attacker (June 12, 2016)
- UCLA gunman (June 1, 2016))
- San Bernardino attackers (December 2, 2015)
- Colorado Springs attacker (October 31, 2015)
- Umpqua Community College attacker (October 1, 2015)
- Alison Parker’s attacker (August 26, 2015)
- Lafayette movie theater attacker (July 23, 2015)
- Chattanooga attacker (July 16, 2015)
- Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal attacker (Jun 17, 2015)
- Muhammad Cartoon Contest attackers (May 3, 2014)
- Las Vegas cop killers (June 9, 2015)
- Santa Barbara attacker (May 23, 2014)
- Fort Hood attacker (April 2, 2014)
- Arapahoe High School attacker (December 13, 2013)
- D.C. Navy Yard attacker (September 16, 2013)
- Aurora movie theater attacker (July 20, 2012)
- Gabby Giffords’ attacker (January 8, 2011)
- The Fort Hood attacker (November 5, 2009)
The few attackers who did not acquire their guns via background checks got them instead via thievery, so universal background checks would not have stopped them either.
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. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.