Bloomberg Businessweek: NRA Not To Blame For Santa Barbara, Gun Control Didn't Work

Bloomberg Businessweek: NRA Not To Blame For Santa Barbara, Gun Control Didn't Work

On May 27 Michael Bloomberg’s Businessweek ran a column acknowledging the impotency of conventional gun control proposals and countering Richard Martinez’s claims that the NRA was to blame for the death of his son Christopher Michael-Martinez.

The column was written by Paul M. Barrett, who says conventional gun control proposals “don’t apply to” Elliot Rodgers, “the suicidal young man determined to express his pain and rage by taking innocent people with him.” 

Barrett says the “Santa Barbara killer…passed background checks–three times–as he bought his Glock and Sig Sauer pistols.” He did not use an “assault weapon” nor did he use “high-capacity” magazines.  And although California has some of the toughest gun laws in the country, Barrett admits the laws did not stop Rodger or “even significantly slow” him down. 

Barrett also says the NRA cannot be blamed for Rodger’s actions. He says Martinez’s anguish is understandable, “but the NRA didn’t kill young Chris. Elliot Rodger did.”

Then Barrett returns to his first point and claims California politicians were not to blame either, as “they passed stiff gun control laws,” all of which proved futile to stop a determined assailant. 

Barrett suggests the only gun control that could work “would be broad weapons bans and confiscation,” neither of which he believes will ever happen. 

Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter @AWRHawkins  Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. 

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