‘We Didn’t Ban Planes’: GOP’s Boebert Condemns Gun Control Calls With 9/11 Reference
23:01 GMT 27.05.2022 (Updated: 13:29 GMT 06.08.2022)
© AP Photo / Andrew Harnik
Subscribe
Since the most recent mass school shooting in Texas on Tuesday, conservatives have gone into full defensive mode in the face of renewed calls for gun control legislation and fury at those who oppose such measures.
The most recent Republican to sound off in defense of the unrestricted right to obtain and own a firearm was Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), doing so with a hamfisted comparison to the worst terrorist attack in US history.
“When 9/11 happened, we didn’t ban planes - we secured the cockpits,” Boebert told Fox News host Sean Hannity on Thursday.
Drawing such parallels is hardly something new, though: speaking at a National Rifle Association (NRA) event in 2018, then-US President Donald Trump said “It seems that, if we’re going to outlaw guns, like so many people want to do ... we are going to have to outlaw - immediately - all vans and all trucks, which are now the new form of death for the maniac terrorists.”
What both figures failed to mention was that, while neither cars nor aircraft were banned, extensive regulation to confront the causes of the danger followed, including the creation of federal government agencies like the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
In addition, many items were banned from flights, including items like nail files, box cutters, and scissors, that could be used as weapons, and large amounts of liquid that could potentially serve as an explosive device.
However, Boebert did propose a solution to school shootings: arming teachers.
“I want our schools secured,” she continued. “I want their children protected, and I want teachers that can protect themselves and their students. And you know what? We can achieve this without trying to disarm law-abiding citizens. For me, this is my equalizer. I need a way to protect myself and my children. And my firearm is my equalizer, my tool to do that.”
The freshman congresswoman did not explain how she expected Eva Mireles and Irma Garcia, the two fourth-grade teachers who were shot dead by 18-year-old Salvador Ramos when he stormed into their classroom on Tuesday, to return fire - or shoot first.
Miereles and Garcia were just two of the 21 people at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, that Ramos killed - the other 19 were students in the classroom. Police officers gathered for more than an hour outside, refusing to try and “breach” the classroom over fears they might be shot themselves, and arrested parents who attempted to storm the building in disgust at police inaction.
On Friday, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw admitted that it was “the wrong decision” to wait for tactical teams at Uvalde.
In the United States, the Second Amendment to the US Constitution says that “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” For gun ownership advocates like those who enjoy financial backing by the NRA, the passage grants an inviolable entitlement to firearm ownership. However, gun control advocates point specifically to the “well regulated” part of the amendment as evidence of the legality of restricting gun access.
In the wake of an attack on a Buffalo, New York, supermarket earlier this month by a white supremacist gunman who killed 10 Black shoppers, Democrats called for classifying such attacks as domestic terrorism, and Tuesday’s shooting begot a new push for a law requiring background checks on would-be gun buyers prior to the sale. However, in the face of opposition by Republicans and by Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), such a vote is unlikely to proceed or succeed anytime soon.
