Gun Control Won’t Save Colorado

The March 22, 2021 massacre that saw a 21-year-old man of Syrian origin kill 10 people has sparked the gun control debate yet again.

Democrat President Joe Biden is already calling for prohibitions on assault weapons and magazines, in addition to enhanced background checks. What’s funny is that Colorado already has pretty strong gun control laws on the books. Since the 2012 Aurora movie theater massacre, Colorado has experienced a significant anti-gun drift.

In 2013, then-Governor John Hickenlooper signed legislation that prohibited large-capacity magazines and imposed universal background checks for each and every firearms transaction taking place within the state. Hickenloopers’ successor Jared Polis continued the state’s anti-gun descent by signing a red flag gun confiscation bill into law in 2019.

Regardless of how the media spins this mass shooting, the fact remains that lax gun control laws did not facilitate it. In fact, Colorado congresswoman Lauren Boebert was one of the first people to point this out. 

On Twitter, she noted the following points:

Colorado already has: 

-universal background checks 

-a red flag gun control law

 -large capacity magazine bans 

-domestic violence gun laws 

-an extended background check period 

-state database background checks 

-gun-free zones Killers like Ahmad Al-Issa don’t follow the law.

No amount of gun control would have made a difference in this case. Should Democrats have their way in passing more gun control legislation, similar tragedies like the one Boulder experienced will occur on a more frequent basis. 

Alissa ended up being arrested and is now facing ten counts of first-degree murder. The Boulder incident shows that there are deranged madmen out there and society must find ways to build institutions to make sure these people don’t spiral into insanity. At the same time, private institutions should not take security for granted. Places where large numbers of people congregate should have both lawful gun owners carrying and private security present. 

In the latter case, private security companies can step up to the plate and assume these functions. Wherever there are problems, market actors are ready to provide solutions. The key is that the state step out of the way and let free individuals and associations build effective responses to the very real problems many individuals and society at large face. However, bringing in the state is no answer.

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