The White House wasted little time on Thursday before it pointed to the shooting at Perry High School in Iowa to drum up support for more gun restrictions, though the “solutions” offered by the Biden administration wouldn’t have stopped the attack.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, speaking for Biden, called on Congress to enact several gun control laws in response to the shootings; “universal” background checks, a ban on so-called assault weapons, and prohibiting “large capacity” magazines. Based on what we know of the attack and the teen who carried it out, however, none of those measures would have made an impact at all.
The killer was 17-years-old, so he was too young to lawfully purchase a firearm under both federal and Iowa law. Authorities say the cowardly killer used a pump-action shotgun and a “small caliber handgun” to carry out his attack on students and staff as classes resumed after the Christmas break, not an “assault weapon”, but that didn’t stop Jean-Pierre from trying to pin the blame on the guns her boss so desperately wants to ban. This is just the latest example of the Biden administration has using shootings where other types of firearms were used to call on Congress to approve a ban on semi-automatic rifles, and sadly, it won’t be the last.
While Jean-Pierre was stumping for more gun control, the police investigating the shooting had a much different request on Thursday afternoon:
Iowa State Patrol Sgt. Alex Dinkla said after an afternoon news conference that if anyone sees disturbing social media posts they should call 911.
“Report it. Let authorities know,” Dinkla said. “If you see something, say something. That’s always a good lesson I think everybody should always go by. You never know when it might affect or change somebody’s life or save somebody’s life.”
As I suspected would be the case, the killer made repeated social media posts in the hours before he carried out the shootings, including a post on TikTok taken from inside a school bathroom with a duffel bag by his feet, the caption “Now we wait”, and the song “Stray Bullet” by KMFDM, which has gained some notoriety and popularity among that twisted subculture that glorifies the Columbine killers because one of them used it on his personal website.
According to a Secret Service report on active school shooters, about 90 percent of those who planned or carried out their attack said something beforehand that could have triggered (and in some cases did trigger) an investigation; either to a friend or family member, fellow students or staff, or online. Dinkla’s request that the public alert authorities when they see a disturbing post indicating imminent violence is both far more practical and effective than Biden’s call for new federal gun laws, at least when it comes to preventing these terrible tragedies.
Joe Biden isn’t running for re-election on a platform of “see something, say something”. He’s hoping to generate a wave of support for restricting our Second Amendment rights and ride it into another four years in the White House, and that means putting the facts aside in favor of a false narrative that more gun control would have made a difference. It’s not the first time that this administration has exploited a senseless tragedy to target a fundamental civil right, and sadly, it won’t be the last time we see this kind of despicable politicization of a community’s grief and horror to advance his anti-gun agenda and reelection hopes.
