David Clarke: After the Las Vegas Shooting, Make Sure You Focus on the Right Thing

After Stephen Paddock killed over fifty people shooting in Las Vegas, Sheriff David Clarke went on FoxNews to share his opinion on the incident.  “I’ve been in law enforcement nearly 40 years & I’m suspicious about everything,” he tweeted.  “We need to engage the public more.”  However, the host asked him about banning the mechanism that  used to turn a semi-automatic weapon into a more fully automatic weapon.   Clarke responded:

“It’s worthy of discussion, but if you look at the incidents… If someone has a will, they’re going to get around it. I think that’s what happened here. If we just focus on the gun, I think we’re going to be missing something.  It’s estimated that there are over 200 million gun owners in the United States.  Less than 1% would ever think to mow down people like we saw in…San Bernardino and Las Vegas.  What we end up doing is that we sometimes end up working on the wrong thing.  We end up punishing people who had nothing to do with this and would never dream of taking that instrument and using it in this fashion.  Our American system of juris prudence is based on punishing people who break America’s laws, not punishing people who had nothing to do with it.”

Watch the video below:

Discussing #LasVegasShooting, @SheriffClarke says we need to refrain from focusing on the wrong thing. pic.twitter.com/JC5pjmqr0K

— America First (@AmericaFirstPAC) October 4, 2017

Also, he said we might end up with unintended consequences:

"If we work on the wrong thing, we'll end up with the law of unintended consequences." – @SheriffClarke pic.twitter.com/R65FhJ4SZ5

— America First (@AmericaFirstPAC) October 4, 2017

After this interview aired, the NRA made this announcement:

“The NRA believes that devices intended to allow semi-automatic rifles to function like fully automatic rifles should be subject to additional regulations,” Wayne LaPierre and Chris Cox, the group’s top two leaders, said in the statement. “In an increasingly dangerous world, the NRA remains focused on our mission: strengthening Americans’ Second Amendment freedom to defend themselves, their families and their communities.”

Though some journalists believe that the NRA is just saying this as a political strategy — to make sure that Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) handles the issue instead of Congress — Sheriff Clarke’s point remains. If we focus on the gun, we’re missing something important here.
Image Credit: Screen Cap