OPINION:
Last month, 10 people were killed and more than a dozen others were injured in a Canadian mass stabbing.
Yes, stabbing — not shooting.
Similarly, on Nov. 21, 2021, six people were killed and 62 injured in the Waukesha, Wisconsin, Christmas parade SUV attack.
And of course, on Sept. 11, 2001, four airplanes were hijacked, leading to the murders of 2,996 people on that day alone.
All of these mass-violence events have one thing in common: Not one of these mass murderers used a gun.
These events are further proof that even a full repeal of the Second Amendment with 100% firearm confiscation, which is the seeming goal of the anti-gun left, would not stop the deranged from killing people in mass-violence events.
Indeed, if guns were magically removed from society, there would be more killings — not fewer.
The victims; friends and families won’t feel any better that their mother or father, or husband, wife, son, daughter or friend was murdered by a knife, a truck, or a plane instead of a bullet.
What more proof is needed that it’s not about guns? Where are the calls to ban knives in Canada? SUVs in Waukesha? Airplanes in New York?
Should every Canadian now have to register with the government before buying any bladed device? A chef’s knife? Steak knives?
A butter knife?
We hear that it is imperative to ban guns, or drastically restrict access to them, to stop mass-violence events.
But history teaches that mass violence and mass-killing events will still happen.
Mass murderers don’t care about the instrument of death. For every person who causes a mass-violence event where many people die and are injured, there are millions of others who use the same instrument, every day, responsibly. Knives. Vehicles. Airplanes. And yes, guns.
What Gun Owners of America finds irresponsible is when someone uses a mass-casualty attack to push a political agenda. It is reprehensible and immoral. It insults the intelligence of every American with the most basic understanding of logic and reason — and a sense of morality.
Intent doesn’t care about the instrument of destruction.
We believe in keeping the one thing that ultimately checks the tyranny of government — the Second Amendment. Those who believe all politicians are angels might disagree with us, but that’s not the reality.
The reality is knowing the vast majority of gun owners are responsible. The reality is knowing a community educated in the use of firearms is a safe community. And the reality is knowing that criminals will use anything they can get their hands on to cause destruction— knives, SUVs, and even airplanes.
It is time to accept reality and stop the irresponsible imposition of gun confiscation, gun purchase tracking, a national gun registry, and gun control funding in the name of stopping mass killings.
That is until those pushing such measures are willing to impose knife confiscation, knife purchase tracking, a national knife registry, and knife control funding.
Or is that next?
• John Velleco is executive vice president of Gun Owners of America, a grassroots lobbying organization with more than 2 million members and supporters nationwide.