On The Rachel Maddow Show, retired ATF Special Agent In Charge, Jim Cavanaugh ripped open carry laws that allowed a mass shooter to carry his gun into a Boulder, CO supermarket.
Video:
Retired ATF Special Agent Jim Cavanaugh told #Madow that America needs to rethink open carry laws after the Boulder shooting. Cavanaugh makes the argument that these laws make it easier for criminals to carry out their crimes. pic.twitter.com/7O1gBHO8sG
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) March 23, 2021
Cavanaugh said:
But, look, here is the problem we have in America with these open carry laws. If you’re in a supermarket checkout line and a man is walking across the parking lot carrying a rifle in a state that allows people to open carry rifles, is he an active shooter, coming to shoot everybody at the supermarket, or is he a man carrying a lawful rifle? That’s why these laws are so bad. We don’t need those kind of laws, open carry. We have had them for years in America. The guy can walk in. Who knows what he’s going to do with his rifle. So, you know, it’s just sad. It’s sad we’ve got to do that. It doesn’t prevent people from owning a rifle.
It doesn’t prevent people from using a rifle to target shoot, protect themselves, hunt. Why have we got to allow them to carry it across the parking lot of a supermarket, and until he decides to pull the trigger is the only time we could be alerted to what he might do. America should rethink a lot of these open carry laws. These people don’t even need to hide the gun to walk into where they’re going to do their mass killing. We don’t know exactly what he did here. Maybe he did hide the gun or didn’t hide the gun. He’s in a supermarket reportedly with a long gun, and, from what little information the reporters could glean, there’s some mass casualties.
The Boulder Police aren’t releasing much information, but this is a mass casualty mass shooting. Rachel Maddow’s coverage of the situation in Boulder has been grounded and based on common sense.
The gun lobby (NRA) continues to push the lie that anyone who doesn’t want everyone to have as many guns as they want is trying to confiscate all weapons.
The reality is that open carry laws make it easier for criminals to commit their crimes. The Second Amendment says nothing about the right to carry a weapon in public. It is common sense. Without open carry laws, a guy walking across a supermarket parking lot with a long gun would not have been treated like a normal piece of the scenery.
A little common sense would go a long way toward preventing mass shootings.
For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.
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Mr. Easley is the founder/managing editor, who is White House Press Pool, and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
