A Florida sheriff has shredded the Democrats’ favorite anti-gun narrative in the wake of a shooting in Jacksonville over the weekend.
During a press conference on Sunday, Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters rebuked the Democrat narrative that blames guns, not people, for atrocities in which a firearm is used.
On Saturday, a 21-year-old gunman opened fire at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville.
The shooter murdered three people before killing himself.
The perpetrator left behind multiple manifestos, authorities said.
The manifestos revealed the gunman’s motive for carrying out the attack.
The attacker was “racially motivated” by his “hate” for black people, law enforcement said.
At a press conference providing an update about the attack, a reporter asked Waters “what should have been done” to prevent the atrocity.
The reporter appeared to be trying to lead the sheriff into making an anti-Second Amendment statement.
However, Waters explained that the problem is not guns.
The problem is the people who use them in an evil manner.
“The story is always about guns,” Waters said, blasting the leftist narrative.
“People are bad — this guy’s a bad guy,” he asserted.
“If I could take my gun off right now, and I lay it on this counter, nothing will happen.
“It’ll sit there — but as soon as wicked person grabs ahold of that handgun and starts shooting people with it — there’s the problem.”
“The problem is the individual,” he added.
“Now guns are a tool that people use to do horrible things.
“But it’s the individuals that wield these things.
“So we are working hard to try to stop that.
“But in this situation, in this case, there was nothing saying—, there was nothing illegal about him owning the firearms.”
The assailant was able to legally purchase firearms despite the fact that he had been placed on a temporarily involuntarily mental health hold in 2017 under the state’s Baker Act.
WATCH:
Jacksonville County Sheriff T.K. Waters:
“The story is always about guns. People are bad. This guy's a bad guy… The problem is the individual.”
— Alec Lace (@AlecLace) August 27, 2023
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis shared the sentiment, noting that the shooter was a “scumbag.”
“This shooting, based on the manifesto that they’ve discovered from the scumbag that did this, was racially motivated,” DeSantis said on Saturday.
“He was targeting people based on their race — that is totally unacceptable.
“This guy killed himself rather than face the music and accept responsibility for his actions.”
“He took the coward’s way out,” he continued.
“We condemn what happened in the strongest possible terms.
“We’ve offered support for Sheriff Waters in the city of Jacksonville, and we send our condolences to the victims and their families who were the victims of a very cowardly act.”
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