by Bob Adelmann
Marion County (Florida) Sheriff Billy Woods anticipated the question that would inevitably arise following his press conference on April 7, and seized the high ground in advance. He angrily decried the murder of three teens in Florida by three other teen criminals, following it with this:
We are shocked. Not only are the victims juveniles, but the murderers are juveniles as well.
I know each of you in the media here and the viewers out there [have] heard us in law enforcement … talk about what is the problem.
I’m going to go ahead and address the first thing that I know is going to come up because there are individuals out there viewing, including some of you media, who want to blame the one thing that has no ability or the capacity to commit the crime itself — and that’s the gun.
These individuals committed the crime. [Emphasis added.]
“The bad guy’s gonna get a gun no matter what law you have in place,” he added.
One of the suspects was only 12 years old. Another, 16-year-old Tahj Brewton, sports a remarkable arrest record considering his age: He was wanted for several felony offenses, including carjacking with a firearm, aggravated assault, grand theft of a motor vehicle, fleeing a law-enforcement officer, and tampering with an electronic monitor the court had required him to wear.
The firearms used in the murders were stolen.
Woods blamed schools for the murders: “Our school districts … need to stop minimizing the actions of their students … that’s where the failure is.”
Predictably, the leftist media savaged Woods’ comments. NBC News called his words a “wild rant,” and then piously intoned more statistics decrying the increase in juveniles shooting other juveniles to prove the need for more gun control.
Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA), long ago ran out of patience with such distortions by the anti-gun media. Following NBC’s coverage of Sheriff Woods’ press conference, Gottlieb scolded the news outlet:
It’s deplorable that NBC News chose to describe Sheriff Woods’ remarks as a “wild rant” against gun control when he responded to a question from a reporter. The sheriff is a career lawman, and he’s got more than enough experience to make the distinction between an inanimate object and an individual with an evil heart. If anyone is guilty of going off on a rant, it’s NBC News.
Evidently, some in the media can’t stand the truth. When they quoted Sheriff Woods, some reports deliberately omitted his reference to the media among those wanting to blame the gun. The sheriff got it right, and the establishment media knows it. The terrible crime in his county which left three teens dead was committed by individuals, not a gun, and it is time for the anti-gun press and the gun prohibition lobby to admit it.
The fact that a stolen gun was apparently used in this crime simply underscores the sheriff’s remarks about the failure of gun control laws to prevent criminals, regardless of their age, from getting their hands on firearms.
As we’ve said before, America doesn’t have a problem with guns, it has a problem with criminals, and with a justice system that treats them like victims. Gun control proponents, including the media, need to put the blame where it belongs. Otherwise, they’ll be demanding Sheriff Woods and his colleagues should arrest guns instead of the people who misuse them.
This article was originally published at TheNewAmerican.com and is reprinted here with permission.