Nine people were killed late Wednesday at Charleston Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. The white killer is still at large.
Not surprising that yet another mass public shooting has taken place where guns were banned. Yet, again, the ban only ensured that the victims were vulnerable. Here is a synopsis of South Carolina law (UPDATED moved paragraph from the middle to here since Media Matters apparently wasn’t able to read all the material (original post available at bottom)):
- While the South Carolina law allows concealed handguns on church property if the permit holder is given express permission by the church authorities, that seems particularly unlikely for the African Methodist Episcopal Church. The church has regularly opposed permitted concealed handguns and stand your ground laws, let alone the notion of carrying concealed handguns in church. They have also been part of a major push for gun control and a strong proponent of the push for Dianne Feinstein’s gun control bill in 2013. (S.C. Code Ann.§ 23-31-215.)
Some related writings on the issue of gun-free zones.
— “Where’s the coverage of heroes who stop mass killings?”
— “Chancellor Fires Blanks At Texas College Campus Carry Law”
With the exception of just two cases, all the mass public shootings since at least 1950 have occurred where guns are banned. This tragic case is no different.
The two exceptions are the International House of Pancakes restaurant in Carson City, Nevada on September 6, 2011 and the Gabrielle Giffords shooting in Tucson, Arizona on January 8, 2011. A systematic discussion of the whether mass public shootings have occurred in gun-free zones.
UPDATE: Here is some news coverage on our finding that this was another gun-free zone. The Christian Science Monitor and Yahoo News:
. . . “Not surprising that yet another mass public shooting has taken place where guns were banned. Yet, again, the ban only ensured that the victims were vulnerable,” wrote gun advocate John Lott, referring to the church shooting. “With the exception of just two cases, all the mass public shootings since at least 1950 have occurred where guns are banned. This tragic case is no different.”
While these pieces mention our finding, it gives a detailed discussion to Mother Jones. Unfortunately, the Mother Jones discussion is extremely inaccurate. A detailed discussion of how other mass public shootings have kept on occurring in gun-free zones (see here and here). That discussion focuses on work by Bloomberg, but they both make very similar claims regarding the data.
UPDATE: Media Matters has a post where they fail to note what I made clear in the last paragraph above. I had also directly linked above to the S.C. Code Ann.§ 23-31-215.
UPDATE: Greta’s show on Fox News on Thursday, June 18th just reported that the killer here was planning his attack for over 6 months (see also here). In addition, the killer’s mother had taken the gun away from him, but that he had stolen it back from her without her knowledge.
Click to enlarge screen shot below to see what the post originally looked like.
@John Lott
Heavily armed church in New Mexico. The church is protected by an ex-police security team, and all of the students are warriors when it comes to gun safety drills and procedures. You can carry concealed as well:
http://www.vice.com/video/americas-most-heavily-armed-church
Another thing of note in this case is that no “assault” weapon or magazines of over 8 rounds appear to have been used.
The media silence on these issues is deliberate.