Saddest Lesson: Austrian Gun Control Didn’t Stop School Shooting (But We Know What Would)

The saddest lesson is that there is no law that will stop a determined criminal from doing what he wants.

That’s because a criminal, by definition, breaks or ignores laws. Laws only constrain the law-abiding. The most effective way to deter a criminal is with the threat of arrest or reciprocal, defensive violence, and the most effective way to stop a criminal is with arrest or reciprocal, defensive violence. This is a lesson that was inflicted on Austria this past Tuesday.

Austria has very restrictive laws about firearms, which our friends at the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) will detail for you below. Those laws didn’t stop the monster who murdered at least nine schoolchildren. He obtained his firearms through the Austrian legal system, following all the laws … right up until the point when he got to the one about not murdering people.

Now, here’s a quote, courtesy of the BBC: “Fanny Gasser, a journalist for the Austrian daily newspaper Kronen Zeitung, told BBC News the school was likely unprepared for the possibility of an attack. We are not living in America, we are living in Austria, which seems like a very safe space.”

Let’s just spend a moment with the fact that her name is Fanny Gasser, shall we? Because that statement has a particular smell that has this author coughing and grabbing for the Febreze. Apparently European journalists are just as eager to trash America as their U.S. counterparts on MSNBC. Several children in her own country were murdered, and all she can think of to say is “b-b-b-b-b-ut America.”

Speaking of America, here’s something extremely interesting that you’re unlikely to hear in any mainstream media, foreign or domestic. Did you know that our active-shooter incidents are down? Not just a little, but by a full 50%? It’s true, says the FBI, and since this is Kash Patel’s FBI now, those figures are probably worthy of trust.

Given that there are well over 400 million firearms in circulation in the United States, it seems to be that the problem isn’t the guns. The problem is the people. Specifically, it’s a cultural problem. As long as there’s a subset of the population that idolizes mass shooters, mass shootings will continue. The best way to prevent future incidents is to make mass shootings “uncool.” That’s what we’re doing in America, and it’s working.

It’s a terrible, tragic lesson to learn, and we will continue hoping that it’s the last.

Here’s CCRKBA with all the details.

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AUSTRIA SCHOOL SHOOTING EXPLODES U.S. GUN CONTROL MYTHS, SAYS CCRKBA

Tuesday’s tragic school shooting in Graz, Austria not only refutes long standing arguments by the U.S. gun prohibition lobby that such crimes only happen in this country, but also destroys other contentions made by American anti-gunners, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said.

The attack, at the BORG Dreierschützengasse high school, claimed at least nine lives, and the alleged killer apparently took his own life, according to published reports. Details about the shooting, revealed by the BBC, place traditional gun control arguments in serious doubt, said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb.

“What we have ascertained from various reports,” Gottlieb stated, “is that the alleged shooter used two legally-obtained firearms, and gun ownership in Austria requires registration. Purchases involve a three-day waiting period, and handguns may be purchased only by people over age 21 who hold firearms licenses.

“This tells us that the gun prohibition lobby is absolutely wrong when it argues that waiting periods and gun registration will prevent such tragedies,” the veteran gun rights advocate observed. “The 21-year-old suspect reportedly used a handgun and a shotgun, and he had a firearms license, so the notion that a licensing requirement will deter such attacks is also now thoroughly debunked.”

A report from the BBC also explained that in Austria, anyone wanting to own a firearm must first provide a reason for the purchase, which can be “sports shooting or self-defense.” Gottlieb noted that in the U.S., with its Second Amendment protection of the right to keep and bear arms, citizens do not need to provide a reason for exercising a constitutionally protected right, especially after the 2022 Supreme Court Bruen ruling.

“What we do know,” Gottlieb said, “is that restrictions on gun ownership in Austria did not prevent this attack, and that calling for such restrictions on gun ownership in America as a means of stopping tragedies here amounts to a promise gun grabbers have no intention of keeping, and know they cannot guarantee. What they do know, but will never acknowledge, is that their efforts are designed to discourage gun ownership, with the ultimate goal of eliminating it altogether.”