By: Diane Sori / The Patriot Factor / Right Side Patriots on American Political Radio
Blood and gore takes center stage once again as the ratings-driven 24/7 liberal media is totally being dominated by yet another act of gun violence. But as is normally the case the media willingly chooses to leave out the always left out key fact that guns do not kill people...people kill people.
And so a man angry with his in-laws...a seriously delusional and known violent man said to have
"a purpose and a mission"...committed the worst mass murder in Texas history. Armed with a Ruger AR-556 rifle, which was recovered on scene, 26-year old Devin Patrick Kelley, wearing a skull mask and black tactical gear, entered the First Baptist Church in rural Sutherland Springs, Texas last Sunday during morning services. Then methodically targeting children first, Kelley cold-bloodily murdered 26 people ranging in age from 18 months to 77 years...while wounding 20 others...before first being shot by local resident Stephen Willeford...who came to the rescue and who in my opinion is a hero...before finally putting a bullet in his own head.
A very good thing if you ask me as now our taxpayer dime will not be wasted keeping this bastard alive for decades to come.
It was a domestic dispute and nothing more and yet the media morphed it into the usual 'bad gun' scenario no matter that Regional Director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, Freeman Martin, officially stated that,
"This was not racially motivated, it wasn't over religious beliefs. There was a domestic situation going on with the family and in-laws," and that,
"The suspect's mother-in-law attended this church." Also stating that Kelley had sent his mother-in-law
"threatening texts" prior to the shooting...Kelley had no way of knowing that she, other in-law family members, and the ex-wife he had previously assaulted, only attended church from time to time...and did not attend that fateful day. But no matter for this was a man on a mission to kill.
So what do we know about this man's background...a background that would allow him to do what he did. We know that Devin Kelley, while stationed at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico, was court-martialed by the Air Force in 2012 on two counts of domestic violence... one count for assaulting his ex-wife and one count for fracturing the skull of his infant stepson. Dishonorably discharged from the Air Force for
“bad conduct” in 2014, we now know that Devin Patrick Kelley was indeed deemed insane for first, a sane person does not do what he did and second, as per El Paso police reports, back in 2012, after said assault charges were leveled against him, Kelley escaped from the mental institution where he was being confined, after being caught sneaking guns onto an Air Force base and
“attempting to carry out death threats” made against military superiors.
Death treats as in revenge for not only his court-martial and dishonorable discharge but also against his now ex-wife who laid the groundwork in his mind for what was to come.
Obviously going to the church with the intent to murder his mother-in-law...the one he seemed to have the most against...as well as others in his family...the fact that certain key players were not there could have caused this already angry and quite insane young man to 'snap' and commit bloody carnage on such a grand scale...after all who really knows what guides the thought processes of the insane. And while we might try to apply sanity and logic to this killer's illogical and mentally corrupted mind...we do not really know nor will we ever know his thought processes.
So as Air Force officials now admit that that they failed to follow policies for alerting federal law enforcement about Kelley's domestic violence convictions...in other words an officer failed to enter Kelley's court-martial into the national database that would have prevented him from buying firearms...the 'blame everyone but the shooter' game has begun. And while under federal law any and all with a domestic violence conviction are barred from ever buying a gun...in Kelley's case because there was no record of said convictions, the required federal records check on him came up clean. And this coming up clean allowed this violent and insane man to purchase four guns since 2014, and to also pass a background check needed for a job as a security guard at a water park over this past summer.
And while the Air Force has much to answer for here is a critical but often overlooked fact...Devin Kelley would have been able to secure a firearm...a gun...no matter even if he was listed in the database for those intent on doing harm...for those intent on getting a firearm...will always find a way to do so. And those who do not think so are blind to reality for no one will ever stop a deranged sort who is hell bent on the kind of brutality that happened Sunday last from doing so.
So know that the only answer to stopping gun violence...whether committed by criminals or by the insane...is not by denying or restricting the rights of we law-abiding gun owners...it is not by denying 'We the People' our Second Amendment right to
“keep and bear arms”...but is by allowing us to even the playing field, so to speak, by making 'concealed carry' or better yet, by making 'open carry' the law in all 50 states. And also remember, as the saying goes,
“The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” for disarming us only prevents we good citizens from defending ourselves...disarming us only prevents us from fighting back.
And dare we forget that gun-free zones are a joke as well for most acts of gun violence are committed in exactly such places...just ask Chicago how well being a gun-free city is working out for them.
So as President Trump spoke during his trip to the Far East that tougher gun laws would not have stopped this mass shooting, saying that
“hundreds more” may have died had another man not been able to
“neutralize” the attacker with a gun of his own... Democrats hell-bent on even more gun control will try this upcoming Tuesday to force an 'up-or-down' vote on legislation to establish a select committee on preventing gun violence. Always striving for more government intrusion into our lives, Democrats refuse to understand that anyone wanting a gun will always get a gun for restrictions and laws only stop the law abiding citizenry not the criminals and surely not the mentally ill...surely not the insane.
And while we know that guns are so easily gotten on the streets by criminals, mass shootings are surely not the everyday criminal's calling card, but are indeed the calling card of some who are mentally ill and many who are mentally insane. And herein lies the problem...as in how do we keep guns out of the hands of those dealing with mental issues. Simple background checks do not work...as witnessed by the church shooting...and while the F.B.I. run National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) is supposed to prevent gun sales to people with serious mental illness...as well as to convicted criminals, fugitives, and domestic violence offenders...the problem remains two-fold...first, mental health records are protected under doctor/patient confidentiality laws and second, the NICS' definition of mental illness...as in who might be too dangerous to own a gun...is ambiguous at best.
And while most deemed clinically insane do show the obvious signs of deep psychosis...and while most with what's deemed simple mental illness (depression for example) do not...few of either meet federal standards for inclusion in the gun database, especially in regards to the insane because to be deemed insane requires a court ruling of insanity only after a formal mental health evaluation by a judge has been done...by a judge not a medical doctor. And without such a ruling these sick and dangerous folks are left to their own devices, becoming free to purchase firearms knowing they are not in the database and simply not understanding that they are mentally incapable of the responsibility of gun ownership. Remember too, the road from simple mental illness at times is not that far a trip to insanity.
And as proof of the failure of the system in place here are but two examples...James Holmes, the 2012 Aurora, Colorado movie theater shooter passed a background check yet he had a history of receiving psychiatric treatment; as did Omar Mateen, the Orlando, Florida nightclub shooter who also passed a background check to become a security guard. Both were mentally ill...both previously showed signs of insanity...and yet both secured guns legally.
So where do we go from here...how do we keep guns out of the hands of both the insane and those tagged as mentally ill especially in light of the fact that most Americans are in favor of doing so? Here are three simple common sense ways that just might lay the groundwork for not new gun control laws...we've got to many already...but that just might make the current laws not only more palatable but actually might help them work and be enforced more diligently than they are now.
First and most importantly, the medical community as a whole must rethink the issue of patient/doctor confidentiality when it concerns public safety. Those mentally ill and especially those deemed insane, are indeed not only a threat to themselves but to the public at large. Medical doctors, psychiatrists, therapists, and even school counselors must send the names of individuals so named to any and all databases who keep such records for not to do so while knowing the danger a specific individual poses to the public, puts the blood of those they might kill on their hands as well...so much for the oath they take to
“do no harm.”
Second, the entire mindset of 'bad guns' must be changed and the left especially must understand that no gun can kill without someone pulling the trigger. Regulating guns without regulating those who purchase them accomplishes nothing, and I do not just mean keeping guns out of the hands of the mentally ill but keeping them out of the hands of criminals as well. Remember, with 40% of all firearm purchases being done through private dealers and sellers, those intending to commit crimes more times than not, will either buy a firearm 'on the street' or from said private dealers and sellers, both of which obviously do not do background checks. But if background check lists were willingly and easily shared with legitimate private dealers and sellers they just might be willing to run said check in the name of public safety...and they just might find someone deemed mentally ill or a felon's name on that list...turning the old adage of 'buyer beware' into now 'seller beware.'
Third, stop the nonsense about how much ammunition and how many guns is enough for one person to have as our Constitution does not place numerical limits on our right to
“keep and bear arms.” And while sadly it is true that most mass killings are indeed committed with semiautomatic rifles, the carnage done could just as easily been committed without a semi as long as our current permit laws deny 'We the People' the unbridled right to either conceal carry or open carry once passing a background check. We need to be able to not only protect ourselves but to stop those wishing to do us harm. Remember, one well-placed bullet can stop a shooter...even one brandishing a semi... but too many overburdening laws prevents us from doing so.
So as our nation grieves for the innocent lives lost in a small town in southern Texas, know that until people accept as fact that it is not more gun control that we need but that we need more guns in the hands of decent law-abiding citizens, the ability to protect ourselves and our loved ones is not just lost but actually puts bulls-eyes on all our backs...and does so just to placate those who still think guns kill people and do so all on their own.
