The media is attempting to build a false narrative around people being magically converted to gun control by the recent events in Las Vegas.
The lead guitarist of a country music band playing Route 91 Harvest festival, where a gunman murdered 58 people on Sunday night, has said the horrific experience of the attack has changed his views on gun laws in America.
“I’ve been a proponent of the [second] amendment my entire life,” Caleb Keeter posted on Twitter. “Until the events of last night. I cannot express how wrong I was.”
In the chaotic hours after the attack, which began around 10pm, the members of the Josh Abbott Band were eventually able to post a message on social media, saying that the band and crew were safe. “I’ll never unhear those gunshots; and our band [and] crew will never forget how that moment made them feel,” singer Josh Abbott wrote on Twitter. “Our hearts are with all the victims.”
But Keeter went further, describing the deadliest shooting in modern US history as a revelation. He said that members of the band’s crew have concealed handgun licenses, and legal firearms on the bus.
“They were useless,” he said. “We couldn’t touch them for fear police might think that we were part of the massacre and shoot us. A small group (or one man) laid waste to a city with dedicated, fearless police officers desperately trying to help, because of access to an insane amount of firepower. Enough is enough.”
The feeling, he wrote, “was enough for me to realize that this is completely and totally out of hand. We need gun control RIGHT. NOW,” he added. “My biggest regret is that I stubbornly didn’t realize it until my brothers on the road and myself were threatened by it.”
There are two significant problems here. First of all, the band’s concealed handguns weren’t useless for fear of the police, but because the shooter was 300 YARDS AWAY. Knives, fists, and other close-range weapons were also useless, but then, very few criminal engagements take place at a range of 300+ yards. As for the “dedicated, fearless police officers” who took 72 minutes to not engage a single shooter, the less said the better.
Second, Caleb Keeter is a liar, as proved by his own archived tweets. He always was a gun control advocate, he simply happened to be dubious about the federal government’s ability to do so effectively.
18 December 2012
The Feds can’t even balance a checkbook and we trust them to deal with gun legislation? Gotta be done at a state level, if you want it folks
18 December 2012
We’re talking about a Federal Government composed of scummy, awful people. Contact your STATE representatives if you want gun control.
6 Jan 2013
Maybe they should have psychological tests for gun purchases?
On a related note, I think this guy won Twitter today and it’s not even 9 AM Eastern.
FlyingSkillet @flyinskillet
Hey @Calebkeeter the Dixie Chicks are looking for a guitar player for their Pyongyang show.