Why Grieving Parents Shouldn’t Be Arbiters Of Gun Control Policy

By Tom Knighton

As a parent, I can’t begin to imagine what it must be like for those who lost children at places like Parkland. To call it heartbreaking isn’t sufficient enough, in my mind.

Having lost someone in a mass shooting myself, I get why so many of these parents turn to advocacy for gun control policies. I lost a dear friend, not a child. I can only imagine the pain is exponentially worse.

But the media and anti-gun activists like to trot out these parents to discuss gun control policy as if they’re the voices we need to be listening to. They’re not, and Jacob Sullum at Reason has some good thoughts on why.

A father’s grief is not an argument for the effectiveness of any particular gun control law, and it certainly is not an argument for the constitutionality of that law. Contrary to Harris’ implication, it is not relevant in deciding whether, say, a ban on so-called assault weapons is consistent with the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.

“We have witnessed horrific mass shootings from Parkland to Las Vegas to Jacksonville, Florida,” Harris said in her opening statement during Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing …Read the Rest

Source:: Bearing Arms