“I think that’s not helping the issue”: Survivor of a historic mass shooting criticizes gun bans

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A survivor of the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas, the deadliest such shooting in modern history, has expressed his continued support for the ownership of assault rifles.

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Fifty-eight people were killed and well over 500 were injured when a shooter targeted a country music festival in Las Vegas last October. One of the survivors of that attack, Toby Clark, appeared on a CBS panel this week to talk about gun ownership and gun control.

Clark explained that he owned guns, and that his ideas about owning certain kinds of guns did not change following the shooting.

“I’m open to ideas to fix the problems that we have,” he said while explaining what types of gun legislation he would support. “But when people just want to ban something just because someone did something wrong with it, I think that’s not helping the issue at all.”

Clark’s sentiments are similar to those of another survivor of a historic mass shooting.

As Rare previously reported, Colorado House Minority Leader Patrick Neville is seeking to ban “gun-free zones” at schools. His motivation comes from his experience as a survivor of the 1999 Columbine shooting. Neville, who was a 15-year-old sophomore during the shooting, argued, “I truly believe that had some of [Columbine’s teachers and staff] had the legal authority to be armed, more of my friends might be with me today.”

Neville has introduced the same bill to the Democrat-controlled Colorado State House every year since 2014. Despite seeing it fail each time, Neville has reintroduced the bill again this year.

If ever passed, the legislation would also allow concealed carry at high schools.

“This act would allow every law-abiding citizen who holds a concealed carry permit, issued from their chief law-enforcement officer, the right to carry concealed in order to defend themselves and most importantly our children from the worst-case scenarios,” he argued. “[T]he one common theme with mass shootings, they occur in gun-free zones.”

The legislation would not be the first of its kind in the state.

Hanover, a rural school district in Colorado, voted in 2017 to allow teachers to carry guns in the classroom, though extra certifications must be earned in order to do so.

RELATED: Trump announces new gun control measures less than one week after the school shooting in Florida

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