Former Rare Staff
Former Vice President Joe Biden faced a good deal of criticism from Second Amendment advocates after using the tragic shooting at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas to say that some people shouldn’t have certain kinds of guns.
Videos by Rare
When armored gunman Devin Kelley opened fire on churchgoers with a variant of an AR-15, Stephen Willeford, a local, used his own AR-15 to wound him and try to stop him from fleeing the scene. Willeford, who was a former National Rifle Association instructor, said he took his AR-15 with him because only running out of the house with a pistol to take on a man wearing a bulletproof vest “might have been futile.”
A week after the shooting, Biden took a question about gun control from an audience member on ABC’s “Today Show.”
“So with the tragedy that just happened in Texas, my question is how do you justify the Democratic view on gun control when the shooter was stopped by a man who was legally licensed to carry a gun?” she asked.
Biden replied by saying that despite Willeford’s actions, no one should be in possession of the gun that Kelley was carrying.
Joe Biden says that the man who stopped the Texas church shooter should not have been armed. pic.twitter.com/pY3hBHPHuX
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) November 14, 2017
Biden stated his belief that more lives would be saved if certain people were not in possession of guns.
The Federalist observed:
Biden apparently doesn’t think guns are useful for self-defense and protecting others, even though police and soldiers can’t stop bad guys without guns, and neither can private citizens. Public records are replete with instances of private citizens enjoying protection against evil when armed.
Willeford grabbed his rifle after his daughter informed him of the shooting. Though Kelley was wearing armor, Willeford successfully shot him in a vulnerable spot and wounded him. It was later revealed that Willeford was a plumber who had no military experience. Kelley then attempted to escape the area after jumping in his SUV. Local Johnnie Langendorff saw the men exchanging fire. He and Willeford drove in his truck to follow Kelley until Kelley ran off the road.
Many outlets focused on Kelley’s gun, but not the fact that Willeford used the same weapon. Questioning the unequal coverage, Rare opined:
Media bias is as much about what the press chooses to ignore as what it reports. That mass shooters use AR-15s to carry out their carnage is unquestionably newsworthy.
So is the fact that it took an AR-15 to stop it.
RELATED: It only took a couple of seconds for people to slam “obtuse” CNN for this Texas shooting tweet
