CCRKBA: Austrian School Shooting Shatters Gun Control Myths

School shootings aren’t the boogieman many make them out to be, as I noted just a couple of hours ago, but they’re far more common here than elsewhere.

However, they’re not “uniquely American” as some have said, and what happened in Graz, Austria yesterday kind of illustrates that point pretty well, as I noted on Tuesday morning.

I’m not the only one who noticed this, of course. Not by any stretch of the imagination.

The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms noticed it too, and they sent out a press release talking about it.

Tuesday’s tragic school shooting in Graz, Austria not only refutes long standing arguments by the U.S. gun prohibition lobby that such crimes only happen in this country, but also destroys other contentions made by American anti-gunners, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said.

The attack, at the BORG Dreierschützengasse high school, claimed at least nine lives, and the alleged killer apparently took his own life, according to published reports. Details about the shooting, revealed by the BBC, place traditional gun control arguments in serious doubt, said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb.

“What we have ascertained from various reports,” Gottlieb stated, “is that the alleged shooter used two legally-obtained firearms, and gun ownership in Austria requires registration. Purchases involve a three-day waiting period, and handguns may be purchased only by people over age 21 who hold firearms licenses.

“This tells us that the gun prohibition lobby is absolutely wrong when it argues that waiting periods and gun registration will prevent such tragedies,” the veteran gun rights advocate observed. “The 21-year-old suspect reportedly used a handgun and a shotgun, and he had a firearms license, so the notion that a licensing requirement will deter such attacks is also now thoroughly debunked.”

A report from the BBC also explained that in Austria, anyone wanting to own a firearm must first provide a reason for the purchase, which can be “sports shooting or self-defense.” Gottlieb noted that in the U.S., with its Second Amendment protection of the right to keep and bear arms, citizens do not need to provide a reason for exercising a constitutionally protected right, especially after the 2022 Supreme Court Bruen ruling. 

“What we do know,” Gottlieb said, “is that restrictions on gun ownership in Austria did not prevent this attack, and that calling for such restrictions on gun ownership in America as a means of stopping tragedies here amounts to a promise gun grabbers have no intention of keeping, and know they cannot guarantee. What they do know, but will never acknowledge, is that their efforts are designed to discourage gun ownership, with the ultimate goal of eliminating it altogether.”

Now, I’ve had people try to point out that Austria has pretty liberal gun laws as European nations go, and that’s true. They have permit requirements, but they’re “shall issue” to anyone who qualifies, and they have concealed carry on a “shall issue” basis, which means Austria respected gun rights better than New York in some ways.

But they still have more extensive gun control laws than we have here, and much stricter than would likely be tolerated by the courts should anyone try to put them in place in the United States.

And they didn’t work.

It’s also not like we haven’t seen this in other places with even more restrictive gun control laws. We’ve seen far too many, unfortunately, and it’s a sign that there’s something wrong with society as a whole, not with the gun laws that may or may not be put in place.

Graz is a city I’ve wanted to visit for a long time. There’s an armory there with a lot of medieval armor there and since one of my passions is medieval armor, it’s something I desperately want to see. I actually feel better about going some day, knowing there is lawful concealed carry, even if I’m not allowed to be armed.

I feel much better, though, here in the United States, knowing I can deal with threats personally.

Mass shootings happen everywhere in the world. Anyone who calls them “uniquely American” is lying to you. They want you afraid, thinking that it’s only us.

Graz will fall out of the news cycle here very quickly, in part because they want you to forget it ever happened before the next tragedy strikes.

The truth, though, is that it’s not the guns.