No, Kamala, Your Gun Policies Wouldn’t Have Stopped Aurora

Another day, another push for more gun control. Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris (D-Ca) used the seventh anniversary of “the mass shooting at the Aurora movie theater in Colorado” to lament that “Congress hasn’t done enough” on gun control.

Harris is right, but not for the reasons that she thinks. Neither Congress nor Colorado is passing any bills that would have stopped mass public shootings. She says that she is frustrated, but I am frustrated that she and other Democrats aren’t proposing anything useful to stop these attacks. Like virtually all these killers, the Aurora shooter sought out a gun-free zone to attack. 

Harris’s push for background checks on the private transfer of guns wouldn’t have made a difference in the Aurora attack. Her proposed ban on assault weapons wouldn’t have mattered. In addition to his semi-automatic rifle, the killer also had a semi-automatic handgun and a shotgun. Harris’s twist on the debate is that she will use executive action if she can’t get Congress to institute these new gun controls.

But she ignores why the killer picked the target that he did. You might think that it was the one closest to the killer’s apartment. Or, that it was the one with the largest audience.

Yet, neither explanation is right. Instead, out of all the movie theaters within 20 minutes of the killer’s apartment showing the new Batman movie that night, it was the only one where guns were banned. In Colorado, individuals with permits can carry a concealed handgun in most malls, stores, movie theaters, and restaurants. However, private businesses can determine whether permit holders can carry guns on their private property.