As I noted yesterday, the victims of the Aaron Alexis at the Washington Navy Yard had hardly hit the floor before the gun control lobby had started using the tragedy as a clarion call for new, better gun control laws.
The tool they attempted to use was the AR-15 which is an “assault weapon.” Dozens of news organizations reported that this was the weapon used in the massacre, but it turned out to be a false report. The shooter actually used a modified 12-gauge shotgun (the stock had reportedly been sawn off at the handgrip to shorten it) and 00 (double aught) sized buckshot.
When video surfaced of the gunman test firing an AR-15 at a Northern Virginia gun store, a narrative had to be developed as to why the gunman did not but the AR-15. As to be expected, the New York Times was in the forefront:
The suspect in the killing of 12 people at the Washington Navy Yard on Monday test-fired an AR-15 assault rifle at a Virginia gun store last week but was stopped from buying one because state law there prohibits the sale of such weapons to out-of-state buyers, according to two senior law enforcement officials.
So if you can’t have an assault weapon used in a killing, you can at least go for the moral high ground in demonstrating that “common sense” gun control can mitigate loss of life.
