The 6-page criminal complaint against accused Washington, D.C. double murder suspect Elias Rodriguez says he purchased the 9mm handgun recovered by investigators, and that he flew from Chicago to Reagan National Airport in Virginia, crossing state lines with a firearm.
For the establishment media reporting on this tragedy, there is a lesson they are either ignoring or are simply too myopic to grasp. These are the same people who are now “surprised” to learn about Joe Biden’s cognitive decline.
Criminals, and people intent on committing violent mayhem, are not deterred by gun control laws, including the one forbidding concealed carry without a hard-to-get permit in the District of Columbia.
Rodriguez, according to the Justice Department complaint, bought the handgun on March 6, 2020, in Illinois, a state where a Firearm Owner’s Identification (FOID) card is required. Whether the suspect had been planning this crime for the past five-plus years hasn’t been established, but he apparently was not discouraged by any of the statutes under which he has been charged.
The Justice Department knows he declared the firearm and flew with it in his checked baggage, which is required by law. His trip occurred one day before the killing, so he presumably was planning the shooting that far in advance. Fox News identified the couple as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, both staffers at the Israeli Embassy.
Gun rights advocates such as Alan Gottlieb at the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) have been saying for years there is a “disconnect” among gun prohibitionists and their allies on Capitol Hill and in state legislatures. Bad people simply do not obey gun laws which have increasingly restricted honest citizens from exercising their Second Amendment rights.
The Justice Department has charged Rodriguez with murder of foreign officials, causing death through the use of a firearm, two counts of first-degree murder, and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence. So far, his only reaction has been to shout, “Free, Free Palestine.”
This crime occurred at the same time the U.S. House was debating the budget reconciliation package which, among other things, removes firearm suppressors from regulation under the 1934 National Firearms Act. The morning after the House passed the budget package, gun control groups were furious, with Brady United leading the mob by offering a form letter for people to sign, and send to their senators, demanding that they “vote no on President Trump’s tax bill that deregulates gun silencers under the National Firearms Act of 1934.”
Evidently, the Brady bunch doesn’t think their supporters are intelligent enough to write their own letters.
Everytown for Gun Safety and Giffords must have compared notes, because both organizations whined about the potential for silencers to make it tougher for police to fight crime.
“There’s a reason silencers have been regulated for nearly a century: They make it much harder for law enforcement and bystanders to react quickly to gunshots,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, in that group’s press release. “In the name of gun industry profits, House Republicans are putting law enforcement and our communities at greater risk of being shot — all while gutting health care for millions of Americans.”
Likewise, Giffords Executive Director Emma Brown chimed in, “Instead of focusing on the safety of American families, House Republicans just gave gun industry CEOs a $1.5 billion tax break to help boost their bottom line. Silencers will only enable shooters to cause more violence and damage without being detected. Law enforcement has opposed efforts to make silencers more accessible for a reason—they’re dangerous and make their jobs harder. For a party that claims to ‘back the blue,’ House Republicans just gave dangerous people a big win and ignored the impact to public safety.”
But the D.C. murder suspect didn’t use a silencer, and neither did most other mass shooters in recent memory.
What these remarks exemplify is that, once again, the gun prohibition lobby is trying to affix blame for crimes not only on guns, but on firearm accessories actually designed to prevent hearing loss. All they said about the suspect was a reference to hate. Indeed, the only reaction to the crime came from Everytown’s subsidiaries in a news release.
“The devastating combination of hate and access to guns has led to two young people losing a future full of hope and love,” said Constance Freeman, a volunteer with the D.C. chapter of Moms Demand Action.
“The sad truth is that none of us are safe from gun violence in a world where hate is so prevalent and guns are so accessible,” said Michal Heimowitz, a volunteer with Students Demand Action and leader of Students Demand Action’s Jewish Affinity Group.
But these remarks carefully avoided anything close to an admission that existing gun laws, which all of these groups supported and insisted would work, didn’t. It’s as though they believe by remaining silent the truth understood by the firearms community long ago will just go away. But it won’t.
Gun rights leaders get it.
John Commerford, Executive Director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA), released the following statement:
“This morning, the U.S. House of Representatives passed President Trump’s One, Big, Beautiful Bill, which includes the complete removal of suppressors from the NFA. This represents a monumental victory for Second Amendment rights, eliminating burdensome regulations on the purchase of critical hearing protection devices. The NRA thanks the House members who supported this bill and urges its swift passage in the U.S. Senate.”
Erich Pratt, Senior Vice President of Gun Owners of America, issued the following statement:
“Eliminating the suppressor registration and tax is a major step forward for liberty and safety. This would not have happened without Rep. (Andrew) Clyde’s resolve and strategic leadership. Gun owners have one less unconstitutional hurdle to worry about—but we’re not done. The Senate needs to deliver on President Trump’s campaign promise to protect gun owners from another ban on short-barreled firearms like the Biden Pistol Brace Ban.”
“We have cleared a significant obstacle in the effort to bring suppressors into the mainstream, and make the Hearing Protection Act a reality,” said Andrew Gottlieb, CCRKBA managing director. “The Citizens Committee is proud to have joined with so many of our friends and allies all over the country in pushing for reform of the NFA, which is long overdue.
“It is gratifying to see Hearing Protection make it past this important hurdle,” Gottlieb continued, “because it means members of Congress are finally seeing past the misinformation, myths and outright lies about suppressors which have been perpetuated for years by the gun prohibition movement and their media dupes.”
As underscored in the aftermath of the D.C. shooting, there seems to be a lot of that going around.
Outrage: WA Governor Signs Permit-to-Purchase Bill, Lawsuits Certain
About Dave Workman
Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms, and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.
