Brad Wilmouth is part of the team of gun apologists at the Media Research Center, and he devoted a April 22 post to trying distract from discussion of a 2018 gun massacre with irrelevant arguments:
On this past weekend’s The Saturday Show, MSNBC host Jonathan Capehart teamed up with anti-gun activist Dr. Jonathan Metzl to spread misinformation about the effects of gun laws as the two discussed his book on the 25th anniversary of the Columbine school shootings.
As the discussion turned to the 2018 attack on a Nashville Waffle House by 29-year-old Travis Reinking, Dr. Metzl reflexively blamed Tennessee’s “pathologically loose gun laws” without divulging that the gunman had only somewhat recently moved into Tennessee from the blue state of Illinois. He soon complained about Tennessee expanding gun rights since the shooting:
[…]It was not mentioned that Illinois police had confiscated several guns from Reinking after he showed signs of schizophrenia, but then gave them to his father who then returned them to his son later. One of those firearms was used in the Nashville attack after the gunman moved to the state. Reinking’s father was also convicted in connection with giving his son’s firearms back to him.
Wilmouth offered no evidence that Tennessee’s gun laws would have done any better in addressing Reinking’s issues or in keeping weapons away from him, nor did he acknowledge that the loosening of gun laws there make such a massacre scenario even more likely. Also note that Wilmouth referred to the massacre as merely an “attack” without mentioning the fact that four people died.
Instead of pointing out those relevant facts, Wilmouth whined that it was suggested that Reinking may have treated better during his arrest and in custody because of his race:
Capehart played the race card by hinting at the far-left liberal trope that the cops allowed Reinking to live because of he was white. “Dr. Metzl, a question occurs to me when we showed the Waffle House shooter. Was he taken alive after that — that manhunt?” he played coy. Metzl obliged.
Then, without offering any evidence that other racial groups are treated differently, Metzl claimed that the Waffle House gunman was allowed to keep his guns because he is white:
Wilmouth offered no evidence to contradict the claim, though it should be noted that Reinking surrendered immediately when approached by officers.