Randall Brown: Shooter had de facto machine guns; victims didn’t have a chance

So, we get three devastating hurricanes, and many people send prayers to the victims and pray that others be spared these calamities. Rightly so, for these are so-called “acts of God.” But then we get another calamity in the form of a mass shooting, and people – including many who oppose gun control – send prayers to the families of victims and wring their hands.

Some say these mass shootings are “acts of pure evil” (i.e., the devil’s work) and what can be done about that? Or as House Speaker Paul Ryan said, we must do more to address mental illness. Ah, Rep. Ryan, but the devil doesn’t always tip his hand, as in the case of Stephen Paddock who had no history of mental illness.

So what then? More prayer perhaps?

As I listen to the interviews in the wake of this latest shooting, I only wish that one interviewer would ask a tough question of one of the gun rights supporters who lost a loved one: “If the shooter had been using a bolt action hunting rifle instead of a de facto machine gun, wouldn’t there be a chance your loved one might be alive today?”

This story was originally published October 5, 2017 at 1:32 PM with the headline "Randall Brown: Shooter had de facto machine guns; victims didn’t have a chance."