Donald Trump believes if there had been more people with guns at Pulse nightclub in Orlando early Sunday morning, the horrific massacre that resulted in 50 people dead wouldn’t have been as bad.
The Republican Party’s presumptive presidential nominee told CNN in an interview on Monday morning: “If you had some guns in that club the night that this took place, if you had guns on the other side, you wouldn’t have had the tragedy that you had.”
Pushing for the ‘good guy with a gun’ theory – a favourite of groups like the National Rifle Association that want to stop any gun control measures – it’s an argument that basically says shootings can be stopped more quickly if other people have guns and are able to fire back.
But, as CNN pointed out to Trump, there actually was a good guy with a gun at the Orlando nightclub.
The Los Angeles Times reported:
Orlando Police Chief John Mina said an off-duty police officer working security at the club in uniform traded gunfire with the attacker.
Officials said that after police responded to reports of the violence, the attacker retreated to a bathroom with hostages. Police held back because the attacker made statements about having explosives, they said.
But Trump insists that the answer is to have more young people firing guns in dark, crowded nightclubs.
He added:
If you had guns in that room, if you had — even if you had a number of people having them strapped to their ankle or strapped to their waist where bullets could have flown in the other direction right at him, you wouldn’t have had that tragedy.
But contrary to what the presumptive presidential nominee believes, attempts to stop armed attackers are incredibly rare, and they often end up being deadly for either the well-meaning civilian or passers-by. Not to mention, it’s also difficult for untrained civilians to shoot accurately in chaotic, fast-moving situations.
The massacre in Pulse nightclub was the worst in American history and absolutely devastating, but would handing out guns to untrained adults in a crowded, dark, loud nightclub really have prevented the 50 deaths, or would it have caused even more?
