Brian Doherty Says Colorado's New Gun Laws Didn't Stop the Shooting
Colorado's gun laws made the news last week following a shooting at Arapahoe High School in the city of Centennial. One student was injured in an 80-second attack involving five gunshots and one Molotov cocktail. Shooter Karl Pierson then killed himself with a 12-gauge pump action shotgun that he had legally purchased (As an 18-year-old he would not have been able to legally purchase a handgun). He was reported to have been cornered by an armed deputy on the school grounds before the suicide.
Pierson exhibited no known "warning signs." He was a debater, a track runner, strongly anti-Republican and anti-free market. There was no easy or obvious way to mark him as a person who needed to be kept away from guns. Some thought he seemed "weird" at times, he was bullied a bit, and he went to Bible study. In other words, writes Brian Doherty, he was just like many, many thousands of other American teenagers. Better eyes, better programs, better laws could not have prevented this particular shooting from happening.
Hide Comments (0)
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post commentsMute this user?
Ban this user?
Un-ban this user?
Nuke this user?
Un-nuke this user?
Flag this comment?
Un-flag this comment?