A Republican lawmaker in the Virginia House of Delegates apparently left his Democratic colleagues deeply offended—after he brought up facts during a gun control debate.
During an impassioned speech on the House floor, Del. Nick Freitas set the record straight about gun violence. Freitas claimed that, since Democrats wanted an “open and honest debate” gun laws, it should rely on “data, facts, evidence, analysis, reason, logic, etc., etc.”
And Freitas was happy to deliver, even as his offended Democratic colleagues walked out in protest.
“I think if we were going to look seriously at school shootings and gun control, we would analyze things like: Why do all mass shootings seem to take place in gun free zones? Wouldn’t it be reasonable to test whether or not the efficacy of gun-free zones have actually achieved what they’re intended intent is?” Freitas asked.
He added that, since “most of the shooters come from broken homes,” a debate should ask questions like: “What sort of government policies have actually encouraged broken homes? You can look at Left-leaning think tanks like the Brookings Institute, that will actually say that some of it can be attributed to various cultural change that happened in the 60s to include the abortion industry. You can look at a more conservative-leaning organizations that will say that the welfare state contributes significantly to dismantling the family as families became more and more dependent upon the government than they were mothers and fathers in the home raising children.”
And Freitas cited how gun violence seems to be heavily concentrated in cities and states that have strict gun control laws—rather than places that don’t.
“You can look at a more conservative-leaning organizations that will say that the welfare state contributes significantly to dismantling the family as families became more and more dependent upon the government than they were mothers and fathers in the home raising children,” he added.
But then Freitas talked more broadly about the Second Amendment—and its importance in American society.
“It’s not just some base philosophical conviction that we all have,” he said. “It is rooted in the idea that while we might be a post-Enlightenment society, the vast majority of horrible atrocities that we’ve seen, have happened in those post-Enlightenment societies.”
“It’s happened as a result of government systematically disarming citizens, and claiming themselves to be the sole responsible party for their security, and turning on those same citizens and punishing them,” he continued. “That’s the most egregious cases, but in the individual cases of self-defense, that’s why the people on this side of the aisle hold the Second Amendment in such high-esteem, because we honestly believe that you have an inherent right to defend yourself. And your ability to defend yourself should not be excluded to your size. Firearms provide someone that is weaker and not as fast the ability to actually defend themselves from a stronger attacker.”
Freitas continued that the main reason conservatives were so hesitant to follow Democrats in banning things like assault weapons and bump stocks—things currently proposed across the country—was because of the belief that Democrats wouldn’t simply stop there in their quest to ban all weapons.
“If you’re wanting the other reason why we can’t have an honest debate about this one is because, quite frankly, I don’t think any of us, on this side of the aisle, believe you when you say that’s all you want to do,” he said. “It will be bump stocks, it will be background checks, it will be a different kind of background checks that register the guns… Then, after that, it will be, ‘We need to ban assault weapons.’… Then after that it will be semi-automatic rifles, then it will be semi-automatic hand guns. Then it will be revolvers, shotguns… Because when the policies fail to produce the results you were promising your constituents, you will be back with more reasons for why we’ve got to infringe on Second Amendment rights.”
“We are going to have a problem with these so-called solutions, which infringe on people’s liberty, under the promise that government will provide for their security,” he finished. “Because, ultimately, in this last school shooting we had a perfect example of government being engaged over 30 times, and still failing to provide security for those students.”
After Freitas’s incredible speech, Democrats were apparently so offended that they called a recess… in order to give them time to recover.
