U.S.A. – -(Ammoland.com)- “Guns have no place in shopping malls or other places in which crowds of people gather. Mayfair has a strict no-gun policy,” Wauwatosa Mayor Dennis R. McBride declared Saturday in a statement about Friday’s Mayfair Mall shootings when eight people were injured. “If the shooter had complied with that policy, no one would have been hurt yesterday.”
If only violent criminals would behave themselves! If only wishes came true!
Such “thinking” is worse than childish, it’s delusional. Not that McBride believes it. He’s just following an M.O. that’s allowed him to fool enough of the people enough of the time to gain political power in an area with a critical mass of useful idiots: Telling them what they want to hear.
That’s why he prattles on about Wauwatosa being “a safe and vibrant community.” McBride is trying to keep a lid on things and appease police who have proven inadequate at protecting the city, and the black community protesting an officer shooting and killing one of its own. Disregard that the circumstances of the shooting make it appear justified, although it being the third fatality for this particular officer in five years should raise more than eyebrows, and more than excuses about why the buck doesn’t stop at his desk.
True to form, McBride straddles the issue, offering a tepid “Statement Affirming Support of Wauwatosa Police Department” on the one hand while issuing a virtue-oozing “Racial Justice and Equity” statement to mollify those inclined to exploit what Rep. James Sensenbrenner called “deteriorating security” in his letter to the mayor offering to help “restore law and order.”
McBride certainly seems to issue a lot of statements. If you’re utterly ineffectual at solving problems that are largely the result of a “progressive” agenda you’re pushing, you need to have the right weasel words ready to redirect and deflect when things predictably fail.
“The City and Mayfair are committed to ensuring that all who live in and visit Wauwatosa will remain safe,” McBride disingenuously declares, knowing there is no way he can guarantee that, and in fact is subverting true citizen security to promote his own. All one needs to do is consider his “guns have no place” fraud and examine his record on the issue (bearing in mind that on taking his office he swore an oath to uphold the Constitution, which includes the Second Amendment).
He didn’t just limit “no guns” edicts to malls, but to “other places in which crowds of people gather.” That means he’s against being armed in public, carrying openly or concealed (except for police like the aforementioned “trifecta” winner being “the Only Ones” who can).
And that’s not all, by a long shot.
He was a “proud” speaker at a student school walkout demanding prior restraints and gun confiscations without due process. He reiterated his demands to ban guns from “public places.”
“Let’s keep guns out of our public places and rely on our police department to protect us,” he concluded. Just like they’ve never been able to do. Seconds count, minutes away, and all that…
And Democrat voters fall for this rights swindler.
“I have no problem if people want to keep guns for hunting or for safety in their homes,” McBride offers as if the Second Amendment has anything to do with duck hunting, as if the right is limited to home defense, and as if he has any rightful say in the matter. And even that is a lie, as his gushing endorsement of a Biden/Harris administration, with its threatened ban and confiscation of semiautomatics and requirement to “lock up your safety” in the home (and much, much more).
As for Mayfair also being committed to safety, it’s “No Guns” policy has proven to be about as effective as a rational person would expect at stopping violent and predatory sociopaths with a “code of conduct” rule.
“The shooting on Friday also is at least the third time gunfire has been reported in or around the mall this year,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel notes. “Mayfair is managed by Brookfield Properties, a global real estate services company based in New York.”
I thought there was something familiar about the wording on its “no guns” rule that makes no distinction between lawfully owned and carried firearms and “illegal weapons.” Brookfield imposed the same “code of conduct” language at its Chesterfield Towne Center property in Virginia, where a man was shot to death in July while arguing over face masks. Just days earlier, an eight-year-old boy was shot to death and three others, a juvenile female, an adult male, and an adult female, were wounded at its Riverchase Galleria property in Alabama. All have an identical corporate policy.
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results,” a widely shared quote attributed to, among others, Albert Einstein, Mark Twain, and Ben Franklin goes. Whoever said it first had it right.
That mayors like Dennis McBride can get elected selling such insanity points more to citizenship malpractice by the “majority” than anything. That’s why the Founders included a Bill of Rights, to codify that there are some things that aren’t dependent on what you can spook a herd into running from.
That’s why property owners like Brookfield would never agree to accept responsibility for the safety of customers who heed its insulting policies and then end up as victims. Test that yourself by printing out this card and seeing if anyone in authority will sign it:
Of course, they won’t, but it can be fun sometimes watching those who would deny your rights squirm when they realize they’ve been caught in a lie. What’s surprising is some deep pockets lawyer hasn’t looked at all the incidents and filed a lawsuit centered on the old boilerplate legalese standby, “knew or should have known.”
And yes, many gun owners realize the chances of getting “caught” violating the rules is low and in many cases, the charge would only be for “trespassing” if they refuse to leave, but the fact remains, posting a place a “gun-free zone” is the same as advertising it’s a criminal empowerment zone, meaning it’s just plain riskier.
That’s why we can probably assume Shannon Watts doesn’t have a “Gun-Free Home” sign in her front yard.
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.
