Questions Remain As To How Pensacola Guman Got Firearm :: 12/10/2019

Last week was a rough one for the Navy. While gearing up to commemorate the bombing of Pearl Harbor, we had a shooting there in Hawaii. That was then followed up with a shooting at Naval Air Station Pensacola. The Pensacola attack was more deadly, claiming the lives of three servicemen there on the base.

Now, questions have arisen as to how the gunman, a Saudi national there at the base for training purposes, got his hands on a firearm in the first place.

Foreigners are generally not allowed to buy guns in the United States, but there are exceptions written into federal law.

That is how the Saudi flight student who shot three servicemen to death at the Pensacola naval base was able to purchase a weapon.

Really? I can’t wait to hear what exceptions led to him getting a gun. This might be something we should take a look at, after all.

I’m sure the media wouldn’t lead us the wrong way or anything, now would it?

For example, a foreigner who manages to obtain a state hunting license and can show proof of residency in that state can legally buy a gun.

“It seems every day we find a new loophole,” said Adam Winkler, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law and an expert on gun laws and politics.

Well, in fairness, how is someone supposed to hunt if they don’t have a gun? I mean, yeah, they can bow hunt, but not everyone has that level of skill as a hunter. Some (read: me) need the advantages of a firearm.

So, the gunman was a hunter and took advantage of that “loophole,” huh?

Maybe. Maybe not, apparently.

Authorities have not disclosed precisely how 21-year-old [name redacted], a Royal Saudi Air Force officer undergoing months of flight training at the Florida military base, obtained the Glock 9 mm handgun he used in the attack Friday that ended with him being killed. But the FBI said it was purchased legally in Florida.

In the aftermath of the rampage, which the FBI is treating as a terrorist attack, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis questioned whether foreigners should be allowed to buy guns. The Republican governor said he supports the Second Amendment but it “does not apply to Saudi Arabians.”

Law enforcement officials from nations friendly to the United States who are here on official business as well as foreigners who have entered the U.S. through the visa waiver program are among those exempted from the laws against foreigners buying weapons.

Except, he wasn’t a law enforcement officer. He was a pilot with the Saudi military.

In other words, while they’re decrying loopholes, we still don’t even know how he got his firearm. Did he buy it from a lawful dealer with false identification? Did the dealer sell it to him illegally? Did he buy it via a face-to-face transfer and tell the other party he was an American citizen? We simply don’t know much of anything.

So why do we get these stories?

Well, that’s because the purpose of these stories isn’t really to inform you of anything. They’re to set the stage for a push for…something.  Once they figure out how he got his gun, expect to see proposed legislation that will not just target those kinds of sales, but also have a negative impact on law-abiding Americans who had nothing to do with Pensacola.

That’s something you can count on.

Tom Knighton is a Navy veteran, a former newspaperman, a novelist, and a blogger and lifetime shooter. He lives with his family in Southwest Georgia. https://bearingarms.com/author/tomknighton/

https://bearingarms.com/tom-k/2019/12/10/questions-remain-pensacola-guman-got-firearm/