Gun Control: Republicans Will Find Another Way To Dodge It, And Make The Dallas Shooting A Black Lives Matter Problem

The recent shooting in Dallas during a Black Lives Matter protest has triggered the gun control debate once again.

Last year Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott decided to “solve” the gun control debate once and for all when he passed an open carry law, which was started by a gun advocate who led marches following — ironically enough — Black Lives Matter protesters and even staged armed open-carry protests in restaurants, departments stores, and coffee houses like Starbucks, flaunting their right to bear arms.

The gun control debate started up on social media when the footage of the shooting went viral, streaming live through Facebook, around speculation that the shooter was anti-Black Lives Matter, or rather in this case, anti-cop.

One writer and correspondent for McClatchy DC made a point about the open carry law.

Because of Texas open carry laws, no one challenged person of interest carrying a long gun in public. #Dallas

— mark seibel (@markseibel) July 8, 2016

During the shooting, an image was being passed around that showed a black man in camouflage with a rifle strapped around his shoulder as a possible suspect by the Dallas Police Department’s Twitter account.

A Dallas CBS11 reporter retweeted the image saying that it wasn’t the person, but the argument on gun control had already begun.

Brother of "person of interest" says his brother is not a suspect, handed his long rifle over to a police officer. pic.twitter.com/H2nUX7CKFN

— Brian New (@BrianNewCBS) July 8, 2016

Much like the tweet posted by the McClatchy DC writer, other tweets were questioning how in an open-carry state, where were all of the “good guys” with guns?

As the incident is too new to know what the debate for gun control laws is going to look like, there’s reason to believe that a state under a conservative administration would have no interest in looking at gun control as a solution.

Most of the time, the argument used to win the day is normally over how gun laws won’t do anything about keeping a person who wants a gun from getting one.

Even on the federal level, where Senate Democrats made headlines by staging a protest/filibuster for Republicans to do something after the Orlando shootings — which The Inquisitr reported on — every gun control bill was shot down using those same arguments, and said arguments often take the form of a debate campaign conducted online.

This has been the case with every mass shooting over the last several years, with those basic arguments only recycled in frustration and the context simply changing from terrorism to mental illness.

As of this writing, reports are saying that the suspect(s) might have turned themselves in, but this incident introduces a new argument around the Black Lives Matter protesters.

Over the past few years, there have been armed protests in front of mosques, especially throughout Texas.

One group that has taken advantage of the open-carry laws and is considered a hate group refers to itself as BAIR, and last year, they were about to clash with the New Black Panthers, who are now based out of the Dallas.

The New Black Panthers were carrying an assortment of weapons, which they also claimed they had in order to protect themselves.

Police officers were present in order to keep the peace and at a certain point decided that BAIR would need to leave, for fear that there would be a clash, which both sides claimed they were prepared for.

As mentioned earlier, some of these open-carry groups have reportedly been following Black Lives Matter protesters in order to make sure they didn’t get out of hand, and many have siphoned some of the anger they have against Muslims to the Black Lives Matter groups.

It is here where gun control has to be taken seriously, at least to reduce the tension and those close calls.

Catholic Bishop of Dallas praises Obama on gun control & slams "Cowboy Mentality" https://t.co/VNZ9t14xAJ h/t @StephenSchneck

— Laurie Goodstein (@lauriegnyt) January 6, 2016

The gun control debate could get the support of the police department due to the lives lost, but that would require a new campaign that would be too good to be true.

The problem now is that gun control has become foul language for right-wing causes and has already created a divide between both sides where one accuses the other of trying to take away their guns, while the other is sick of having them waved at them constantly, while the gun advocates refuse to admit that the weapon has just as much to do with the killing as the person pulling the trigger.

Perhaps the solution here is the obvious: maybe a nation that consumes billions of dollars in entertainment every year could simply forget about gun control and just get used to sitting back and enjoying the show.

*UPDATE July 8, 2016 3:19 PM CST: Replaced CNN video with Dallas News video.

[Image by Gerald Herbert/AP Photo]