Kiss Frontman Paul Stanley On West Texas Mass Shooting: ‘Prayers Are Not Enough’
On the heels of another deadly mass shooting over the weekend that left at least seven dead and scores more injured, renewed calls for government action on gun control have extended beyond the halls of Washington, D.C.
Paul Stanley, rocker and co-vocalist for the legendary band Kiss, issued a call for action in a Sunday tweet, while citing the increased number of mass shootings and lack of action to tackle the problem, according to The Hill.
“We don’t have more ‘crazy ‘ or ‘mentally unstable’ people in the US. What we DO have are commonplace mass shootings with automatic and semi-automatic high powered firearms. THAT cannot be disputed. Tell me what we and our government must do. Prayers and sympathy are not enough,” Stanley wrote.
The singer seemingly took a jab at President Donald Trump’s insistence that mass shootings originate from mental illness. Stanley, on the other hand, seemed to point the blame finger at the actual number of guns on the streets.
He tweeted his opinion on the matter not long after Trump told a group of reporters at the White House that he thinks the mass shooting epidemic is related to mental health issues.
Trump also continued to backtrack on the idea of increasing background checks on gun buyers and gun dealers — legislation that was passed by the Democrat-controlled House earlier this year. He told reporters that most of the mass shootings that have taken place over the past years likely wouldn’t have been prevented by measures such as stricter background checks.
Kiss’ Paul Stanley says "prayers and sympathy are not enough" after Odessa mass shooting https://t.co/LFefxPvKhN
— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) September 1, 2019
“Background checks — I will say that for the most part, sadly, if you look at the last four or five, going back even five or six or seven years — for the most part, as strong as you make your background checks, they would not have stopped any of it,” Trump said.
On Sunday, law enforcement officials released the identification of the alleged West Texas shooter as 36-year-old Seth Aaron Ator. The deadly encounter began with a routine traffic stop and turned into a rampage that involved Ator reportedly shooting randomly out of the window of a vehicle.
USA Today reported that Ator used a rifle to shoot at Texas Department of Public Safety troopers through the rear window of a vehicle during the traffic stop. He then sped off in the vehicle and fired at random innocent bystanders before hijacking a U.S. Postal Service vehicle.
After a chase by Midland and Odessa officers, Ator was eventually killed by police. Authorities are reportedly still searching for a motive and they confirmed that only one shooter was involved in the incident.
