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ONE OF THE guitarists who was on stage at a country music festival before the mass shooting started on Sunday evening has said that he has changed his mind on gun control in the US.
Previously a staunch supporter of the Second Amendment right to bear arms, Caleb Keeter said yesterday: “I cannot express how wrong I was.”
In the aftermath of the mass shooting, which killed at least 59 people and injured more than 500, neither US President Donald Trump nor his spokespeople engaged on the issue of gun control.
This was in contrast to the approach taken by Barack Obama who attempted to introduce stricter gun control measures in the wake of the Sandy Hook primary school shooting in 2012.
It has since emerged that perpetrator Stephen Paddock had legally bought a number of firearms in the past year.
The worst mass shooting in the country’s history has reignited the gun debate in the US, but it is believed that Trump will not attempt to follow Obama in calling for reduced access to guns.
Keeter, who plays with the Josh Abbott Band, said that he had been a “proponent of the Second Amendment [his] entire life”.
He said: “We actually have members of our crew with CHL (Concealed Handgun Licence), and legal firearms on the bus.
They were useless. We couldn’t touch them for fear police might think that we were part of the massacre and shoot us. A small group (or one man) laid waste to a city with dedicated, fearless police officers desperately trying to help, because of access to an insane amount of firepower.
He said that he had written his parents and “the love of [his] life” a goodbye because he didn’t know whether or not he would be shot, himself.
Keeter went on: “These rounds were powerful enough that my crew guys just standing in a close proximity of a victim shot by this fucking coward received shrapnel wounds.
We need gun control RIGHT. NOW. My biggest regret is that I stubbornly didn’t realise it until my brothers on the road and myself were threatened by it.
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The flag will be flown at half mast, however nothing will be done about guns, a new law is being passed to legalize gun silencers, so you can blow people to pieces without being heard and making it a lot harder to locate.
and armour piercing bullets being made readily available to the general public. Great place to live I wouldn’t go there if you paid me.
@Preston Fairclough: We don’t manufacture millions of Muslims every year for financial gain and sell them as toys to the public!
@ktsiwot: From what I’ve read gun sales are gone up since the shooting. Only in America.
@Rob Cahill: quite right when people see the press and certain politicians offer empty platitudes and pivot straight to going after people’s constitutional rights.
@ktsiwot: You should look up YouTube to see how effective silencers are. It isn’t like the movies and you still know a gun has been fired. The sound doesn’t travel as far and that is all.
@Preston Fairclough: the constitutional right to kill.
@Lord Clanricarde: a gap in the market?
@Preston Fairclough: Your ignorance is stunning! Bravo!
@Preston Fairclough: Your degree of ignorance precludes debate.
@Rob Cahill: I read that also but no idea if true. I personally would buy a bullet proof vest. Maybe start a fashion with different colours? Before anyone says a negative comment I am joking about the colour but not about the vest. I can’t run.
@ktsiwot: You can already buy firearm suppressors in the states. They can be difficult to obtain but they are not illegal. On high calibre rifles they make very little difference btw
@John Tierney: People know so little about guns.. he could have conceivably done more damage with sub sonic .22 rounds and a supressor. They would have found it very difficult if not impossible to locate the shooter.
@John Tierney: I watched one of the many videos on YouTube of the shooting and one commentator was saying that the shots you could hear in the particular video was not gun shots, but sonic booms effectively and that the person shooting the video was obviously in the middle of the hail of bullets. Very scary stuff.
@Preston Fairclough: The constitution was written by fallible men. Will you admit the POSSIBILITY that they may have made a mistake with the 2nd ammendment? I’m not asking you to say that the 2nd ammendnent is wrong, just asking you to admit to the POSSIBILITY that it COULD be wrong.
@sean o’dhubhghaill: the fact that it’s an amendment to the original constitution says it all.
Sadly nothing will be done, as in the America they love dollars more than life. And firearms market is worth zillion of dollars every year.
@Tomasz Kuchnik: I see shares in the gun companies were on the rise after this atrocity. It’s a screwed up country and system.
It only took 59 deaths and over 500 injured for him to change his mind on gun control??? Unfortunately I don’t think one thing will be changed at all to be honest.
@Dave Murray: a Muslim terrorist used a truck to murder 86 people in Nice. Ban all trucks??
@Preston Fairclough: Trucks are designed to carry goods and materials etc. Guns are designed to efficently kill people in large numbers..but you continue with your stupid analogy!!
@Preston Fairclough: Right…..because that’s the exact same thing.
@Lord Clanricarde: What your stupid comparison actually highlights is that it’s easier to get an arsenal of military equipment than it is to steal a truck!!
@Lord Clanricarde: It is best to ignore Preston, he is a troll, don’t rise to the bait.
@Preston Fairclough: What’s gun control like in your native Russia?
Suppose your mam’s basement is fairly safe?
@Preston Fairclough: 30,000 people were killed by guns in the US last year.
Not 58.
You are a disgusting troll whom I’m now putting on ignore. Would urge everyone else to do likewise.
@Preston Fairclough: Why do you care so much if Americans have guns. I know I can’t stand seeing this much death and destruction. So why do you need to make your points?
@Preston Fairclough:
Good spot. I missed that connection…
@Preston Fairclough: You’re not even original. 1/10. Worst troll ever.
@Dave Murray: No. It wasn’t until “I’m alright Jack” found himself in danger, and all of a sudden when the problem was on his doorstep, then it became a problem.
@Preston Fairclough: Did you see my question?
@Preston Fairclough: It’s Tom/Tommy/Richard/Karl/Emmet with yet another new persona! You haven’t been a woman for a while…
Well trucks are very important modes of transport which have endless benefits such as the transport of goods and materials worldwide and help support the economy of every country in the world ! They have not been designed to injure and maim like automatic assault weapons are ! so no it’s a bad idea to ban all trucks but killing machines like the above mentioned weapons well that’s a no brainier to be fair!!
Sandyhook didn’t change his mind but this did!?
Typical! Only when it actually impacts HIM does he have empathy for the victims of legally owned assault weapons!
@Tricia Golden: that’s the way it is with most things. We are not truly affected by things until they touch us. Until then we have our theories.
@Jackie Caruana: what’s all this we? Sandyhook did it for a lot of people, actually, the guns statistics did it for a lot of people, they just weren’t Americans.
@Jackie Caruana: speak for yourself. That’s b.s.
Sadly, in America, guns are a right while health care is a privilege.
@John D: Where you can sell guns to the mentally ill but where the mentally ill soon won’t be able to afford to get treated because their illness is a preexisting condition… and where nearly 20% of the population is on some kind of mood stabilizer ergo by definition suffering from some form or mental illness. Even if the population is vastly over medicated which it probably is that means huge numbers are on mind altering drugs and have unrestricted access to firearms…and that’s before you even get to perfectly healthy people who are just too thick to keep their firearms secure…
Now all we need is for every idiot gun supporter to witness a massacre for them to change their minds.
Gun culture can work in other countries, the short video (6 minutes) below showing Austria, Czech Republic and Switzerland
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTqjgTyZ49Q
@Maurice Bourke: and what is the one thing they have that America doesn’t?
@Dave O Keeffe: I’ll answer for you, a required level of knowledge and mental and physical testing to own a gun. Also, Austria and Switzerland have conscription. So their gun owners have military experience. Czech Republic used to have it but abolished it in 2004, now they do multiple tests and there’s an up to 30 say wait time to get the permit.
@Dave O Keeffe:
Correct me if I’m wrong, so to fix American gun issues, there needs to be tougher checks/tests on getting them but not taking them away guns already.
@Maurice Bourke:
Sorry meant
*taking away the guns already there.
@Maurice Bourke: everybody that has a gun now should have to pass tests or have their license revoked until they pass the test. Background checks too. Set up an incentive. Like free gin club membership or something, whatever the cost it’ll save a fortune in the future. I was more pointing out that your comparison wasn’t actually a real comparison though.
Posted on American website few years back, stating this. ” someone anywhere else in the world has a bad day incl children what’s the worst they can do get daddy’s shotgun rare most places or carry a knife” USA when they have a bad day they raid theirs/dads collection of assault rifles grab 2000 rounds of high calibre ammo and now down a concert!! How can’t USA see that???
Says an awful lot about American society when you need to own firearms in order to protect yourself from your fellow American citizens.
@Pat Conway: they love the politics of fear over there.
@Pat Conway: says even more about their idea of democracy. We need guns to kill politicians who make laws we don’t like. Other democracies just vote those people out.
@Pat Conway: They don’t. They need protecting from their media that has them in a constant state of “be afraid of everything and everyone” so they can sell them lots of sh*te they don’t need.
Kudos for him in changing his mind. But did he really need to witness an event up close and personal to change his mind?
Could he not have imagined himself in that position after previous attacks?
Seems odd that a guy has the inability to make decisions unless he himself is directly impacted by them.
It’s funny really, when their is an Islamic terrorist attack they want to keep the borders open but when it’s a white western terrorist then they want to ban the guns.
@Poopy Butthole: Helluva username there bro
It’s amazing that the party that prides itself on creating fear with exaggerated crime figures (violent crime is actually down and has been trending that way for quite a while) is the party that wants to loosen gun control laws
Usually only those who are affected by it or have common sense that care about ridding the public of guns. Land of the free and extreme.
FairPlay to him but I would imagine any one that was to witness such a horrific loss of life due to guns, would definitely have to change their minds on gun crimes, maybe if all the innocent bodies of the people that were brutally murdered were left out in the same area where they lost their lives for Trumps visit tomorrow I wonder would he too change his mind on this complete brutality, I wonder if all the members of the national rifle association could also witness these victims laid out life less could they too change their minds about gun control, what does it have to take to show people that their can’t be a place for these weapons of mass destruction in any society, shame on those Americans that think this is ok that this is acceptable.
I know guns are issue, buy the American mind seams to be different if people here had that mind they would use knifes and petrol. Yes they do need stronger gung control. But what is causing these to do such a thing. And in country with so many guns it probably wouldn’t be to hard to get illegally. The cause needs to be addressed.
@: no need to get them illegally. You can get them in the supermarket with your shopping. This guy was a retired accountant FFS.
Been terrified that you are going to die brings everything into perspective . He gets it now why the gun control needs to be tightened up.
News just in..! Trump has put a travel ban on Nevada Born citizens from Tonight…!
So school shootings don’t change his mind but this did. Idiot.
@Alan: well if your an eye witness and looking at the harsh reality of the destruction guns cause and looking at people drop dead in front of you yes I would imagine something like this would change any mind
@Alan: and by the way your the idiot
@Casper: so kids getting executed shouldn’t do it for him?
@Deborah Behan: well yes it should Deborah but the reality of seeing something so horrific up close and personal has changed his mind, I would imagine any one of the members of the NRA were to have witnessed sandy hook five years ago it would probably change their minds too, the power of witnessing far outweighs what you read about and hear about from news media.
@1in10arelefties: no it’s far from over my head but when bullets flew over this guys head for real in real life well that was enough for him to change his mind about gun control, like the harsh reality of it is you can have a hard ass that sticks to his beliefs all his life and read stuff and see it on the news but it still won’t change opinions only until your in the middle of mayhem and you see death and destruction of people losing their lives you then question what you believed all your life, if the world was so easy to change by people reading news or watching it we would probably have a great little world, so my point stands witnessing outweighs what you read or hear in news, anyway have a nice day
Americans are f.ck.ng Mad….!
That’s nice to read his thoughts. Good to hear a piece of good news. I was thinking myself that with 59 voters dead, his vote is more vital to the American people than ever.
Yeah funny that!
Nation of bloody morons!
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