One day after the 22nd school shooting of 2018 took place in Texas, a previously planned Second Amendment rally at the Historic Haywood County Courthouse drew citizens and elected officials who explained that the problem was really more a societal issue, than a security issue.
“I think it is the breakdown of the family,” said Rep. Michele Presnell, R-Burnsville, at the event. “Most shooters come from a broken home. Many didn’t have a daddy when they were growing up.”
About 75 people turned up on a rainy Saturday in Waynesville for the event, which featured a conspicuous lack of firearms and a similar lack of counter-protestors. A small group of people carrying concealed weapons stood on the sidewalk in compliance with a county policy banning firearms from the courthouse grounds.
Presnell said she’d had “lots of discussions” about school shootings and gun violence, and said she’d discovered an answer as to why so many mass shootings seem to take place in gun-free zones.
“Nobody shoots back,” she said, adding that banning bump stocks and assault weapons not only wouldn’t solve the problem, but would instead lead to an erosion of the Second Amendment itself.
“When the policies fail to produce the results that they want,” she said, “they [gun control advocates] will come back for more reasons to infringe on my constitutional right to carry a weapon for self-defense.”
During her address, Presnell, who represents a small but populous sliver of Haywood County in the General Assembly, said she’s never received a contribution from the National Rifle Association.
Rep. Mike Clampitt, R-Bryson City, represents the rest
