A spate of shootings across Mississippi last weekend has lead to gun control advocates demanding a change to state law.
Specifically, the activists are calling for an end to the state’s longstanding practice of allowing openly carried firearms, though there’s no indication that any of the suspects who’ve been arrested for these crimes were openly carrying. In fact, several of the shootings took place in “gun-free zones” where neither open nor concealed carry is allowed.
“Open carry has created open season within our communities. And it affects all of us,” said Sharon Brown, director of the Mississippi Office of Violence Prevention and Trauma Recovery.
Danyelle Holmes, executive director of the MS Impact Coalition, highlighted the alarming rise in gun violence deaths in the state.”Mississippi has seen a 60% increase from 2010 to 2022 in gun violence deaths. It spiked in 2020, and then it started spiraling down. But now we see that it’s going back up. We have to do something,” Holmes said.
She is advocating for changes to open carry laws in Mississippi.
A couple of things: first, there is no Mississippi Office of Violence Prevention and Trauma Recovery. Brown works for the Office of Violence Prevention and Trauma Recovery set up by the local government in Jackson, Mississippi; one of the specks of blue in an overwhelmingly red state.
Secondly, open carry without a permit has been the law of the land in Mississippi for decades, though the state legislature made that explicitly clear with a 2013 law, and permitless carry for both openly displayed or concealed firearmsl went into effect in 2016.
The fact that “gun violence” deaths have gone up and down without major changes to state statute tells me that the issue isn’t a lack of gun control laws on the books. According to the state of Mississippi, overall violent crime rates have been pretty steady over the past few years, though the state saw a 5% increase in 2024, largely due to a growing number of aggravated assaults.
Regardless, one weekend where there were multiple acts of violence in public places doesn’t indicate a trend. Instead, this is just another example of gun control advocates trying to capitalize on high-profile shooting incidents to demand more restrictions on lawful gun owners.
I’m honestly not sure why these activists are blaming open carry, unless it’s because that’s been in the news of late thanks to a Florida appeals court striking down that state’s prohibition on the practice, and they’re hoping that the non-gun owning public will be somewhat familiar with that decision.
Whatever they’re rationale, it doesn’t make any sense… which is par for the course for the gun control crowd.
However, Larry Cowart, owner of Dead Eye Arms, believes that removing firearms is not the solution.
“That’s totally ridiculous. If we take all the guns away and just give it to the police and get and give it to the military, so to speak, um, you’re going to have more violence in this country than you can ever dream of,” said Cowart.
Now, the odds of Mississippi passing a law taking all the guns away are roughly the same as me winning Mega Millions without buying a ticket. But even things like a ban on “large capacity” magazines or repeal of permitless carry isn’t likely to happen given the makeup of the legislature and the large number of Mississippi gun owners who would vote out politicians who infringed on their Second Amendment rights.
So what should be done to combat these kinds of shootings? As I mentioned, most of last week’s violence took place on or near college and high school campuses; settings that are already off-limits to lawful carry. Violent criminals will just ignore new gun laws like they’re ignoring the current restrictions, so the best thing to do is to vigorously enforce the laws that are already on the books. No plea bargains that result in probation after a short stint behind bars (if any time is served at all(), no sweetheart deals that quickly return repeat violent offenders to the streets. If lawmakers focus on the small number of repeat, violent offenders who are responsible for an outsized share of crime and the state should see a significant decrease in shootings, stabbings, and other violent acts.
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