In a must-see video, a Florida sheriff gets right to the heart of the anti-gun narrative, blasting the media for attempting to use the tragic deaths of three teenagers to advance its partisan political agenda.
On Friday, Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods appeared to have had about enough of the media when he went before the cameras to provide an update on a horrifying narrative of youthful criminality that culminated in the murders of two teenage girls and one male at the end of March.
The sheriff stated that two kids, one of whom was only 12 years old, were arrested in connection with the murders. One is still on the hunt. The suspects and victims appear to have been involved in a robbery ring.
Woods blasted the lenient way that society treats juvenile delinquents.
“The fact is, society fails them. We do not hold our juveniles accountable. We minimize their actions,” Woods said during his news conference.
“Our school districts … across this state and across this nation need to quit minimizing the actions of their students. Hold them accountable. That’s where the failure is,” he said.
The sheriff also had harsh words for people who want to use every gun crime to launch a political crusade to prohibit firearms.
“There are individuals out there viewing … who want to blame the one thing that has no ability or the capacity to commit the crime itself, and that’s the gun,” Woods said.
It wasn’t the gun. “These individuals committed the crime,” he insisted.
A reporter asked how the suspects got the weapons. Woods answered, “Car burglaries,” and then proceeded to demolish the narrative that tighter gun control laws keep firearms out of the hands of criminals.
“All the gun laws we got in place didn’t prevent it, did it? Neither will any new ones.” He pointed out that “the bad guy’s going to get a gun no matter what law you have put in place.”
Woods also lost his patience when a reporter asked if the victims were an “active part of a crime.”
“Folks, don’t ask dumba** questions,” he said to the room of reporters. “Really? Do I have to spell it out to you? What do you think they were doing?”
“Gangs don’t go to church on Sunday and then preach the gospel for the next six days. They’re gangs because they commit crimes. How simple is this idea? Where are we losing it?”
Woods is completely correct.
Not only are we unduly lenient toward juvenile criminals, but guns are not to blame for the crime. Guns are only tools. The crime is caused by someone misusing these instruments.
For a change, it’s refreshing to hear someone say it directly to the media.