Dayton killer motive found? "Pro-gun control" and "wanted to promote a change with gun [laws]"

Dayton police say they are still searching for a motive after a man with a violent past misused a firearm to murder his sister and 8 others outside a bar in the Oregon District.

One thing they will no-doubt be looking into is how the man's anti-gun rights extremism affected his decision to carry out his cowardly attack.

That's right - the 24 year-old was ANTI-Second Amendment. And at least one friend suspects that may be the motive behind the killing.

The Dayton Daily News quotes a former friend Will El-Fakir as saying the killer was “definitely not a right-leaning person:

His political views definitely leaned to the left. And believe it or not, he was actually pro-gun control. He was actually anti-2nd Amendment.”

“I don’t know if this is the motive that made him snap,” El-Fakir said, “(but I think) he donned himself with that ballistic vest just to show people how easy it was to arm themselves. It’s pure speculation.”

“He never once spit out a conservative opinion on gun control,” El-Fakir said.

Another former friend made statements to the Cincinnati Enquirer that seem to confirm El-Fakir's theory.

True Hoffman, who attended Sinclair Community College at the same time as [the killer], told The Enquirer: "He had always talked about guns. He said he wanted to make a change with guns."

That's two people who knew the Dayton killer who believe that his motives may have involved staging an attack to change the political will in Columbus and Washington. And it appears the killer may be closer to getting what he wants.

As we reported yesterday, while we are appreciative that much of Governor DeWine's "Proposals to Reduce Gun Violence, Increase Mental Health Prevention, Treatment" appear to have a heavy focus on mental health and enforcement of current laws, we continue to be concerned about Governor DeWine's decision to include protection orders and background checks in his initiative.

Meanwhile in Washington, Republicans are proposing doing things Democrats didn't even accomplish while they had control of Congress under President Obama. From the Associated Press:

...A bipartisan proposal by Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., is gaining momentum following weekend mass shootings in Texas and Ohio that left 31 people dead. The emerging plan would create a federal grant program to encourage states to adopt “red flag” laws to take guns away from people believed to be dangers to themselves or others.

Many mass shootings “involved individuals who showed signs of violent behavior that are either ignored or not followed up on,” said Graham, chairman of the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee. “State red flag laws will provide the tools for law enforcement to do something about many of these situations before it’s too late.”

In an interview Tuesday, Blumenthal said there’s “a growing wave of support on both sides of the aisle” for the red-flag plan — more momentum in fact “than any other gun violence plan” being debated in Congress, including a proposal Blumenthal supports to require universal background checks for gun purchases.

...

Nearly all Senate Democrats support red flag laws, along with a growing number of Republicans, including Pennsylvania’s Pat Toomey, Indiana’s Mike Braun and Iowa’s Chuck Grassley, a former Judiciary chairman. South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the second-ranking Senate Republican, told the Argus Leader in Sioux Falls that he’s “confident Congress will be able to find common ground on the so-called ‘red flag’ issue.”

Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, told reporters Tuesday he is open to the proposal, noting that the alleged shooter in Dayton, Ohio, kept a “hit list” of people he wanted to target in high school. “Clearly people knew something was wrong with this guy, and yet nobody went to the proper authorities or the proper authorities didn’t respond,” Portman said.

And the man who some once claimed was the most pro-gun President in history? He's on board too:

President Donald Trump has signaled support for the plan.

“We must make sure that those judged to pose a grave risk to public safety do not have access to firearms and that if they do those firearms can be taken through rapid due process,” Trump said in a White House speech on Monday.

Our nation has always had a policy of not negotiating with terrorists, but in this case, it seems some are ready to give the Dayton killer exactly what he told his friends he wanted.

Chad D. Baus served as Buckeye Firearms Association Secretary from 2013-2019. He is co-founder of BFA-PAC, and served as its Vice Chairman for 15 years. He is the editor of BuckeyeFirearms.org, which received the Outdoor Writers of Ohio 2013 Supporting Member Award for Best Website, and is also an NRA-certified firearms instructor.