Sportswriter John Feinstein wrote a misleading article in the Washington Post which he used to announce he is boycotting the Final Four over Texas’s refusal to embrace “meaningful” gun control.
I will not, however, be in Houston. This would have been my 40th Final Four. And with Connecticut (the only one of the four teams that has been to a men’s Final Four), San Diego State (with a coach who waited 28 years for his chance), Miami (coached by my longtime friend Jim Larrañaga) and Florida Atlantic (a true Cinderella, coached by a former Bob Knight manager), this is my kind of Final Four.
I’m not going for one simple reason: On June 2, nine days after 19 schoolchildren and two teachers were shot and killed at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Tex., I wrote a column urging the NCAA to move this year’s Final Fours out of Texas — the women’s event is in Dallas — until and unless that state passed something resembling meaningful gun legislation.
As the article continued, Feinstein broadened his criticism beyond Texas, complaining that the 2024 Final Four will be in Arizona and he believes the gun laws in Arizona are “sorely lacking” as well.
In fact, Feinstein said gun laws “in most states” are not sufficient.
He made two misleading statements along the way.
First, he claimed the transgender shooter who killed six at a Christian school Monday did so while armed with an “AR-15 style rifle.”
However, as Breitbart News pointed out on March 29, the 28-year-old transgender suspect who attacked the Nashville Christian school was using a carbine which fires pistol rounds, not an AR-15. Moreover, she did not even have an AR-15 rifle in her possession.
His second misleading statement was a claim that “only 21 states require a background check or a permit to purchase a handgun.”
In reality, federal law requires a background check for every handgun, new or used, which is sold at retail anywhere in the United States. Those background checks are conducted by the FBI via the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.
As for Texas, the Lone Star State has constitutional carry, as do 24 other states. Texas has open carry of handguns, as do 44 other states. The state also still issues permits for concealed carry, as do 49 other states. Texas has a campus carry law, which allows young women to be armed on campus to defend themselves against sexual assault. Eleven other states have campus carry.
Feinstein singled out Texas, even though Texas’s gun laws are not novel.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and a Turning Point USA Ambassador. AWR Hawkins holds a Ph.D. in Military History, with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.