State Rep. Beau LaFave today said the senseless murders in El Paso and Dayton should not be politicized or exploited as a tactic to take away the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens.

“The state representative from the 69th House District was calling for more gun control before the bodies of the El Paso victims were even recovered from the scene of this horrendous crime,” he said. “It was a disgusting attempt to exploit the loss of American lives to advance her own political agenda.”

LaFave, of Iron Mountain, said taking guns away from law-abiding people is not going to prevent mass shootings.

“While this terrible tragedy was happening in Texas, Sen. Ed McBroon and I were surrounded by 50 armed citizens exercising their legal right to carry at a park in Escanaba. We had no reason to fear for our lives because they were all honest, law-abiding citizens,” he said. “The fact of the matter is, criminals don’t follow the law. That’s what makes them criminals. Increasing restrictions on gun ownership will only prevent the good guys from protecting themselves and their loved ones if the need arises.”

Rather than playing partisan political games, LaFave said he is focused on the root cause of the issue: Our broken mental health system.

“No one in their right state of mind is going to commit a mass murder,” LaFave said. “We have a mental health crisis in this country that needs to be addressed. It’s time to stop playing politics and work together to improve our mental health system, so issues are addressed before things escalate to violence.”

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