Holly MatkinBoulder, CO – The father of the Boulder police officer who was fatally shot while responding to an active shooter incident at the King Soopers grocery store on Monday said his son would have hated to see his murder held up as an argument for gun control.
Nine civilians who were working or shopping at the store were also gunned down during the rampage.
Boulder Police Department (BPD) Officer Eric Talley’s father, Homer Talley, said his son was a strong advocate of the Second Amendment, TMZ reported.
He said Officer Talley, an 11-year BPD veteran, personally owned an AR-15, and that he enjoyed using it for target practice.
Homer said that the gun control debate that has erupted in the wake of the mass shooting is only causing a misappropriation of blame, TMZ reported.
“My son would have been deeply offended to know his death would be used to promote gun control,” he said. “Before he was an officer, he enjoyed shooting.”
Homer said the attack was “a senseless act and that is just it. The situation [Eric] found himself in wasn’t one that the government could protect him from,” TMZ reported.
“Just because some wacko goes around shooting people doesn’t mean guns need to be taken away. You can’t take away enough guns to protect this country,” the fallen officer’s father added.
He reiterated that both he and his son, a father of seven, have always been staunch supporters of the Second Amendment.
“To take away that freedom completely is something I am against and my son was against,” Homer told TMZ.
President Joe Biden used the mass shooting to call for a ban on so-called “assault weapons” on Tuesday.
President Biden said at a White House press briefing on March 23 that he might take executive action on gun violence, NBC News reported.
“As president I’m going to use all the resources at my disposal to keep people safe,” he said.
Then the President called for a ban on assault-style weapons and a ban on high-capacity magazines, NBC News reported.
“I don’t need to wait another minute, let alone an hour, to take common-sense steps that will save lives in the future, and to urge my colleagues in the House and Senate to act,” President Biden said.
“We can ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines once again,” the President said. “I got that done when I was a senator. It passed. It was the law for the longest time. And it brought down these mass killings. We should do it again.”
No information has been released about the origin of the Boulder gunman’s weapon and whether it was legally owned.
Republican lawmakers pushed back and said that gun laws wouldn’t have prevented Monday’s shooting, nor would it keep banned weapons out of the hands of criminals, NBC News reported.
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said Democrats do the same thing every time there is a mass shooting.
“Every time there’s a shooting, we play this ridiculous theater where this committee gets together and proposes a bunch of laws that would do nothing to stop these murders,” Cruz said. “What happens in this committee after every mass shooting is Democrats propose taking away guns from law abiding citizens, because that’s their political objective.”
He said he planned to reintroduce legislation that would make straw purchases of guns illegal, NBC News reported.
A straw purchase is when someone buys a gun for someone who is prohibited by law from possessing a weapon.
Cruz’s proposed legislation would also reauthorize grants for the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, NBC News reported.
