Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters is a breath of fresh air. After the horrific mass shooting in a Dollar General store in the city, Waters held a news conference to provide information about the event.

When a mass shooting or other acts of violence happen that involve guns, public officials in the community often make a point at a press conference to blame the guns and demand some kind of action. Democrats see it as an opportunity to call for more gun control laws and restrictions. Rarely do they call out the shooter and recognize the mental health problems that lead to such drastic action.

Enter Sheriff Waters. He has been in the position less than a year, having won a special election to the position in November 2022. For those keeping track – and you should – Waters is a Republican. He identified the victims and then he showed video clips of the shooting. He was careful not to show the victims after they were shot, out of respect to the victims and their families.

The shooter came dressed for his evil mission.

“As you’ll see from the video footage, the shooter outfitted himself with a tactical vest which he covered with a short sleeve button up shirt,” Waters said. “He created a facial covering and donned gloves for his attack.”

In the first clip he showed, the store’s surveillance camera is fixed on a parked Kia. The shooter appears at the bottom of the frame and points the gun out toward the car. The sheriff said that one of the three victims was in that car as he fired 11 rounds at the vehicle and her.

The next video clip shows the shooter entering the front doors of Dollar General. He turns to his right and raises the gun. Then the video ends.

“I don’t think some of the things that are on there are appropriate for television,” Waters said. “It’s not meant to entertain or be insensitive to our victims and our victims’ families.”

“I wanted people to be able to see exactly what happened in this situation and just how sickening it is,” the sheriff added.

Then the sheriff did something that caught my attention – he spoke honestly about guns and the typical narrative that the gun is to blame.

“The story’s always about guns. People are bad,” he said. “This guy’s a bad guy. If I could take my gun off right now and lay it on this counter, nothing would happen. It’ll sit there. But as soon as a wicked person grabs ahold of that gun and starts shooting people with it, there’s the problem. The problem is the individual.”

He’s right. There is evil in the world and those who pick up a gun to kill others in random acts of violence, are evil people. Millions of people are gun owners in America and the guns are not used in murders or other crimes. It goes to mental health. The shooter (I am not using his name) had a history of troubling behavior. He was involved in a domestic violence incident in 2016. He was once voluntarily committed to a mental hospital for examination. His weapon had what looked to be a swastika painted on it. He is alleged to have left three manifestos and other notes to people. The shooting is said to have been racially motivated.

We could use more elected officials like Sheriff Waters. He didn’t sensationalize the tragedy. He showed respect to the victims and their loved ones. And he didn’t call for gun-grabbing in the aftermath. Good for him.

Also noteworthy after the mass shooting was Jacksonville Councilwoman Ju’Coby Pittman, a Democrat.

Governor DeSantis came off the campaign trail after the shooting and as a hurricane aimed at Florida. He and his wife, Casey, went to Jacksonville to speak to the community at a vigil near where the shooting took place. He was loudly heckled as he began to speak. This could have been predicted, as the community is heavily Democrat. Nonetheless, DeSantis went, because that is leadership. He is governor of all Floridians, not just Republicans. He began by saying that he had already begun to look at identifying funds for “adequate security” for Edward Waters University, the historically black college near Dollar General. Reports are that the shooter went there first but fled when he was confronted.

“We are not gonna allow these institutions to be targeted by people,” DeSantis said, above some jeers from the crowd.

However, Jacksonville city councilwoman Ju’Coby Pittman, a Democrat, quickly came and took the microphone off its podium to address the hecklers, telling them they should “put parties aside” at that time.

“‘Cause it ain’t about parties today. A bullet don’t know a party. So don’t get me started,” Pittman said.

“Now if the governor wanted to come here, and he’s bringing gifts to my community, ya’ll know I’m taking the gifts because we’ve been through enough already,” she added. “And I don’t want to go through no more. Now ya’ll just be quiet just a minute and let the governor say what he’s gonna say, and we gonna get this party started. You hear me? Okay, let’s do it.”

Good for her. Sure, she wants the funding the governor came bearing for the community, but she did the right thing. It’s pretty rare these days for a politician to remind an audience when something is an American issue, not a partisan issue. “A bullet don’t know a party.” That says it all.

DeSantis condemns the mass shooting in Jacksonville and calls the shooter a racist “scumbag” and coward.
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— Marina Medvin 🇺🇸 (@MarinaMedvin) August 26, 2023