Acting Mayor of Nashville David Briley called for more gun control measures on Sunday, hours after 29-year-old Travis Reinking of Morton, Illinois allegedly shot and killed four people at a Waffle House in Antioch, Tennessee in the early hours of Sunday morning.
More casualties were avoided when 29-year-old David Shaw, Jr., a customer inside the Waffle House, confronted the alleged attacker, wrestling his gun away from him. Reinking, who was clad only in a jacket at the time, removed the jacket and ran naked away from the scene of the crime. He remains at large.
Briley’s first response came in this statement released by his office:
“It’s a tragic day for our city anytime people lose their lives at the hands of a gunman. My heart goes out to the families and friends of every person who was killed or wounded in this morning’s shooting. I know all of their lives will be forever changed by this devastating crime.”
“There’s clearly more to be said about these circumstances, but for now I ask Nashville to pray for and rally around these victims and join me in thanking the Metro Nashville Police Department as it works to find and apprehend the shooter.”
But at a press conference a few hours later on Sunday, Briley added a more politicized call for gun control, one his critics see as a blatant attempt to bolster his standing with his far left progressive base.
Briley is the only major candidate in the May 24 special mayoral election who supports the controversial $9 billion mass transit plan on the ballot May 1, and this new call for gun control may be Briley’s effort to change the public conversation in that election.
“We need comprehensive gun reform to address mass shootings, domestic shootings, accidental shootings, and homicides,” Briley said in a statement he read at the press conference, adding:
If we can all just come together, for this and the greater good, we can take these weapons of war off the streets of our country.
I know, that we all want to live in a safe environment that allows everyone to go to work or school, and feel and be safe. We all want to live up to our greatest potential, and its my responsibility as Mayor of Nashville to try and make that happen.”
Clearly, the victims of this shooting deserve our prayers and our thoughts, but they also deserve leaders who will step up and take action, and do something to get these weapons off our streets.
“For a moment, let’s be honest about what happened. Last night, innocent Nashvillians were terrorized by a man with an AR-15. Let’s be honest. Some people see these weapons as having a purpose of terrorizing other people. It’s happening too much. Enough is enough,” Briley concluded.
You can watch the press conference here:
Briley’s leading opponent in the mayoral election, former Vanderbilt professor Carol Swain, criticized him for acting on progressive political opportunism.
How many votes will Briley get from pandering? #WaffleHouse #NRA #NashvilleShooting https://t.co/JSAFNvgV9Z via @Tennessean
— Dr. Carol M. Swain (@carolmswain) April 22, 2018
“Authorities in Tazewell County, Illinois, said their last interaction with Reinking came in May 2016. That’s when EMS were called to a CVS parking lot where he was allegedly threatening to kill himself,” WKRN reported:
According to reports, family said Reinking was having delusions involving Taylor Swift.
Family members told authorities at the time he believed the superstar was stalking and harassing him. He also believed his parents and police were involved.
“The 29-year-old suspect in a shooting early Sunday at a restaurant in Nashville that left four dead was arrested last year by the U.S. Secret Service for being in a restricted area near the White House,” the Associated Press reported:
Metro Nashville Police Department spokesman Don Aaron said Travis Reinking’s firearms authorization was then revoked at the request of the FBI, and four weapons were seized, including the AK-15 that he allegedly used in the shooting at the Waffle House restaurant early Sunday.
Aaron said the four guns were returned to the suspect’s father, who acknowledged giving them back to his son.
Police have the AK-15 and another gun found during a search earlier Sunday. But two other guns are unaccounted for. Aaron said Reinking is still at large following the 3:25 a.m. shooting and could possibly be armed with the two guns.
Breitbart News reported that Waffle House has a gun free policy for all its stores.
Late Sunday, Swain released her own statement, in which she said the Waffle House shooting was “‘another example of the rise in violent crime plaguing our fair city.”
You can read Swain’s full statement here.
[…] stands in marked contrast to Briley’s far left anti-2nd Amendment positions, which Swain called “pandering” for […]
[…] he issued what his opponent Swain called a “pandering for votes” move Sunday when he called for more gun control reform Sunday hours after the shootings that killed […]
Because naked mental cases who have already had their guns taken away from them but then they were illegally given back to him by his father is a reason to further infringe upon the rights of the law abiding.
“Weapons of war”– NOPE ! The US Army trained us to fire the M-14,in basic Training at Ft.Campbell ,KY and then the US Army at Ft.Carson transitioned to the M-16 while I was there . The US Army trained us to recognize the Foundation we swore to defend against ALL enemy Foreign or domestic. The temporary Mayor of Nashville is as WRONG about weapons of war -as he is about “gun Control” He is Ignorant about the Second Amendment -and ignorant about the US supreme Court decision in Heller which reflected the founding truth behind our Second Amendment The Militia expected the citizen to be armed–and to bring such weapons ,he kept at home- to meetings -and the citizen was expected to carry such arms as necessary to defend himself,his family, his community and if called his Nation .I have family in Nashville and would NOT want them disarmed and enslaved by such IGNORANCE. The “greater good is NEVER served in violating Fundamental Law .And the temporary Mayor ought be educated. The Courts have said that the “police have no legal obligation to protect anybody, not even their own partner.” So if the Mayor convince the lawmakers to write laws disarming the people -who will protect them?
What is an AK15?
A mutt. It’s when an AK47 and an AR15 get together for a fling and the AK15 is the results of that.
Where is Briley’s outrage against abortion clinics?
PEOPLE ARE NUTS HIS GUNS WERE TAKEN AND THEN RETURNED TO HIM. BLAME THE FBI AND THE GOVERNMENT. GUN CONTROL DOESN’T HELP IF THE ARE GOING TO KILL THEY WILL DO IT ANOTHER WAY. SO GET OFF THE GUNS.LEAVE THE 2ND ALONE OUR GOVERNMENT IS OUR BIGGEST PROBLEM.THEY ARE DESTROYING OUR COUNTRY.THESE THINGS WERE NOT HAPPENING UNTIL ALL THE ILLEGALS AND MOSLEMS GOT IN OUR COUNTRY. AND LETTING ALL THE DRUGS IN FROM ACROSS THE BOARDER. BUILD THE WALL AND GET RID OF EVERY ILLEGAL AND EVERY MOSLEM CLEAN OUR COUNTRY BACK UP. AND GIVE IT BACK TO GOD.
….embarrassing. Briley spouting whatever he thinks the most supporters want to hear. Too bad the rest of the country is watching. 🙁 Is he the best we can do??
I can honestly say I hope to God this man is not elected in Nashville. I pray everyday that we have someone sane in our goverment, but sure haven’t seen a lot of that. We can only pray for someone sane to get this position and quit the absolute crap about our second amendmant rights. and the need to destroy those rights.
What Briley should promise is that MNPD resource focus and spending will be reviewed since there is no good excuse as to why the gun man is still at large. As well, he should question why law enforcement, including TBI and local FBI Fusion centers (who are largely abusing cross network sharing of unsubstantiated information about US citizens- with hard focus on Nashville) are putting resources on innocent people who are unknowingly on an absurd number of counter productive “watch lists”, of whom many (if not most) have no criminal background or psychological concerns of any kind yet are monitored using costly resources under the guise of counter terrorism watch. While details of those folks taking their daily dog walks, dropping their kids at school, shopping at the local grocery store are being closely monitored and recorded, law enforcement has NO IDEA where this Waffle House gun man is, even when he has multiple run ins with the law and Secret Service…how can that be? But MNPD, TBI, FBI and our local Dept of Homeland Security division may have a data base on what some unsuspecting and non threatening Nashvillians had for breakfast this morning. We need a Mayor who can cut through the crap and help various Metro departments and agencies make good use of their time and our money while keeping us safe from actual threats. And stop pandering to the ninnies. Good grief.
Let me get this straight…
David Briley, far-Left and radical Mayor of Nashville, who very recently replaced far-Left and radical Mayor of Nashville Megan Barry (who left the Office in disgrace, but with little personal shame evident, after pleading guilty to a felony that was uncovered when her on-the-job affair with a married woman’s husband came to light; he, a Metro police officer who was paid by Metro taxpayer funds that likely remain uncollected) comes out and spews left-wing talking points while the Waffle House perp is still on the loose?
Why isn’t he speaking to every Davidson County citizen, asking them to help find this crazy before he harms anyone else?
The problem is, Nashville is in the grips of far-left radicals who’s machinations only make it harder to live here.
So, Briley wants to solve the issue of failed Government with MORE Government, BRILLIANT! He won’t be happy until Nashville’s murder rate surpasses Chicago’s.
Nashville has the opportunity to elect the kind of leader that Obama COULD have and SHOULD have been! Carol Swain will unite Nashville, and start the process of draining the Nashville swamp!
What an idiot! If the customers and employees in the business has guns, they could probably have saved the victim’s life. The acting mayor is just pandering to the anti-gun nuts.
And when you successfully remove the AR15 and someone is killed by a shotgun, what then Briley, you remove it from society. And then a handgun. What then Briley? You remove the handguns, then knives,etc. See a ridiculous pattern here? How about putting fear in those who might think about taking lives. Oh I don’t know….maybe executions for these criminals would be a measure. If thats too inhumane well then I guess those who give their lives for the inhumane are only guilty of wanting to live, along with those guilty of wanting to own guns for protection against these innocent inhumane criminals.
Obviously Briley is desperately attempting to rally his left-wing gun control base as he sees the real likelihood of losing the upcoming election. Like Eric Holder said – never let a crisis go by without taking advantage of it.
This shooting is a terrible act commuted by a mentally ill person. The AR15 didn’t kill anyone, the shooter killed 4 people.
I guess Acting Mayor Briley should put on his big boy panties and not jump to conclusions .
Does he think calling for a ban on AR 15 will reduce killings? He needs to pull his head out of the sand..
Does he not know a shotgun is as deadly as the AR15 at close range.