One of the implied promises behind the Democrats' endless (and escalating) efforts to destroy the Second Amendment and disarm Americans is the promise that murder will become a thing of the past — and, if not all murders, at least mass murders, involving more than one victim.  However, in Florida, one man managed to kill three people with a baseball bat and a knife, as well as seriously injured another victim.  The problem wasn't the weapons; it was that a man angry after a fight with his supervisor started killing innocents with the weapons he had at hand.

If you look at the picture of Shaun Runyon that the Polk County Sheriff's Office released, he looks like a nice man: well-groomed, with graying, dark, curly hair, sparkling eyes, and an open smile.  The construction workers and their families sharing a dwelling with him never knew that he "reportedly has a prior criminal history that includes out of state charges of strangulation, endangering [the] welfare of a child, terroristic threats, DUI and more."

Runyon's criminal history may explain why, when he decided to kill, he didn't have a gun.  Instead, after a fight with his supervisor at the construction site, he returned to the home he shared with seven people (fellow construction workers and their families, including at least one child) and, with a knife and a bat, started slaughtering people:

Police say Runyon began violently attacking his colleagues with a knife and a baseball bat around 9:45 am on Saturday morning.

The sheriff confirmed that the supervisor was also living in the rented home but did not confirm the status of his condition. 

Runyon allegedly beat one man to death in his sleep, and a second person was found dead on the front porch.

A third victim was badly beaten and taken to hospital in an 'extremely critical condition'.

He died on Saturday evening, police said.

A fourth victim was chased into the street of the gated community where Runyon hit him in the back and shoulder with the baseball bat.

Here are more details, from the Polk County Sheriff:

When someone is coming at you with a knife, it's almost impossible to defend yourself.  As an experiment, put on old clothes, hand your friend a marker, and try to defend yourself as he "attacks" you with the "marker" in lieu of a knife.  A frenzied knife attack will leave you covered with marker slashes.  And if you're interested in trying to defend against an equally frenzied baseball attack, have your friend arm himself with a pool noodle.  Good luck avoiding "deadly" strikes.

In the hands of a person determined to kill, any and all weapons other than guns are devastating.  That is, not everyone has to be a Timothy McVeigh to commit mass murder without a gun.

In 2016, a knife-wielding man killed 19 people in Japan, a country with strict gun control.  In 2019, a knife-wielding man killed eight schoolchildren in China, another country with some of the world's strictest gun control laws.

Also in 2019, in Athens, Georgia, a knife-wielding man came very close to slitting a police officer's throat and was stopped only because another officer was armed.  In 2020, a knife-wielding man decapitated three people in a French church.  (Given the decapitation, I'm sure you won't be surprised to learn that he preceded his attack by screaming, "Allahu akbar!")  France also has strict gun controls.

The thing about the Second Amendment is that it's premised on the belief — which still holds true in America — that there are more good people than there are bad people.  That means that an armed population is disproportionately likely to use guns to save, not take, lives.

The reality is that the world is an imperfect place, and there will always be bad people who use whatever weapons are available — guns, knives, fists, bats, poison, cars, rocks, broken bottles, teeth, acid — to attack their enemies.  We are never safer than in a moral community with trained, armed citizens.  (Obviously, this doesn't apply to Democrat-run communities, which have substituted gun control for morality and managed to end up with uncontrolled guns in the hands of an immoral, sociopathic population.)

UPDATE: A story from today that makes my point: John Wes Townsley shows up with an ax to kill his ex-wife and her new boyfriend. The boyfriend is able to kill Townsley with a gun, although the ex-wife apparently got hit as well. Still, it's a better outcome than if the boyfriend had been unarmed. 

Image: Shaun Runyon, mass murderer without a gun.  Picture from Polk County Sheriff's office.

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