WATCH: Matt Gaetz Opposes Active Shooter Alert System, Because It’ll “Bombard Your Phone 24 Hours A Day”

Can Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL) really think this is a good argument for his pro-gun views? He’s responding to a proposal for a system that would alert cellular phone users if there’s an active shooting in their area — but his argument seems to, instead, acknowledge just how common mass shooting events have become in modern America.

Gaetz claims that the true purpose of an alert system — similar to systems that currently alert cell phone users about severe weather or child abductions in their areas — would not be to increase safety, but to make people “afraid of the Second Amendment” and encourage them to “tattle” on their neighbors.

Gaetz says the true purpose of an active shooter alert system is to make you afraid of the Second Amendment pic.twitter.com/WE72tjZ4Mt

— Acyn (@Acyn) July 13, 2022

“One has to ask, what is the true purpose of this bill? Why do Democrats want to use the power of government to bombard your cell phone with active shooter alerts 24 hours a day 7 days a week? It’s because they want you to be afraid of the Second Amendment. It’s because they want you to be afraid of responsible gun ownership, and they hope that if they program you and bombard you long enough, that you’ll hate your own Second Amendment rights, or that you may tattle on your neighbor who is lawfully and rightfully exercising theirs. The American people should not fall for this.”

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Wow. It’s true that as of the beginning of June — not even halfway into 2022 — Washington Post reported that the United States had already had more than 300 mass shootings, and those may not include every incident that would trigger an active shooter alert, since they only count events where four or more victims are injured or killed.

Still, if Gaetz thinks that warning people of active shooters in their immediate area will result in a nonstop barrage of warnings, maybe that’s not the Second Amendment argument he seems to believe it is — and instead supports the notion that the nation should start doing something to address the problem.