Surviving the mass shooting Sunday night at the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas caused Caleb Keeter, guitarist for the Josh Abbott Band, to completely change his mind on gun control.
"I've been a proponent of the 2nd Amendment my entire life," he tweeted Monday. "Until the events of last night. I cannot express how wrong I was." Members of the band's crew have concealed carry licenses, he said, and their "legal firearms" were on the bus, but "they were useless. We couldn't touch them for fear police might think that we were part of the massacre and shoot us. A small group (or one man) laid waste to a city with dedicated, fearless police officers desperately trying to help, because of access to an insane amount of fire power. Enough is enough."
Keeter, fearing he wouldn't survive the night, said he wrote out a living will and goodbyes to family, and his feeling of existential terror was "enough for me to realize that this is completely and totally out of hand." The United States needs "gun control RIGHT. NOW," he added. "My biggest regret is that I stubbornly didn't realize it until my brothers on the road and myself were threatened by it." In a follow-up tweet, Keeter responded to a commenter who said it's "frustrating that some don't call the fire department until the blaze is at their own front door," and Keeter agreed. "You are all absolutely correct," he said. "I saw this happening for years and did nothing. But I'd like to do what I can now."
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