Daniel Mauser was one of the 13 innocent people killed at Columbine High School (Littleton, Colorado) in 1999. After the shooting, Daniel's father, Tom Mauser, became a gun control lobbyist, working for a group called
SAFE.
While a lot of stupid rhetorical attacks have been made against Mr. Mauser by gun rights activists, one item was never addressed:
Did Tom Mauser lie about his son's death to advance a political agenda against "assault weapons."
In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, controversy surrounded assault weaons, since a Tec-DC9 was used in the shooting. The "assault weapon" issue died down in a few weeks, when gun control advocates focused on gun show issue instead.
Speaking at a rally outside of the National Rifle Association convention in Denver, Colorado, on May 1, 1999, Tom Mauser referred to the Tec-9:
Mauser told protestors that there are reasonable guns.
"But the time has come to understand that a TEC-9 semiautomatic like the kind that was used to kill my son is not used to kill deer," he said.
SOURCE: "
8,000 rally against gun violence"
Denver Rocky Mountain News. May 2, 1999. (Bold added).
A year later, when Mr. Mauser was lobbying for a state referendum to impose background checks on all sales at gunshows (the so-called "gun show loophole"), a forum about Amendment 22 (the referendum) sponsored by several gun control groups was held in Boulder, Colorado, on the University of Colorado's campus.
David Winkler, a freshman at CU and the co-founder of SAFE Students, spoke about his growing frustrations with gun control. He said that he and a few friends tested the gun-show loophole in June 1999.
"We were able to buy a Tek [sic] nine, 32-round semiautomatic assault pistol," Winkler said. "Be bought it in a half hour. There was no background check, no ID check. The guy didn't even ask how old we were...and it was obvious we were teenagers."
Winkler said that the gun was the same type of weapon that killed Tom Mauser's son Daniel at Columbine High School.
SOURCE: "Guns topic of annual forum."
Colorado Daily (Boulder, Colorado). October 3, 2000. pp. 1 -2 (Quote is from page 2. Bold added).
The
Jefferson County Sheriff's Office official report states that
Dylan Klebold was carrying the Tec-DC9 and a shotgun, while
Eric Harris used the Hi-Point carbine and a shotgun [
http://denver.rockymountainnews.com/shooting/report/columbinereport/pages/equipment_text.htm ].
The report also states that
Daniel Mauser was shot by Eric Harris between 11:29 - 11:39 am, in the library [
http://denver.rockymountainnews.com/shooting/report/columbinereport/pages/sketch_0080.htm ]. Since Klebold, not Harris, was using the Tec-DC9, Mauser must have been shot by Harris' Hi-Point carbine.
Ergo, Tom Mauser has been lying, or the official report is wrong.
It's not as though the media was unwilling to be skeptical of claims made by some families involved. The story about Cassie Bernall being a "Christian martyr" were
debunked, and the antics of the Shoals' were well covered. *
But the press seemed to have nothing but fawning adoration for the other parent who -- in addition to the Bernalls and the Shoals -- used the death of his child to seek publicity and push and agenda.
