A tragedy such as last week’s shooting at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport shows how twisted some of our lawmakers’ response to gun violence has become.

After a gunman killed five people and injured several others, a state lawmaker said the incident shows the need for his legislation allowing civilians to be armed at airports. State Sen. Greg Steube, R-Sarasota, told Miami New Times that “gun-free zones” such as airports have become targets for shooters.

The idea that gun-free zones are magnets for mass shootings is a myth, as is the notion that armed civilians are effective in stopping these shootings from happening.

Others took a more measured approach than Steube, with some suggesting the shooting showed the need to further improve airport security. But Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said he was more concerned with persuading lawmakers to keep firearms out of the hands of felons, people with mental illnesses and those on no-fly lists.

Such an approach makes far more sense, given that the Fort Lauderdale airport gunman had been experiencing mental health problems before the shooting. He even reported delusions to an FBI office in Alaska, which had police confiscate his gun and commit him to a psychiatric facility. He stayed just a few days, getting his gun back from police the next month, the New York Times reported.

If our state lawmakers were thinking sensibly, they’d approve gun-control measures such as proposed legislation that would ban assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines. But instead, lawmakers are giving more serious consideration to Steube’s proposal. The legislation would go beyond airports, allowing the 1.7 million concealed weapons permit holders in Florida to openly carry guns at airport passenger terminals as well as other locations including, unbelievably, public college and university campuses, K-12 schools and government meetings.

In his book, “Rampage Nation: Securing America from Mass Shootings,” Louis Klarevas of the University of Massachusetts found that 93 of 111 mass shootings from 1966 to 2015 happened in places where guns were not prohibited. An FBI study of active shooter cases found that only one of 160 incidents was stopped by an armed civilian.

Our country will keep experiencing incidents such as the Fort Lauderdale airport and Pulse nightclub shootings as long as it is easy to obtain and keep a gun, even if a person is diagnosed with a serious mental illness or being investigated for ties to terrorism. The answer to gun violence isn’t more guns.

This guest editorial is from the Ocala Star-Banner, a Daily News sister paper with GateHouse Media.

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