Decrying ‘Cult of Gun Absolutism,’ Virginia Prosecutor Shifts Blame for Shooting at Old Dominion

The commonwealth’s attorney of Norfolk, Virginia, Ramin Fatehi, is blaming the “cult of gun absolutism” for the shooting at Old Dominion University. He faults “a lack of political will” for not curtailing Second Amendment rights. Yet terrorists use bombs, knives, poison, and even cars. The solution is rarely as simple as passing new laws for them to ignore.On Thursday, Mohamed Jalloh targeted a Reserve Officer’s Training Corp class at Norfolk’s Old Dominion. He killed an instructor, Lieutenant Colonel Brandon Shah, who had served in Iraq and Afghanistan, and wounded two students.The FBI special agent in charge of the Norfolk field office, Dominique Evans, said at a news conference that the ROTC students showed “extreme bravery and courage.” Unarmed, they pounced on Jalloh and “rendered him no longer alive.” Had he chosen a bomb or an SUV, he would’ve been harder to overpower.Yet Mr. Fatehi didn’t entertain such scenarios. He said that if people wanted “somebody to blame,” they ought to “look at our lawmakers who don’t have the courage to implement sensible gun control measures.” He also criticized “a Supreme Court that enables” Congress, and suggested listeners “do something about it.”The officer killed at Old Dominion University on March 12, 2025, Lieutenant Colonel Brandon Shah, at Illesheim, Germany in 2020 when he was a major. United States Army/Defense Visual Information Distribution Service via AP)What action does Mr. Fatehi envision taking against the Nine? Justices are given lifetime appointments for the express purpose of preventing them from being swayed by political passions. As for legislators, they’ve already passed regulations to prevent men like Jalloh from acquiring a firearm.In 2016, Jalloh was convicted of “attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization,” ISIS. As a felon, he was barred from buying or owning ammunition, much less firearms. But these proved paper barriers to a man bent on murder, determined to get his hands on an instrument of death.On Friday, Kenya Chapman was charged by the Department of Justice for selling Jalloh the weapon he used. Mr. Chapman had been, Attorney General Pam Bondi said, “let off easy with a warning” by President Biden’s DOJ for violating the very sort of laws that Mr. Fatehi says would have prevented the Old Dominion atrocity.“This is a national sickness,” Mr. Fatehi said, meaning gun crimes, not terrorism. “We live in a country,” he said, “where people care more about guns than they care about six-year-old children,” “synagogue worshipers,” or “college students.”A foiled terrorist attack on Friday offered an apt rebuttal. A would-be mass killer, Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, drove a truck packed with explosives into West Bloomfield Township, Michigan’s Temple Israel. He struck a security guard, but that was to be his only casualty.Law enforcement escort families with children away from the Temple Israel synagogue Thursday, March 12, 2026, at West Bloomfield Township, Michigan. AP/Paul SancyaThe children at Temple Israel’s early childcare center and school were saved because they were protected by armed private security. When they opened fire on Ghazali, his bomb ignited before he could use it. As for his rifle, he only got the chance to use it on himself as flames engulfed his truck.“Until there is the political will to break the spell of the cult of gun absolutism,” Mr. Fatehi said of the ROTC attack, “you will see more incidents like this.” He urged his audience to “keep the focus where it belongs,” not on terrorists but on the tool Jalloh happened to use.Yet the reason there were no more victims at Temple Israel is because firearms were in the hands of citizens to stop the would-be bomber, and the Old Dominion death toll was limited because brave ROTC students sprang into action. No such heroes were on hand in 1927 at Bath Township, Michigan; no gun was present, either.A disgruntled farmer, Andrew Kehoe, exploded dynamite and pyrotol under the Bath Consolidated School, killing 38 children, five adults, and himself. An additional 500 pounds of explosives failed to detonate, yet it stands as the worst school attack in American history.Mr. Fatehi urged Americans to “decry what has happened” at Old Dominion, not phrasing it as what Jalloh did, and said to “mourn the people who’ve died,” not calling them those Jalloh murdered. The attorney might keep in mind that no gun fires itself, no law is self-enforcing — and blame for terrorism ought to focus on terrorists, not just the tools they use.

Decrying ‘Cult of Gun Absolutism,’ Virginia Prosecutor Shifts Blame for Shooting at Old Dominion

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