Politicians call it a predictable tragedy. A quarrel in Tucson between two groups erupted in gunfire. Nine people were injured. Politicians immediately called for strict gun control.
Then the facts started to become known.
The suspect is 21-year-old David Leroy French. He was arrested and faces charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, aggravated assault with serious physical injury and discharging a firearm at a structure. The Tucson Police Department said more charges are pending as the investigation continues.
French allegedly attempted to flee police before he was shot by a police officer.
Here’s what was predictable. Tucson Mayor Regina Romero immediately blamed a lack of gun control for the violent crime.
“Easy access to guns and Arizona’s weak gun safety laws have continued to put all of us at risk,” Mayor Romero said, according to Fox News. “From requiring universal background checks to extreme risk laws to funding violence prevention there is more lawmakers can and should do.”
Mayor Romero’s hot take for more gun control was just in time for media to publish. The facts of the case, however, are slowly being revealed. It turns out the violent crime wasn’t as random as the mayor portrayed. Local Tucson media reported that police later confirmed that a confrontation took place between two groups known to one another.
“It was like one guy being an aggressor and the other two kind of pulling him back, not wanting their friend to get in a fight,” witness Anais Camacho said, according to a Fox 10 report.
Camacho was in front of Empire Pizza in the early morning hours of July 19 when the confrontation escalated.
“He reached, lifted his shirt up, and I didn’t even see the gun, but I knew what that meant, so I yelled at everybody to run away,” Camacho said. She ran for her life, saying, “I grabbed my cousin, and we dipped, and as soon as we bent the corner, shots fired.”
Lock. Him. Up.
It was also later revealed that the suspect, French, was previously convicted of a violent crime involving...criminal misuse of a firearm.
Pima County Attorney Laura Conover noted in an emailed statement that French was previously charged for firing a weapon during an altercation, according to Arizona Family News. KOLD reported that in October 2024, police said French fired a gun at a man and missed.
He pleaded guilty to aggravated assault, Conover said. While French could have faced up to nine years in prison, he didn't serve any jail time.
“The court’s probation department assessed the individual and found him to meet the criteria for a sentence of intensive probation, and the judge ordered standard probation,” Conover said. She also confirmed that French was still on probation when he allegedly committed this recent crime.
Let’s get the facts straight. A criminal misused a firearm in 2024 and the court sentenced him to probation instead of locking him up for nine years. Two years later, he’s charged with again criminally misusing a firearm, this time injuring nine people. And he did it while still on probation. And French is a prohibited individual because of his first violent crime in 2024.
A Bloomberg-Funded Gun Control Mayor
But Mayor Romero wants stricter gun control for Arizonans who obey the law. French, apparently, didn’t care about gun control laws in 2024 or again in 2026. There’s no reason to think he'd care about them in the future. No information is available on how French obtained the firearm, which could only be through illicit means, since he could not pass an FBI National Instant Criminal Background Check System verification.
Mayor Romero believes the problem is that law-abiding citizens have too much freedom and more obstacles must be put into place to exercise Second Amendment rights. Meanwhile, she’s got nothing to say about criminals being turned out onto the streets with a slap on the wrist, only to commit the same crimes -- or worse -- later.
Tucson’s mayor serves up platitudes that are sure to satisfy her gun control donors. Mayor Romero is a co-chair of antigun-billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns. But Bloomberg’s MAIG has a history of being soft on criminals, including terrorists.
Real Solutions
While Mayor Romero postures for cameras, NSSF is working for Real Solutions. Safer Communities. That includes FixNICS, a campaign to ensure the background check system works as intended by submitting all disqualifying records. NSSF’s “Don’t Lie for the Other Guy” works with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to warn the public that lying on a background check to illegally straw purchase a firearm for someone who can’t pass a background check, or won’t submit to one, is a felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. NSSF and ATF conducted this campaign in Tucson in 2024. NSSF also works with ATF for Operation Secure Store® to improve security and deter firearm robberies and burglaries from firearm retailers. When firearms are stolen, NSSF matches ATF reward offers up $5,000 for information leading to the recovery of the firearms and conviction of those suspects.
Mayor Romero wants more gun control laws. NSSF thinks there’s a better way. That starts with locking up criminals who commit these violent crimes.
– Larry Keane
Larry Keane is SVP for Government and Public Affairs, Assistant Secretary and General Counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation.