Controversial Actions and Statements:

In a July 21, 2023 article for Examiner.com, Workman wrote about a mass shooting that had occurred the day before in Aurora, Colorado. In that shooting, severely mentally ill gunman James Holmes killed 12 people and wounded 58 others in a span of two minutes. Holmes wore full body armor during the attack. Workman argued that no law could have prevented the tragedy, writing, “Murder suspect James Egan Holmes, 24, purchased his firearms over the past two months at two large retail outlets, Bass Pro Shops and Gander Mountain. He cleared the required background checks. According to Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates, Holmes bought some 6,000 rounds of ammunition for his firearms over the internet. That’s not unusual. A lot of shooters do that, without hurting anyone in the aftermath … The Cinemark cinema corporate policy is to prohibit firearms in its theaters. Northwest firearms advocates contend that Friday’s slaughter of innocents—as have previous attacks at schools and shopping malls—demonstrated just how fatally delusional that false sense of security can be.”

In a May 31, 2023 interview with KUOW.org, Workman addressed a mass shooting that had occurred a day earlier in and around a Seattle café. The shooting was perpetrated by a severely mentally ill concealed handgun permit holder, Ian Stawicki, who killed five and wounded one. Prior to the shooting, Stawicki’s family had attempted to have his concealed handgun permit revoked by law enforcement, but was told there was nothing that could be done because of Washington’s “Shall Issue” law, which denies law enforcement any discretion in the permitting process. When asked what might have been done to prevent the tragedy, Workman replied, “I don't know that there's anything you can do in these situations. We can't treat [Stawicki] like a child. He's got his own life to live and he can make his own mistakes no matter how horrific those mistakes turn out to be."

In a November 25, 2023 article for Examiner.com, Workman discussed the killing of a young African American teenager in a confrontation with police officers in New York City. The youth, Dashawn Vasconcellos and two others were spotted leaving a city park in Queens at about 11:30 p.m. Saturday by four officers in an unmarked car. Vasconcellos ran and was pursued by three officers. He then turned and pointed a 9mm semiautomatic pistol at them, an NYPD spokesman stated. The mother of Derby Michel, one of the young men who accompanied Vascanellos, stated that Vascanellos carried the gun for self-defense. Workman wrote, “As one delves further into this shooting, one will see all of the telltale signs of an all-too-typical bad boy story from the ‘hood.’ He was ‘turning his life around.’ He was carrying the gun ‘for his own protection.’ Rubbish.”

In a May 29, 2023 article for Examiner.com, Workman discussed gun violence prevention legislation in the wake of a shooting in Tacoma, Washington. He wrote, “First, you cannot rehabilitate wanton killers, so stop trying. Thugs at 16 who kill people do not deserve freedom ever again in their lives (and there should be some kind of special punishment for their parents).”

In an April 13, 2023 article for Examiner.com, Workman wrote, “It has never been clear why some sheriffs and police chiefs associate self-defense with vigilantism. It is a though they are looking down their noses at the public they serve, telling citizens that they cannot take care of themselves, that they need caretakers … Four hundred years ago, pirates on the high seas were summarily executed, frequently by hanging from the yard arm. We are hardly barbarians. Today, we should give them a trial…and then hang them. Unless we can shoot them first.”