Ending Gun Violence - Serious Business or Political Posturing?

Yesterday, in a grand political move that made many of us (who do not worship at the alter of The Great Obama) ill, the President went on national television, surrounded by children who allegedly wrote him letters about ending gun violence, and signed some Executive Orders which, in essence, won’t really do much except draw attention to the President.  Oh, there were some good ideas in there like increased mental health screening and treatment and more thorough background checks to help prevent mentally ill people from buying guns, but all in all nothing the President signed into law yesterday would have changed anything about the Sandy Hook tragedy.

The left currently has a campaign against “assault rifles” claiming, among other things, that if they and large capacity magazines are banned from public ownership then another Sandy Hook can’t happen.  At least that’s what they tell themselves.  The interesting thing is that most shootings in this country are committed with hand guns instead of military style rifles.  (Assault rifle is an inaccurate term used by the left and the media.  The truth is that any firearm becomes an assault weapon if used to illegally shoot someone.)  The last two major shootings, Sandy Hook and Aurora, Colorado, happened to be committed with military style rifles.  But the Fort Bliss shooting, which left 13 dead, was committed with a hand gun, as was the Virginia Tech shooting, which left 23 dead.  So how does the left convince itself that military style rifles are so bad when they are not used in the majority of shootings?

The left wants to ban these rifles while assuring the public that handgun ownership will not change.  Given the facts about rifles versus handguns, there is only one logical conclusion a thinking person can reach – it’s not about gun control or preventing gun violence but about political posturing.  If the left truly wanted to be true to its own philosophy it would attempt to repeal the Second Amendment and go for a total gun ban, as has been done in other countries.  Targeting military style rifles is not an attempt at a solution, even from the left.  It's just preening for the cameras while pointing to the bodies of shooting victims.  And it’s pretty disgusting.

The left, including the President, is moving toward gun control through emotion rather than logic.  Pointing fingers and insinuating that if you’re not for more gun control you don’t care about the children of Sandy Hook is also disgusting.  But it’s happening.  And parading children for the cameras to gain attention is a sad commentary about our President.  

Common sense conversation about gun violence will never take place until emotions and posturing can be put aside and logic and reason are part of that conversation.  Which is why that conversation will probably never take place in Washington.