Gun violence is no laughing matter; President Obama’s actions on Wednesday were laughable.
President Obama’s push to tighten gun laws began with Vice President Joe Biden, flanked by children, promising courageous action on his and the President’s part on behalf of the “twenty beautiful first-graders” that were “gunned down.” He then turned to a survivor of the Virginia Tech shooting and promised him action.
The President then spoke [transcript of that speech here]. He called two children out by name and promised them action.
He then said, “I'm gonna do my part. As soon as I'm finished speaking here, I will sit at that desk and I will sign a directive giving law enforcement, schools, mental health professionals and the public health community some of the tools they need to help reduce gun violence.”
“The law already requires licensed gun dealers to run background checks,” the President said. He then admitted that law is hard to enforce, and as much as forty percent of gun purchases are done without a background check. The President suggested tighter requirements on background checks, laws of which are already in place and don’t work well as he admitted.
The President then suggested a ban on assault weapons and gun magazines with more than ten bullet capacities. Those laws too have already been in place and didn’t stop gun violence.
Finally, the President suggested tough laws to crackdown on people who sell guns to criminals.
After pushing for those laws, none of which seem to work, the President rolled out a list of twenty-three executive orders to try to curtail gun violence.
Some of those orders include:
- Direct the Attorney General to review categories of individuals prohibited from having a gun to make sure dangerous people are not slipping through the cracks.
- Launch a national safe and responsible gun ownership campaign.
- Nominate an ATF director.
- Provide law enforcement, first responders, and school officials with proper training for active shooter situations.
- Maximize enforcement efforts to prevent gun violence and prosecute gun crime.
- Issue a Presidential Memorandum directing the Centers for Disease Control to research the causes and prevention of gun violence.
- Clarify that the Affordable Care Act does not prohibit doctors asking their patients about guns in their homes.
- Provide incentives for schools to hire school resource officers.
- Launch a national dialogue led by Secretaries Sebelius and Duncan on mental health.
Let’s take these one at a time. “Direct the Attorney General to review categories of individuals prohibited from having a gun to make sure dangerous people are not slipping through the cracks.”
We already have categories of individuals prohibited from having a gun. They’re called “felons”. Felons possessing guns is often an automatic prison sentence.
“Launch a national safe and responsible gun ownership campaign.”
Most gun owners are safe and responsible. This doesn’t stop psychopaths from using guns in mass shootings.
“Nominate an ATF director.”
The President nominated Byron Todd Jones, who is already Acting Director. Acting Director or official Director won’t make much of a difference.
“Provide law enforcement, first responders, and school officials with proper training for active shooter situations.”
Law enforcement, first responders and school officials are already trained on things like this. They’re called “lockdown drills”. Is the President suggesting more advanced training? If so, where will the funding come from? If these are executive orders, the cost of implementing them should come from the chief executive’s pocket (that’s the President).
“Maximize enforcement efforts to prevent gun violence and prosecute gun crime.”
Yet another executive order that is already in place. Gun crimes are already a serious felony.
“Issue a Presidential Memorandum directing the Centers for Disease Control to research the causes and prevention of gun violence.”
Now this one is interesting. Instruct the Centers for Disease Control to research the causes and prevention of gun violence. Maybe it’s just me, but I thought the Center for Disease Control was supposed to research things like heart disease, child obesity, lung cancer, breast cancer, and so on. Now they have a new priority: research the causes of gun violence. If find that video games are to blame, will the President push for a ban on video games? Or if a significant percentage of gunmen experiment with marijuana, will the President expand the war on drugs?
“Clarify that the Affordable Care Act does not prohibit doctors asking their patients about guns in their homes.”
If the last order was odd, this one is ridiculous. The Affordable Care Act (aka “Obamacare”) does not prohibit doctors from asking their patients about guns in their homes?
So you break your leg playing football. You get rushed to the hospital. Then the doctor asks, “Do you have any guns in your home?”
What does that have to do with anything? This is the same administration that refuses to allow law enforcement to check on people’s immigration status. That is unconstitutional, in the eyes of the administration. It violates their civil rights; it’s a violation of their privacy. However, it is perfectly okay for a doctor to inquire about a person’s ownership of guns? I sense a double-standard. Law enforcement can’t ask about immigration status; doctors can ask if you own a gun. At least immigration is a law enforcement issue. I’ve never had to go to the doctor over a runny nose, only to find out an AK-47 was the culprit.
Moving on.
“Provide incentives for schools to hire school resource officers.”
As much as liberals complain about how poorly underfunded our schools are, now the President wants every school in America to hire a “resource officer”? Where will the money come from? What will these resource officers do? And one has to ask – will they be armed?
The President’s final executive order, “Launch a national dialogue led by Secretaries Sebelius and Duncan on mental health.”
I thought the President would’ve appointed a new czar to do that. If the President wants a national dialogue on mental health, he should lead it.
Video of the President's speech here.
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