Opportunistic Words
The President last night delivered remarks on gun control…not gun safety, although he kept using the word safety…but gun control.
There’s clearly a difference, and until the White House bully pulpit changes its tune, there’s no chance for them to be taken seriously on the topic.
By my count, this president has yet to deliver a prime time speech, unless it was an address to a joint session of Congress. It was only 4 p.m. on the West Coast, for example, when he spoke last night. Still no prime time news conferences, when a majority of citizens can watch. If it’s that serious an issue, wouldn’t you think he’d want to reach as many people as possible?
He said enough was enough, and that it was time for action. And to lead by example, he immediately got down to business by striding directly from the East Room to a helicopter on the White House lawn for a trip to his beach house in Delaware for an extended three-day weekend.
Alright, some of that may be a bit snarky. But it shows just how hollow the commitment is to actually bring about a safer country. I fully appreciate the call to “do something”–but it has to be the right “something” and not some hurry-up, feel good provision that gives us a false sense of security that the problem has been fixed.
As I’ve said before, show me a piece of proposed legislation that would have stopped a mass shooting, and we’ll talk. In the meantime, arbitrary limitations on weapons or ammunition do nothing but strip law-abiding citizens of a guaranteed Constitutional right…by the way, the weapons provisions are clearly enunciated rights reserved by citizens in the Constitution–not the “interpreted” or “made up out of whole cloth” provisions many on the Left like to say are absolute when they are being challenged.
