Kathleen Parker on Gun Control Foolishness

 

"The biggest obstacle to the Obama administration’s push for tighter gun control may be its own best argument: Newtown. This is because nothing proposed in the gun-control debates would have prevented the mass killing of children at Sandy Hook Elementary School, and everybody knows it. At best, tighter gun laws will make us feel better."  Kathleen Parker

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Even I am bored with this but this column from a Pulitzer winner is so well done the I felt it should be mentioned.  It looks just possible that a Toomey/Manchin compromise on background checks might have a chance in the senate.  Their bill would propose a watered down strengthening of background checks on all "commercial sales."  This would exclude family transfers, gifts and temporary transfers for range shooting and hunting.  Gun dealers will love this law if it happens because ordinary citizens will be required to find a FFL holder (usually some sort of store) have them run the check through an ATF portal and then pay the dealer a substsantial fee for the service.  It is not clear as yet if the seller will then be required to hold the paperwork on the sale for twenty years.

I think I will apply for a Federal Firearms License.  I can run background checks on line.

And then for something slightly different, we had the spectacle of Judy Woodruff on the Newshour whining and pleading for statements of absolute support for draconian gun ownership restrictions from the Baltimore County police chief who kept trying to carefully qualify his views.  In the same segment she tried hard to discount arguments made by a man named Keane who is the GC of the gun manufacturers and  dealers trade association.  They are the "gun lobby," not the NRA.  The NRA is the gun OWNERS lobby.  The lawyer did a reasonable job and at the end insisted on pointing out that the gun massacre problem is a mental health problem.  Judy whimpered that this discussion was supposed to be about background checks.  I suppose that the voice in her ear told her to do that.

The corporate media machine is so focused on guns that CNN is devoting a whole day of braodcasting today to lobbying for the president's desiderata.  pl 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/kathleen-parker-an-impotent-gun-control-solution/2013/04/09/cb6a6770-a153-11e2-9c03-6952ff305f35_story.html

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/social_issues/jan-june13/guns_04-09.html

 

Comments

[harry]

I meant only that one should not use the fact that some criminals are muslim to denigrate all muslims or for that matter Pakistanis.

You may be right about Obama's commitment to this cause. Forgive my cynicism.

[no one]

Yes Fred. It's not just the Army. Remarkably (is that the right word?) even the Corps has established, since 2005, a mandatory screening for PTSD.

fhp.osd.mil/pdhrainfo/media/PDHRA_USMC_Clinician_Training.ppt

It's probably not a bad idea in theory and at least someone probably had the best interests of service men and women - in addition to the effectiveness of the organization - in mind when this was conceived.

Maybe someone is having problems and needs help.

However, given that it seems increasingly probable that any findings of the screenings will be used to deny vet.s their rights........

[Fred]

Legal? Whatever happened to 'probable cause'? Fourth Ammendment restrictions on government actions? Guess that went out with the NYC stop and frisk policy.

[Fred]

Think of the innocent - treat everyone as mentally ill and then there will never be a 'should have'. Now about these mentally ill and ropes (suicide), knives, bats etc? Not a word, since this is about ending the right to firearms at some point.

[Tyler]

I have no hard idea what happened to the GOP in NY, but I imagine the fact that the statist Nanny Bloomberg would throw billions to defeat them weighed heavily on their minds (see the special Illinois election).

Not that such a thing is an excuse, but let's not pretend this occured in a vacumn as opposed to Cuomo and Bloomberg standing on a pile of dead children declaring anyone in opposition to want more dead children. This in addition to the fact the 'law' was railroaded through at the 11th hour.

[Tyler]

Of course they have to register the guns to make sure that they go through the background check. This is a salient fact that the Leftists on this board refuse to acknowledge.

The 'family' exception is just more flim flam/smokescreens, because otherwise what stops private transactions between free citizens?

[Tyler]

You already need to go through an FFL & NICS check for internet sales! The unashamed ignorance of the opposition knows no bounds.

This is just the thin edge of the wedge before they say we have to register our guns to enforce the law 'because of the children'.

[Tyler]

Its all ethnic greivance politics nowadays. McDonalds and 'nation of immigrants' pap, PC/multicult nonsense are what goes nowadays for what America is.

[Tyler]

As I said before in a thread about gays & and women in the combat arms - they don't care about the combat veterans, right now its all about making SURE that we know that we don't matter. We get our balls and legs blown off, we leave behind widows and orphans, but our opinions don't matter because the utopia must be achieved at all costs.

If we are the victims of their insane, self-destructive policies then so be it. We pay the price as they march on in their ivory towers for a more perfect world.

[Tyler]

Which guns did Adam Lanza buy?

[Tyler]

No you see guns are only for the 'right' people.

I'm disgusted at the actions of law enforcement in that state.

[Fred]

I know. To paraphrase "Blazing Saddles" - Search warrant? We don't need no stinking search warrant.

[Fred]

Don't worry though, if you are a liberal who already spoke publicly about your experience fighting depression you'll be the victim if your opponent brings it during the election campaign, as is coming out in the latest illegal taping of a member of the Senate:

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/mitch-mcconnell-secret-tape-progress-kentucky-89954.html

[Edward Amame]

It's currently possible to legally purchase a gun offline from a private seller advertising online who lives in your state without a background check.

[Tyler]

Its always been a matter of 'for thee, not for me'.

[Tyler]

And these laws would stop that how?

[Tyler]

Well, they're already starting to float trial balloons about 'racism' and 'homophobia' being mental.disorders. I'm sure that push and the one to take guns away are totally unrelated.