Gun Control Opportunists

Kim Strassel has a great OP/ED in yesterday's Wall Street Journal titled Gun Control Opportunists and she starts out talking about how some politicians just can't resist the urge to use a tragedy for political gain.

Within days of the Arizona tragedy, New York Democratic Rep. Carolyn McCarthy renewed her call for a ban on high-capacity clips and said she'll reintroduce legislation. She's been joined by fellow New York Rep. Peter King, one of the only outspoken Republicans on gun control, who said he wants a new law that would make it a crime to knowingly carry firearms within 1,000 feet of high-ranking officials (which conveniently includes congressmen.) In the Senate, New Jersey Democrat Frank Lautenberg intends to pursue parallel legislation to Ms. McCarthy's on clips that carry more than 10 rounds of ammunition. And New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has piped up, again, in favor of expanding the sort of burdensome restrictions his city places on the Second Amendment to the nation as a whole.

But it's not just the politicians who look to advance an agenda.  We have all come to expect gun control groups like the Brady Campaign to waste no time in sending out email missives within hours of a shooting, in hope of turning tragedy into a political victory.  But unlike the early 90's when gun control still polled relatively well, the country has turned more firmly away from gun-control arguments. Americans have learned that things like bans on large ammunition magazines and semi-automatic rifles only burden the law-abiding, while failing to stop criminals or the mentally ill from obtaining firearms or doing great harm.

More proof that the average American is smarter than politicians or gun control advocates is the CBS News poll taken after the Tucson shootings, showed that most Americans don't believe stricter gun-control laws would have prevented the shooting. The Gallup organization has reported that support for  gun control laws has steadily faded over the past two decades. Far more common this week has been the response of Arizona Rep. Trent Franks, who said he wished there had been "one more gun" in the Tucson mall that day—that one in "the hands of a responsible person" who could have stopped the shooter.  Other congressmen, like North Carolina's Heath Shuler, said he will be carrying more and will encourage his staff to get carry permits if they don't already have them.

It has been reported that the leadership of the House of Representative has not desire to go down the gun control road.

Pima County Sherriff Says Arizona Gun Laws Contributed to Saturday's Shooting

It didn't take long for the usual suspects to begin calling for more gun control in the wake of Saturday's shooting in Arizona.  Law abiding gun owners have come to expect the gun ban lobby to use a tragedy to advance a political agenda.  You can add Pima County Arizona Sheriff Clarence W. Dupnik to the list of those who at least think Arizona's gun laws made it easier for the shooter, Jared Lee Loughner to commit his horrible act.

"We're the Tombstone of the United States of America," Dupnik said, referring to the Arizona town known for its gun-slinging past. "I have never been a proponent of letting everybody in the state carry weapons wherever they are. That's almost where we are."

But the narrative from others talking to the media are focusing more on "heated political rhetoric" instead of gun control.  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton compared the Arizona shootings to the "extremism faced in other countries."  Even the Brady Campaign added a reference to "heated political rhetoric" to their missive on the shooting.

The narrative of those on the left, including the Pima County Sheriff,  goes something like this - the horror could be traced to the influence of American conservatives; members of the Tea Party; right leaning pundits Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck; former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin; and Fox News.  But none of the rantings of the shooter even mention any of them.  Sheriff Dupnik told Fox News' Megyn Kelly that the "vitriol" of the country's harshly polarized political climate was partly to blame, arguing that unbalanced individuals are uniquely "susceptible" to vitriol. Dupnik added:

We see one party trying to block the attempts of another party to make this a better country.

Kelly asked Dupnik if he had any proof that Loughner was "influenced by political vitriol" to which he responded it was his opinion.

Fox News Special Report panel member Charles Krauthammer thought that all of the talk of this being political was irresponsible with there being no evidence that politics played a role in Loughner's actions.



The statists will use anything to try and take away freedom, whether it is our Second Amendment freedom or our right to freedom of political speech. We must be vigilent, and we must not allow them to use the acts of one individual to paint us all with a broad brush.

Fox News has a poll on their Fox Special Report web site asking  visitors whetherthey support increasing gun control.  Take a minute to visit the web page and respond to the poll.