Cover photo from AP/Susan Walsh
To be fair, Barack Obama actually said:
If we truly care about this — if we’re going to offer up our thoughts and prayers again, for God knows how many times, with a truly clean conscience — then we have to do something about the easy accessibility of weapons of war on our streets to people who have no business wielding them. Period. Enough is enough.
Of what was the Occupier of the Oval Office speaking? The offering of thoughts and prayers for the victims of the shooting over the weekend in Colorado Springs. Apparently, the second amendment is dangerous to our moral standing.
Well, at least in his eyes.
For a good many of us out here on the fruited plain who actually waited until information about the gunman in this case was released, the dirty conscience has more to do with not pressing for reform of mental health laws. Every one of these mass shootings is done by someone who, yes, should not have a weapon. BUT, because of the ways the laws read, people with mental illness are not identified and able to be labelled by the government as not gun worthy until they do something violent. An ironic, catch-22, but still fixable if the movement is allowed to flourish.
Obama’s words above were part of a larger statement he made in the wake of losing a police officer in the shooting in Colorado Springs. What was truly striking about his words was not simply that Obama took a swipe at the second amendment (and didn’t defend Planned Parenthood), but the opening premise:
The last thing Americans should have to do, over the holidays or any day, is comfort the families of people killed by gun violence — people who woke up in the morning and bid their loved ones goodbye with no idea it would be for the last time.
And yet, two days after Thanksgiving, that’s what we are forced to do again.
For people in law enforcement, that reality is eternal. It never wanes. Any and every day, those men and women put their lives on the line. Their loved ones know when they kiss them goodbye that any one morning or evening it might be for the last time. No, they should not HAVE to worry in that way, but these people volunteered their lives in exchange for our safety and security. The least we Americans can do – most especially the Commander in Chief – is thank them and their families for taking the risk.
As for dirty consciences…Mr. Obama, can we talk about the migrants you would like to install in our states? Most of us think having easy access to weapons with them around is actually a pretty good idea.
