Photo-Op President Shooting Blanks

[ScreamingEagle]

Many of Obama?s proposals make no sense - NYPOST.com

President Obama’s exercise in gun legislation by photo-op and executive order yesterday may cheer liberals and outrage the NRA, but it will do almost nothing to curb gun violence.

Some of the new rules — 23 in all — may at first glance seem reasonable, such as expanding the amount of information available for background checks.

So does the boilerplate admonition to “launch a national safe and responsible gun-ownership campaign.” (But, psst, the National Rifle Association’s been doing that for years.)

And some actually make sense, such as helping schools and churches develop more effective emergency-response programs.

But all these are tepid, marginal stuff.

And others are outright posturing — such as issuing a presidential memorandum “directing the Centers for Disease Control to research the causes and prevention of gun violence” — or simply risible — such as the order to nominate a new director for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Um, what’s stopping you, Mr. President? (Of course, senators may well want to ask the ATF nominee about the Fast and Furious debacle.)

And none of these edicts, will have the slightest effect on psychos who illegally obtain weapons and then attack innocents in the free-fire areas known as “gun-free zones.”

Moreover, some of Obama’s commands raise important questions about civil liberties.

Take No. 4: “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.”

They are, of course: Colorado shooter James Holmes passed background checks, as did the Virginia Tech killer and many others.

But if there were any clear way to identify “dangerous people” in advance (short of establishing a Department of Pre-Crime), we’d already be doing it.

And Obama’s notion of dragooning the country’s doctors into a network of snitches who ask their patients if they have guns at home is just repugnant.

The president has a few more substantive proposals, such as universal background checks on any gun sales — private sales are now exempt, but a tiny percentage of the total — and a restoration of the “assault rifle” ban.

But those changes require legislation, and far too many Democratic senators hail from gun-rights states, with several — Alaska’s Mark Begich, Arkansas’ Mark Pryor and Louisiana’s Mary Landrieu — facing re-election next year.

cont.

 

[Oldguy]

So...are you disappointed that he wasn't more forceful, that he didn't propose REAL gun-grabbing measures?