By Eddie Devir
What’s been the constant drumbeat from the administration — almost to the exclusion of anything else — ever since Sandy Hook? “Common sense” gun control measures (read: civilian disarmament) are what’s really needed to keep Americans safe. In response, the NRA’s been asking why new laws would make a discernible difference when those on the books now 1) already make everything the Lanzas and Loughners of the world did illegal, and 2) aren’t consistently or vigorously enforced as it is. Which has to make you wonder why Barack Obama included Larry Wayne Thorton in a batch of 17 presidential pardons he signed Friday . . .
According to washingtonexaminer.com,
Larry Wayne Thornton of Forsyth, Ga., was sentenced to four years of probation for “possession of an unregistered firearm” and “possession of a firearm without a serial number.”
Unregistered? So…the gun was an NFA-regulated item? A full-auto gun or SBR? Along with taking a Dremel to the heater’s serial number, those are two fairly serious offenses. Just the types of infractions the ATF tends to go after like a Pit Bull on a Bichon Frise.
Let’s hop in the Wayback Machine, though, and set the dial for January of this year — when the anti-gun furies were really raging — and take another look through those 23 executive orders the Disarmer-in Chief unveiled with such fanfare. Remember lucky number 13?
Maximize enforcement efforts to prevent gun violence and prosecute gun crime.
How is pardoning a felon convicted of a couple of unambiguous firearms no-nos consistent with that order? And why would the President knowingly expose himself to the inevitable cries of “hypocrite!” for a guy who only got probation anyway? It’s not like he’s doing hard time.
Maybe the better question is, who (or maybe what) does Larry Wayne Thorton know?