Taking their cue from the President of the United States, the Washington Post isn’t waiting for salient facts to emerge from the Oregon Community College shooting to lobby for increased gun control. “We don’t have to wait to know that one factor in the tragedy that unfolded on this college campus is the all-too-easy availability of guns in this country,” Another infuriating, but unsurprising, gun tragedy they assert. “And we shouldn’t have to wait for Congress to enact laws to combat what is clearly a crisis of gun violence.” Uh-oh . . .
Sorry, but the Post isn’t forthcoming about how “we” can enact gun control laws outside of the usual legislative process. I’m thinking they’re thinking that either the states should pass their own gun laws – in contravention of the Constitution’s prohibition against infringement of citizens’ right to keep and bear arms – or the President should issue some kind of anti-gun Executive Order. Because that would be something new and different.
The first option is the current “fall-back strategy” deployed by the civilian disarmament industrial complex (e.g., Everytown for Gun Safety and The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence). The latter is the doomsday scenario that’s been predicted by gun rights advocates since federal gun control legislation – the “Universal Background Check” bill – failed in the final furlong. If the Prez chooses column B, all hell may well break loose.
Meanwhile, more venting from the Potomac prevaricators . . .
But Congress — in its cowardly obeisance to the National Rifle Association — refuses to enact sensible gun control laws, including ones backed by a vast majority of Americans, such as bringing gun-show and Internet gun sales into some reasonable regulatory framework.
Again, the Post is playing coy. And their conclusion is a damp squib: “How sad it is, and how infuriatingly unneccessary, that such tragedy begins to feel so unsurprising.” If it turns out that the Oregon shooter bought his guns at a gun show, expect them to leave cover and concealment for a frontal assault on Americans’ gun rights.