Never Let a Crisis Go to Waste

It was a week ago Monday that Bob Costas got off the sports track and into progressive politics during halftime for Monday night football. As he discussed an NFL player who shot his girlfriend then went down to the team headquarters and shot himself, Bob opined without constraint on how that possibly would not have happened had we only had the sort of gun control in America that we find in Chicago or maybe in the former Soviet Union. Simply take guns out of the hands of civilians and all of these shootings would go away, wouldn't they Bob?

It didn't take long for the backlash to simply point out that these arguments are old and tired and have never been supportable in the past. Costas sort of backtracked. It was hard to detect whether he didn't mean what he said, couldn't support his argument, realized you gone too far, or just trying to back away from the trouble he found himself in. In short order it became fairly apparent that NBC was not really upset with uncle Bob's editorial position.

Unfortunately we had a tragedy this last week. Once again a young adult with some difficulties in adjusting to society went off the track and engaged in mass murder. He had two handguns, but he was under 21 and therefore that was illegal. He had a semi automatic rifle, not an automatic weapon or machine gun, but the type of rifle that has been become common for hunting, target shooting, home defense, and recreational shooting. In Connecticut he would not of been able to purchase that firearm. I could go on and list another 15 or 20 laws which failed to prevent this individual from acting out this heinous crime. Would it make a difference in the agenda?

Last night, was Monday night football again. Before the game started we were advised that within the first half-hour game would be interrupted for the president to visit Newtown and express his sympathy to those who'd lost so much. We could continue to watch the game on some other channel which we could only find out locally but the primary NBC outlet would switch to the president.

This president spoke for about 20 minutes. The first five minutes were dedicated to expressions of sympathy and Christian prayer. Then with remarkable predictability he began to bewail the loss of children to the common ownership of guns by citizens in America.

In my government classes I would often warn students that when the discussion starts with phrases such as "we must do this for the children," then it is important to grab your copy of the Constitution because someone is about to constrain your fundamental rights.

If this debate evolves around the question of disarming private citizens in America on the grounds that taking away millions of privately owned firearms will somehow save a dozen children and that makes the goal worthwhile than we have a serious problem in America.

And, if we failed to note that one of the four major networks has on two consecutive weeks interrupted a sports broadcast to take a firm position on a progressive public policy then we might also have a serious problem.

Should the president proceed with gun control by Executive Order in clear violation of the Second Amendment of the Constitution we will begin to see the acceleration of the decline of our once great nation.