Carrie Lukas
Op/Ed
Forbes
1/18/2013
…Using children’s pleas to end violence is about the most grotesque rhetorical tool available to politicians. Our natural instincts are to want to shield children from life’s pain. Yet fixating on our desperate desire to protect children from harm distracts from the truly important, adult business of assessing what solutions are actually available.
So it is with the gun debate. As if the massacre of children in Newtown, Connecticut wasn’t emotional enough, the President is now posing with children and publicizing kids’ pleas for the government to take action to prevent gun crimes. The Administration’s messaging strategy is clear: If you care about children, then you’ll do what we say and support new regulations and restrictions. Never mind questions about whether there is any evidence that the new restrictions will actually disarm would-be killers. We have to do something. You are either with us and the children, or you are on the side of mentally-ill, child-murdering maniacs.
This is not an intelligent way to approach public policy…
The complete op/ed is at Forbes.
Related: First in the Nation: Beaufort County, NC Passes Gun Law Nullification Resolution
Update: Flashback—Obama, Circa 1990s: ‘I Don’t Believe People Should Be Able to Own Guns’
