So, the question is why, in the face of this carnage, we don’t do something about it. But, sadly, that’s not a serious question.
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President Barack Obama said the nation must make it harder to carry out the kind of mass shooting that happened Wednesday in San Bernardino. Still, as the shootings continue, they’ve forced Democrats, after years of cravenly avoiding the issue, to make it a centerpiece nationally in the 2016 campaign. And I just received a briefing from FBI director Comey as well as attorney general Lynch indicating the course of their investigation.
At Whole Foods Market in Pinecrest, some customers in the parking lot said a line needs to be drawn. He asked for patience, assured Americans they were safe and, notably, toned down his typically full-throated call for congressional action on gun control.
Additionally, they voted 45 to 54 against a bill that would have stopped people on the terror watch list from purchasing guns.
The White House’s reaction was viewed by some as an attempt to downplay the possibility that a terrorist attack had occurred on the president’s watch and to divert attention. An act of evil unfolded in California.
Clearly the Republicans are stuck in 1791, when the Second Amendment – “A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed” – was written into the US Constitution. “They are a risky organization like al Qaeda was, but we have hardened our defenses”.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at the Republican Jewish Coalition Presidential Forum in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 3, 2015. Instead, Obama said, “we all have a part to play” in tackling gun violence.
“It is possible this was terrorist related but we don’t know”, he added.
Republicans also have had to adjust their message.
But Obama took a less angry tone than he has used after other recent mass shootings, and sought to reassure Americans who are nervous after attacks in Paris by Islamic State militants last month.
“That work includes looking at the gun show loophole”, said one White House official involved in the work. And the fact remains that California has already adoptedPresident Obama’s gun control wish list: “universal” background checks, registration, waiting periods, gun bans, magazine bans and an expansion of prohibited gun categories. Obama is right. Mass shootings like the one in San Bernardino will perhaps never be completely suppressed in our lifetime, but tougher gun controls would surely help limit their frequency and scope.
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Specifically addressing the “no-fly” background check proposal floated by Obama Wednesday, Earnest conceded it wouldn’t likely have had an effect based on information investigators had gathered in San Bernardino.
