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Gun Control: A Misguided Focus on Mental Illness

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lawhawk12/19/2012 9:45:14 am PST

Jake Tapper asks where Obama’s been on the gun issue. “Where have you been?” Well, there’s a point there - this isn’t the first mass murder by firearms on Obama’s watch, so why is this time different for the President.

Obama’s answer that he had other things on his plate that were more pressing is true to a point. There were other more pressing issues on his plate, and a president has only so much political capital to use at any given point and politics requires give and take so that if he sought action in one area, it would affect other priorities - such as the economy. However, as President you can’t devote all time to just one issue - there are lots of issues to be addressed in any day, and the fact that you’re getting 10,000 murders (and a similar number of suicides) by firearms in any year is a troubling and costly statistic. Reducing the firearms deaths and injuries by half could have a tremendous public health benefit by reducing costs.

Now, there’s a time and place to deal with firearms in a way and with urgency we haven’t seen in a long time from the White House (going back to Clinton in 1994). It probably has as much to do with the age of the majority of the victims here - all were barely out of diapers. It was the sight of young’uns that spurred to action and even got longtime gun advocates to step back and reassess.