The Assault-Weapon Ban Dies; Left Throws Tantrum

Ron Fournier at National Journal:

"I don't have the words to describe the cowardice of Congress or the depravity of the gun lobby, which conspired to kill the assault-weapons ban....I can't explain the apparent impotence of President Obama who vowed to 'use whatever power this office holds' to convert the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School into commonsense common good,"


Mike Lupica of the New York Daily News (possibly the worst sportswriter in America; his alck of talent have now taken him to the appropriate place: liberal commentary) writes under a headline shrieking "Spineless Pols Spit on the Graves of Newtown Victims by Not Pushing for Assault Weapons Ban."

So how does the president and any other big politician who allows the gun nuts from the National Rifle Association to win again answer the larger question about weapons that make killings like the elementary-school massacre ridiculously easy: If not now for a ban on these weapons, when?


Liberals run on emotional fumes, as their intellectual arguments hold no water. But speaking of which, here's a cool drink of it, from James Taranto:

As Fournier puts it, Obama and his allies wished "to convert the tragedy . . . into commonsense common good." We disagree on the merits and would put it this way: They cynically sought to exploit a horrific crime in order to promote dubious policies that they had long wished to impose but had refrained from pushing for fear of the political consequences.

There was never very much to the argument other than demagogic appeals to emotion.


The demagogues lost yesterday, and for that, we should all be grateful. Alas, we have not the time to even rest our weary heads, for they are at it already again today...


(All links at Taranto's Best of the Web)