Obama: Coming for Our Guns or Shooting for a Legacy?

Like a good liberal should, President Obama sprang into action in the aftermath of the recent shooting at an elementary school in Connecticut. He attended services, gave speeches decrying the easy availability of guns in America, and even appointed Vice-President “Crazy Uncle Joe” Biden to head up a task force devoted to solving a problem that has been with us ever since the Song Dynasty in China figured out how to supercharge the ejection of a projectile with gun powder in about 500 AD.

Depending upon what report you’re reading, expect the President to push for legislation for universal background checks and bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. The rumor mill is also rife with the possibility that, to circumvent a congressional powder keg, Obama will sign 19 separate executive orders related to the topic.
Despite all the uproar, expect that the gun control pendulum will not swing too far to the left. There’s a little thing called the US Constitution standing in the way, which contains an amendment that states the following:

“…the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”

Both sides of the issue can dicker about what exactly these words mean, but the bottom line is that the United States has a long standing history of mass shootings, going all the way back to 1949 when an insane World War II veteran shot and killed 13 of his neighbors. We have an equally long history of little to no subsequent legislative action. Are we to believe that the dead children in Connecticut will motivate us as a nation any more than the hundreds of dead children who lie in graves from dozens of previous atrocities? Maybe, but more likely, maybe not. While the fiery passion of outrage and loss may never fade for those directly affected, politicians will have put it from their minds by the next election cycle.

Perhaps even more so than other hot button topics in America, gun control has always pitted two intransigent camps against one another. Second Amendment supporters fear a government that wants to limit access to firearms in any way, as they rightly point out that it is the murderous intent lurking in the mind of a man or woman that is to blame. Meanwhile, President Obama and millions of other liberals around the country can’t stop their congenital kneejerk reaction of taking way guns.

The problem with this way of thinking lies in a troublesome little body of facts. In countries where gun control has been legislated to the maximum, it’s true, gun deaths are down. Unfortunately, murder rates remain virtually unchanged, as people make the switch to baseball bats, knives, grenades, or anything else they can get their hands on.
For all his hot air on the subject, Obama’s attempts to undermine the Constitution are probably going to fade into nothingness. Holistic Survival’s founder and CEO, Jason Hartman, has adopted a wait and see approach. (Top image: Flickr | planetc1)

The Holistic Survival Team