Oh, Darn -- I Skipped The President's Town Hall On Guns

     So that meant I missed him admitting to skeet-shooting at Camp David but calling himself "not much of a marksman."  Which may explain why his approach to talking about firearms laws is scattershot and ill-aimed.

     Reading even CNN's coverage of their own event, the President stuck to his message, which consists mostly of fantasies like implying anyone, anywhere, can purchase any firearm at all over the Internet and have it shipped to their door without any risk, any consequences.  Yeah, go looking for that; find me that site fulla machine guns that only wants a PayPal transfer-- It doesn't exist.  Look at the big gun-auction sites and it's all FFL-required: if you buy one of those guns, it gets shipped to a dealer in your state, who runs a background check on you.

     Asked why he doesn't mention the steadily-declining murder rate, even as Americans buy record numbers of gun, he tapdanced away without ever really touching it.

     But my, how the NRA was criticized, for refusing to attend an event run by a man who has never passed up a chance to paint them as bad, bad folks, airing on a network that has a long history of doing the same.

     This is campaigning and pressure-politics, make no mistake; the President hopes to stampede Congress into doing what he cannot, making all private sales illegal and, if similar laws passed in some states are any example, making it a Federal crime to lend a gun to someone else, even for a few minutes at a range.  He has no answer for how this is supposed to stop criminals, who already obtain most of their guns illegally; he wants it and refuses to see its uselessness against crime and its burden on the law-abiding.

     Online comments in local news this morning included the old, "Why don't we treat guns like we treat cars?" What, stick a unique identifying number on them and apply a special tax?  That already happens. Or maybe extend "full faith and credence" to state-issued operator's licenses among all fifty states and assorted territories?  'Cos I can legally drive my car in any of them; I can only carry my gun lawfully in a few of them.  What, not what you meant?  Shut up; grownups are talking.