Biden lies on gun control legislation

By Don Frost

            President Biden falsely claims he’s a helpless victim when he passes the buck to Congress on gun control legislation. “Falsely claiming” he’s helpless in this matter is a polite way of calling the president a liar. It is not possible for him to be so ignorant, so clueless that he genuinely believes all he can do is sit on his hands and moan, “Gee whiz. I sure hope Congress comes up with something on guns.”

            I’m disrespecting the office by calling the president a liar? Spare me. “Liberals” don’t object when news reports say Donald Trump “falsely claims” he won the 2020 election.

            Biden is not helpless and he knows it or he has scrambled eggs for brains. When he was vice president he stood by and watched his boss, Barack Obama, routinely bypass Congress when he enacted, by presidential fiat, things he knew he could never get Congress to pass.

            DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals): With a stroke of his pen Obama overrode standing immigration law. The Constitution is unambiguous in stating that passing and changing federal laws is the prerogative and duty of Congress, not the president.

            The Paris Climate Accord: This agreement had the full effect of a treaty. The Constitution is unambiguous in stating that treaties with foreign governments must be approved by Congress, not the president.

            The Iran Deal: (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA.) This pact also had the full effect of a treaty. The Constitution is unambiguous in stating that treaties with foreign governments must be approved by Congress, not the president.

            In all of these matters Obama never played the “helpless victim” card. He just went ahead and put himself above the law.

            Fast forward to Nashville, March 27, 2023. A disaffected woman went into a school toting an AR-15-style rifle, killed people, was then killed by police, and knees jerked in unison all across America with the familiar refrain: We need tougher gun laws!

            It’s really irrelevant to the national debate, but for the record, this young woman (she preferred to be a man and so claimed she really was one) shot up Covenant School, killing six people.

            Pundits pontificated, as usual, puzzling over what motivated her. But without exception they determined her motive didn’t matter anyhow. She did it, they trumpeted, because guns were available and she bought them legally. Pundits and news reporters just love to hammer on the legality of her purchase. There are an estimated 16 million AR-15-style rifles on the loose in America at this very moment. Oddly, none of them (or their owners) are on murderous rampages. In fact, an infinitesimally small minority of them has killed anyone.

            The science on mass killers has been ignored for years. Psychiatric evaluations of those who survived their attacks have shown they’re garden-variety copycats with a deadly twist. They didn’t do it because they could legally buy a gun. They did it because they envied others who committed mass murder and were rewarded with great notoriety. For most, if not all, it was the first time anyone noticed them. The certainty that their attacks could end in their deaths was not a deterrent. I will not name the Nashville murderer here. It’s my small contribution to denying future murderers their go-to motive for killing.

            Nashville police say their killer left a manifesto, so maybe one day the world will know her twisted motivation, or maybe not. It doesn’t matter. She did it because she knew she could die with the knowledge that a) an irresponsible press would see to it that people all across America would know who she was, b) her manifesto would explain how horribly the world treated her, and c) the world would at last understand her; feel sorry for her; and, perhaps, mend its wicked ways so others need not suffer as she did.

            Whatever the fallout of the Nashville killings, count on politicians to yield to the plaintive cry, “We’ve just gotta do something!” There are votes in those voices. But Biden insists he’s helpless and that it’s up to Congress to “do something,” not him. That’s a lie because he knows better and he doesn’t even have to follow Obama’s illegal blueprint of running roughshod over the Constitution. Presidents are legally entitled to draft legislation. They simply write it, summon their party’s Congressional leaders, and give them their marching orders: “Get this bill passed.”

            So with poor Joe Biden sitting helplessly by, sucking his thumb, politicians will launch their usual exercise in futility, ie., doing the same thing and expecting a different result. Whatever pointless gesture they settle on (perhaps an additional box to check on the mandatory FBI background check?) it’s just a matter of time before the next disaffected man or woman decides it’s time to get his or her slice of the notoriety pie and go on a killing spree. Just like the last time, the time before that, and the time before . . .

            Columbine, Sandy Hook, Littleton, Newton, Uvalde, Highland Park, Parkland . . .

            Those killers had their 15 minutes of fame. Now they’re forgotten. But the next killer doesn’t care. He or she will settle for 15 minutes, just like the Nashville shooter did.