In the wake of the tragic shooting at the Old National Bank in Louisville, Ky., President Joe Biden immediately jumped on his high horse, once again blaming congressional Republicans for not acceding to his demands that they gut the 2nd Amendment.
This comes less than a week after the Department of Justice announced an agreement in principle to pay $144.5 million in taxpayer monies to settle the numerous civil cases arising out of the Nov. 5, 2017, mass shooting at First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas, that resulted in the deaths of 26 worshippers and injured another 22 worshippers.
In the Sutherland Springs mass shooting, the perpetrator was an ex-airman who had been court-martialed, convicted of two violations of UCMJ Article 128 for violent assaults on his wife and stepson, and received a bad conduct discharge. As a consequence, he was prohibited, in perpetuity, from purchasing or possessing a firearm. However, the bureaucracy never communicated this prohibition to the National Instant Check System (NICS). As a consequence, he was able to pass a background check and purchase the firearm that he subsequently used in the mass shooting. Between Dec. 1, 2017, and Jan. 31, 2018, over 4,000 names were suddenly forwarded to the NICS, some of which had been held back by the Department of Defense for years. Every bureaucrat who was a party to the failure to communicate those prohibited persons’ names to the NICS should have been charged as an accessory before the fact in the murders and attempted murders at the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs.
How many bureaucrats were charged with a crime? None. How many bureaucrats were fired? None. How many bureaucrats were demoted? None. The bureaucracy must be protected at all costs. Readers of this newspaper will recall that I predicted last July that no one from this administration would travel to Greenwood, Ind., because the would-be mass shooter was stopped by a “good guy with a gun.” It should not be surprising to anyone that I was right. The administration completely ignored it because it did not suit their narrative.
The recent mass shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville, Tenn., was carried out by a mentally deranged individual. The president’s response was to imply that the school was at fault by declaring a Transgender Day of Visibility.
Inanimate objects (firearms) do not commit violent crimes. People do. And those people who commit violent crimes should be held liable for those crimes. The police have no responsibility to protect you, me or anyone else. The police investigate crimes and arrest the perpetrators so that they can be tried by, and where appropriate, punished by the justice system. Each legal adult is responsible for his or her own safety and for the safety of their dependents. A lot of people need to grow up and accept the fact that they have responsibilities instead of taking the position that someone else should take care of them and their dependents. That is not how the real world works. We have long since passed the point of having a government “of the people, by the people and for the people.” We currently have a government “of the government, by the government and for the government.”
Biden could care less about the victims of mass shootings. Each such event simply provides him another opportunity to grandstand.
• The bureaucrats responsible for the Sutherland Springs mass shooting would be unemployed and incarcerated.
• Someone from his administration would have traveled to Greenwood, Ind.
• He would be taking concrete action to remove criminal repeat offenders from our streets.
• He would be taking concrete action to remove the mentally ill from our streets and get them the help they require. Sadly, with this administration, I am not going to hold my breath.
John P. Baker is an NRA Benefactor, NRA Golden Eagle and Gun Owners of America life member.
