OPINION:
In the 1936 movie “Libeled Lady,” Spencer Tracy plays a hard-boiled newspaper editor working on a generic story. His assistant asks, “What’ll we use as a headline?” Tracy growls: “I don’t care. Anything. ‘War threatens Europe!’” The assistant asks: “Which country?” Tracy answers: “Flip a nickel.”
Today’s generic headlines read: “Democrat demands stricter gun control.” Which Democrat? Flip a coin. What type of control? Spin the wheel and see where it lands.
The shootings at a Catholic school in Minneapolis, the debate over federal intervention to counter Chicago’s crime crisis and the murder of conservative icon Charlie Kirk have elicited the predictable calls for more gun control.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz says he will call a special session of the state Legislature to enact tougher gun control in a state with some of the most restrictive gun laws in the nation.
The shooter at the Annunciation Catholic School used a rifle, a pistol and a shotgun, all legally owned by the transgender killer. Minnesota has licensing, registration, background checks and red flag laws. For the left, the tragedy is nothing more than an excuse to push gun control, even if nothing proposed would have prevented it.
In Chicago, someone is killed every 19 hours and 40 minutes. The Windy City leads the nation in homicides. Still, Mayor Brandon Johnson, who obstinately refuses help from the Trump administration, says Chicago would be as peaceful as Omaha on a Saturday night if it weren’t for guns coming in from red states.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has a program that traces firearms used in crime. In 2023, it found that most guns used to commit crimes in Chicago came not from Mississippi and Alabama but rather Illinois and Indiana.
Gun control is a way for Democrats to pretend that they care about crime.
Yet they support cashless bail, sanctuary cities (which are magnets for illegal alien criminals) and a revolving door justice system. They oppose enforcing laws against vagrancy and involuntary commitment. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids and National Guard support make them apoplectic.
They treat crime as a social issue.
When asked on a news show whether he would accept funding to hire another 5,000 police officers, Mr. Johnson demurred, saying instead that Chicago needs more affordable housing.
People are dying on the streets of Chicago because rents are too high?
If someone wants to commit murder, they will always find a way to get a gun. If they can buy fentanyl on the street, they can get a firearm.
Gangs fighting turf wars are not deterred by gun control.
Gun control works only with the law-abiding, the very people who need guns for self-defense.
As Democratic policies make the country more dangerous, those who don’t want to end up a crime statistic need to protect themselves. Yet Democrats want to make it impossible for the innocent to exercise their Second Amendment rights.
New York’s socialist mayoral candidate, Zohran Mamdani, advocates national anti-gun measures. When he comes for your property, he doesn’t want you to be able to resist.
In Charlotte, North Carolina, last month, DeCarlos Brown Jr. was charged with killing 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska by plunging a knife into her neck while she was riding on a commuter train. Mr. Brown, who was a vagrant, had 14 prior arrests. The last time he appeared in court, a Democratic-appointed judge let him out on his written promise to appear for trial.
Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles, a Democrat who has been brimming with compassion for cold-blooded killers, said, “We will never arrest our way out of issues such as homelessness and mental health,” which must be a great comfort to victims’ families.
I’m surprised she didn’t propose knife control too.
The assassination of Charlie Kirk brought more calls for gun control from politicians who despised him and his values. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York Democrat, said we need “commonsense gun control” — as opposed to what: the impractical kind?
Kirk believed we need a Second Amendment to “protect our other God-given rights.”
Four in 10 Americans live in a household with a gun. Democrats would have to go door to door to get them. Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, Texas Democrat (“Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15s”), is up to the job.
As the bodies pile up, Democrats shun law enforcement and cheer for their pet panacea, one that has a record of failure unrivaled in the history of government intervention.
Compared with gun control, even rent control works.
• Don Feder is a columnist with The Washington Times
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