rs_560x415-150618093334-1024.President-Obama-Nation-Address-Charleston-Shooting.jl.061815

The common refrain from the Obama Administration is that if we had simply implemented “common sense” gun laws then some of these “gun violence tragedies” would not have occurred. That’s the same logic they are using to present their latest demand for increased restrictions on the civil liberties of law abiding Americans, pointing to the on-air shooting of two reporters as proof positive that we need to “do something” to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill. There’s just one small problem: the proposed laws would have done exactly nothing to stop that shooting. And on Friday, the Obama Administration admitted it.

From the Washington Times:

The White House conceded Friday that new gun regulations probably wouldn’t have prevented the gunman who murdered two television journalists in southwestern Virginia this week.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest said it appears that a proposal championed by President Obama to require background checks on purchases at gun shows “would not have applied in this particular case.”

Law enforcement officials said gunman Vester Flanagan used a Glock handgun in Wednesday’s shooting, one of two that he bought last month. He legally bought two Glock model 19 handguns from a Virginia dealer.

Mr. Earnest said the White House has never suggested that one piece of gun legislation would prevent all gun violence in the U.S. But Mr. Earnest said the proposal on background checks, which failed in the Senate in 2013, would prevent other shooting deaths around the country every day.

“There are similarly shocking acts of violence that don’t get as much attention that could be prevented … if Congress weren’t scared of the NRA,” he said.

The shooter in this case legally purchased a handgun through a federally licensed firearms dealer. He passed the usual NICS background check, which means the “evil gun show loophole” was not used in this case. None of the usual rallying cries from the gun control activist crowd would have stopped this situation. In fact, the only thing that would have stopped this is if the people involved focused on the person in question and insisted on getting them some mental health help. But no, they didn’t do that, and now they’re trying to find a way to blame the inanimate object instead of their own inaction for this tragedy.

There’s no way that “common sense” gun laws would have stopped this shooting, much like “common sense” gun laws wouldn’t do much to stop any of the other shootings that the White House regularly and publicly bemoans. They have even admitted it now, on the record. But that won’t stop them from trying anyway. Because guns are evil, don’t you see? Blame the guns! Not the people.

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58 COMMENTS

  1. No law can outlaw/prevent stupidity or insanity.

    Typical DC Friday timing trick, when most people are busy with weekend events to pay attention to the news. Want fewer people to notice a press release, release it on Friday afternoon. Our short attention time news span won’t carry it over to Monday.

    • It’s COMMON SENSE that someone with a size disadvantage will not pick a fight with someone much larger.

      It’s COMMON SENSE that that a small woman can easily be overpowered and injured/raped/killed by most males inclined to do so.

      It’s COMMON SENSE that a criminal will think twice about attacking someone if they even THINK they’re armed, or even that they would put up resistance.

      It’s COMMON SENSE that burglaries would go down if perps wondered if the next house would be the one in which they get shot.

      It’s COMMON SENSE that most people would prefer that they are safe in their own houses, and being armed will help with that.

      It’s COMMON SENSE that if a criminal type DOESN’T do any of the above for fear of being shot, then the mere presences, or even possibility thereof will deter crime, and thus keep us safer.

      It’s COMMON SENSE that (fill in the blank)

    • inspired with racial hatred for whites from past events. The son, obviously followed in its father’s footsteps.

      • Actually, I’m thinking brothers. They both have those Frank Marshall Davis age spots on their faces.. Did FMD ever make it to Oakland while he was doing all of his “organizing” for CPUSA??

        Maybe Vester’s moms took a vacation to Honolulu?

  4. I see their “message” problem continues. But if they waited around for exactly the right bloody shirt to wave for the particular law they want to shove down America’s throat, how are they going to stay on pace for gutting the Constitution and implementing their collectivist authoritarian utopia?

  5. Congress is not afraid…it just reacts with common sense to the will of its constituents. Pure and simple. Always nice to put a boogie man out there though.

  6. The “mental health” mantra is equally useless in most cases. People choose aggression, violence, murder and so forth for many reasons, and it is often impossible to identify those reasons in advance. It all looks so simple in hindsight, but as a mental health professional (now retired), I can assure you it is not even possible much of the time. And the more those who are identified (accurately or not) are incarcerated and/or deprived of their liberty and rights, the fewer of them will be willing to expose themselves to the process.

    Another consideration, and this one a biggie, remember the Soviets who called anyone who resisted, objected or rebelled “mentally ill?” Yes, it can happen in America too. And it won’t be just about guns. Don’t want to have the “chip” implanted in your children? Off to the Gulag! Don’t want your every move watched and recorded? Doing things to avoid it? ANTI-SOCIAL… off the the mental hospital. Won’t take your court ordered meds? OK, here’s a little electroshock to help you comply…

    Let’s not encourage that, please.

    • In all the cases of these shootings, the person hasn’t been brooding in silence about what bothers him. They always exhibit signs of instability before they commit their crimes. Dyllan Roof bragged on social media about his beliefs. Bryce constantly ranted about perceived wrongs and race wars. Now, I’m not suggesting that people be tossed into the gulag for ranting on social media, but at the same time, people need to take some initiative and reach out to friends of theirs online if they exhibit signs of instability. A lot of the times, just knowing someone reached out will prevent someone from going off the deep end.

      • If it was that easy, pod… I suspect it would happen more often. I watched hundreds of patients and families, their support groups and even officials completely ignore those “signs” – even deny them when they were obvious. They are EASY to see in hindsight, however, which is the only look at it most of us get.

        The key is to take personal responsibility for our lives and actions, to be aware of those around us, and prepare to defend ourselves. We must be willing to accept the fact that evil exists, and doesn’t always give warning signs at all.

        So many otherwise good people have the false idea that violence can be predicted and prevented – even if they have to go to ridiculous lengths to achieve it. We can obviously try to do so with our family, friends and neighbors, but trusting any government for this is simply asking for more of what we’ve already got. A police state, with zero help for the truly disturbed.

    • “And the more those who are identified (accurately or not) are incarcerated and/or deprived of their liberty and rights, the fewer of them will be willing to expose themselves to the process.”

      +1000 and well said. Vester Flanagan was not mentally ill. Social isolation, race hatred, self loathing, and being enraged about his own failures are not necessarily qualifiers for being mentally ill. Simply put, Flanagan was an evil man hell bent on destroying the lives of the people he hated. In this he was no more “crazy” than an ISIS terrorist filming himself cutting off someone’s head.

      Calling him crazy is just a cheap way of avoiding the fact that a black man committed a hate crime.

      • Well said
        -The mental health card is an easier means of gun control, for some gun owners to sell out Americans birth rights for.(Veterans Affairs or SSA) Most on here don’t understand the history of say Stalin, and his use of the mental health card for executions against innocent people. After all, Stalin was allowed to do what he did because of the comfortable indifference of the West.
        Example:
        “Calling him crazy is just a cheap way of avoiding the fact that a black man committed a hate crime.”
        -A statist could use your statement about race, as a qualifier to have you deemed mentally ill, because you are exhibiting delusional fantasies, if you think a black person can commit a hate crime.

  7. As a child, I always suspected that Wile E Coyote knew in his heart that his traps for the Road Runner would fail. After taking a close look at the above picture of the current occupant of the White House, I wonder, If Wile E Coyote had a son……

    • More like a tough mental exercise to keep changing your story and still come up with a way to blame “guns”.

  9. I haven’t done the research, haven’t really cared enough to, but I get the feeling that the VA killer would have come under the label of left wing liberal. Like many of the nut job killers we’ve seen.

    NRA types, which are pilloried by the press, don’t engage in this violent destructive behaviour.

    PS, this was meant as a reply to H&E but his comment vanished.

    • “I haven’t done the research, haven’t really cared enough to, but I get the feeling that the VA killer would have come under the label of left wing liberal.”

      Well…

      The TV station that fired him gave him a written reprimand for wearing an Obama sticker at the poll on election night…

      “Like many of the nut job killers we’ve seen.”

      Yep.

  10. There is no gun show “loop hole” unless it’s a private, “parking lot” transaction. Handguns for sale at gun shows are usually sold by FFL dealers. AND forcing a person, who is not even a blood relative, to get mental health treatment, is next to impossible. May work differently in other states but in Texas, you would have to get Guardian Adlitem granted by a Judge, of course, crazy as a street cat person is going to be assisted by a tax payer paid defense attorney – good luck with that! Can’t fix crazy

    • “forcing a person, who is not even a blood relative, to get mental health treatment, is next to impossible.”

      Yep. That’s both good and bad, depending on who is doing the “forcing” and why.
      I’m not exactly sure what people pushing the mental health end of these things hope to accomplish. We’re not going to start detaining or surveilling people who are social outcasts, bullying victims, depressed, financially struggling, just got dumped by their SO…where would it end? And who would be left out?

  11. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again.

    The Obama administration has a predictable pattern since 2012: When they start getting into trouble on some issue, they bring up gun control. The press, being obsessed with gun control, responds by giving the Obama administration favorable coverage.

    The press, being the low-IQ beings that they are, always respond like Pavlov’s dogs. Mention “gun control” and the press start wagging their tails and running in circles. They’re not smart enough to realize that they’re being played like a bunch of cheap fiddles.

    • gunny

      “The press, being the low-IQ beings that they are, always respond like Pavlov’s dogs. Mention “gun control” and the press start wagging their tails and running in circles.”

      I would have to say their masters are quite brilliant, and the dogs don’t bite the hand that feeds them and protects them.

      The ideas of the,Brave New World,1984, Art of War, Alinsky, Hitler,Mao, and Stalin, are the perfected curriculum that is being used against us. When our materialism, through greed is no longer enough to keep us content, prepare for the train rides of the Gulag to begin.

      “They’re not smart enough to realize that they’re being played like a bunch of cheap fiddles.”

      -That sounds like a more accurate label of WE Second Amendment supporters, who are tolerating having OUR rights stolen.

    • +1. And Obama being the slippery back stabber he is, throws the clueless Kool Kids Klub reporters under the bus, by giving himself a pass by pretending to be reasonable, and admitting common-sense laws werent at fault.

      These incidents, tragic as they are, do demonstrate just how irresponsible the StateRunMedia has become- the obvious trigger for this unhinged reporter killing another reporter was his racist entitlement rage, at a white reporter who took his job.

      The progressive press has an huge stain on its own credibility for overblown hype of that same black entitlement rage meme, from Trayvon, to Ferguson, to Gardner, and when the inevitable blow-back happens, cant run from it fast enough to blame the gun, rather than the shooter, a product of the hype.

      Jake Tapper, I am calling you out you scumbag.

    • I think it’s less that the press doesn’t realized they’re being played, and more that they’re willing accomplices. Some are “useful idiots”, but I think most of the left-wing press is fully clued-in on the game, and willing to play on Obama’s team.

  12. Is it just me or does the photo of the White House jerkoff make anyone else sick to their stomach?
    What a piece of crap that sissy boy is.

  13. Wow, I never thought of that angle before and I should have. Gun laws are the scapegoat for violence. What would happen if all of these laws they propose were passed and we still had violence ? Find another scapegoat ? Rather than doing something productive like keeping violent people off the streets or letting law abiding people protect themselves ? Seems like they would eventually run out of scapegoats without pointing their fingers at themselves. Losing strategy in the long run UNLESS this is not really about preventing violence but more about controlling people and taking away our freedom.

  14. In other news, cars and alcohol are responsible for drunk driving, tools build houses, forks make us fat. Remember, this is America… nothing is anybody’s fault. We are all victims. If it’s not the circumstance or background, it must be an enchanted magical item that forces us to act. Good thing my guns force me to target shoot with family and friends and maintain situational awareness. Some even make me carry them around “just in case” like my car nags me to wear my seatbelt. Good thing I bought good guns. If I ever shoot anyone, I guess I’ll have to decide to do that for myself. I’d need a really good reason, too. That is called “judgement” and many of our species are capable of using it pretty well. Not all of the millions of guns in the U.S.A. can be as well behaved as my guns, I guess.

  16. This constant harping on the concept of “gun violence” has become a tacit endorsement of violence as a whole, as long as it involves other means (which most of us saw it as before having heard the term “gun violence”).

    Look at social media during the Zimmerman trial, a lot of sentiment (and macho posturing) along the lines of, “Trayvon shouldn’t have had to die because he couldn’t take a beating,” and “Real men use their fists, not guns.”

    Some mainstream outlets even aired statements along the lines of, “Thank god Christy Mack was only beaten and stabbed to the point where doctors were surprised she lived.”

    What I’m hearing in statements like these, especially from politicians, is, “That televised murder would have been just fine, if only he would have used an axe or machete instead.”

    The current Democratic platform’s answer to Archie Bunker is a decided, “Yes.”

  17. 508 Fu@king days until the lunacy promulgated from the people’s house ends. The wait crushes the brain.

  18. I had a conversation online, with friends of a friend, about ‘insane gun culture’ and what common sense gun control is. I could tell them all day that ‘gun culture’ had no role in these deranged killings, and they wouldn’t listen.
    So instead I asked flatly ‘what is common sense gun control’. I got a rant about laws that were in Congress that the NRA and Republicans won’t allow to pass, and a bunch of vague anger. I asked again, what are these common sense proposals. Finally got an answer; universal background checks, waiting periods, ending the loopholes and gift guns, anything to stop the violence.

    I pointed out why all of those things won’t work, why most laws proposed are redundant to current law, that violent crime has been declining steadily. Then I suggested alternative avenues to address violent crimes. Recognize and help the mentally unstable before something happens, and deal with poverty which is a major player in crime.
    The moaned about how I shot down their answer, then proclaimed that the answer I really wanted was ‘do nothing’. That’s not what I said at all, I offered solutions that would address the root cause behind the violence. I want to do something, just not something that includes further gun regulation.

    And that’s the problem.
    If the solution doesn’t target gun ownership, then it’s not a solution at all to these adamant gun control believers. If you’re not restricting access to guns in every way possible, then you’re not doing anything.

  22. How come is it that “common sense” is least likely to be present in the people who use the phrase most often?

  23. I’m by no means a fan of the one gun a month law, but does it strike anyone but me as rather odd that a (presumptive) first time gun buyer would buy two of the exact same model pistols at one time? I’m not talking about collectors items, or sequentially serial numbered for investment/collecting, but just stock production guns?

    Given the collection of swag he had in his rental car; 3 license plates, wig, shawl, disguises, etc, he was planning on going somewhere to do something. Richmond or D.C.? Someplace with a lot of people where he could go out in a really big blaze of glory? If the trooper with the automatic plate reader hadn’t snagged him, what was his end game?

  24. Yep. Those shocking acts of violence in Chicago, and New York, and now Baltimore- up what- 200% since the black democrat controlled govenment and black city mayor gave the mob room to destroy…

    Those black on black lives taken by “guns”- those illegal guns sold by criminals, that would have been stopped by background checks that only apply to the law abiding…

    Obama can’t speak the truth about the progressive principles and politicians that put poor blacks in dependency in urban ghettoes, that leads to gangs and gun violence. Because that would destroy his next gig- gun control at the UN, and his return to his roots community organizer foundation for black youth. He’ll be back to conning the poor black folks again.

  25. I have to confess every time I see or hear Barry Soetoro speak I throw-up a bit in my mouth-is brain dead Biden(slow joe) STILL kryptonite? Inquiring minds want to know…and it don’t matter to the odumbo crowd as ALL they seek is civilian disarmament…carry on,buy guns and ammo,support theNRA(& others) and puh-lees don’t press D next year.

  26. The press isn’t being played, they are players in this. “Paid” to play along. It isn’t about preventing violence, it’s about control. Control of the people, not firearms. Google democide…

  27. Who are they trying to convince? Common sense is called common sense because it is self-evident. Why do they have to pin that phrase onto every steaming lie they shovel up? Because it’s a steaming lie…

  29. First time I’ve seen this. No coverage on this admission from the White House, but comments immediately after the shooting were plastered all over the place.

    • Interesting that the briefing that included these comments hasn’t yet been posted to the White House briefing-room/press-briefings web page. It appears as though most other briefings were posted the same day the briefings occurred, but this one took place on Friday and now it’s after 2PM Eastern on Monday and I still don’t see a transcript of these remarks.

      Maybe someone made an unpublishable error while speaking off-the-cuff (read: stuck his foot in his mouth up to the knee).

      If so, down the memory hole it goes…

      If anyone finds a link to an official transcript or any video of the actual comments, please post a link to it here.

  30. “…afraid of the NRA.”

    Who is the NRA any way? 5 million dues paying members who believe in the 2nd amendment and vote as a block (well mostly) and influence 3 times that many in family and friends. Power of the people.

  31. Common sense gun control will never stop tragedies like this from happening. The reason why is the deranged killers never cared for law or common sense in the first place. They will find a way to kill.

    So the only way to ‘stop’ killings like this is through truly draconian gun laws and nationwide confiscation. The government would have to make owning a gun a serious crime, would have to compel mandatory confiscation, repeal the 2nd amendment, would have to create a fascist police state, and enact legislation as overreaching as Australia or England.

    Then and only then would things like this become less frequent. Problem is you would then live in a police state, where criminals can still get weapons, where your rights are gone, where the government has all control. Also, there would be massive civil unrest when the confiscations started, and millions of guns would still be out there.

    Therefore, I would rather risk the statically rare mass shootings then give up my freedoms. You know, not trade essential liberty for temporary security and all that.

  32. As long as they make the same requirements of anyone who wants to vote, speak freely, print anything they want, etc. If we had common sense laws regulating voting, Obama would not be on the TV spouting trash today.

  33. Throwing this whack job of a president and his tax=vacation raping family out of the White House is what I would call REAL common sense.

  34. Silence IS acceptance !! Still waiting for POTUS to condemn Farakahn and BLM crowd calls for murder.

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