Another tragedy for Obama to exploit

By Chip McLean

"This is something we should politicize." – Barack Obama, remarking on the Umpqua Community College shootings

As Ronald Reagan would have said, "Well, there you go again." Is there no shame in our current president whatsoever? The victims' bodies weren't even cold and Obama was already making certain that he would "not let a good crisis go to waste."

Obama's pathetic attempt at a preemptive salvo – "somebody somewhere will comment and say, 'Obama will politicize this issue'" – does nothing to mitigate the fact that the reason people say that about Obama, is because people know that politicizing a tragedy is what Obama does. He is more predictable than Michael Moore overstaying at an all you can eat buffet.

The man who swore to uphold our constitution, but has "fundamentally transformed" America, by ignoring, sidestepping, and issuing executive orders that totally defy its very precepts, made very thinly veiled threats against the second amendment by referencing other nations that have confiscated weapons from their own citizens.

Obama was not alone in his caterwauling, as leftists such as Dan Savage went bonkers on social networks. Of course the ones who wish to appear rational have already started the predictable call for "common sense gun control." The problem is that there is never any "common sense" to their approach as it always ignores the very basic flaw in their argument. Gun control laws do not impact criminals, as criminals are by definition those who break laws. The only thing that more gun control laws accomplish is to restrict the rights of the law abiding. Criminals who wish to break laws will do so regardless of the number of laws one may choose to impose on everyone else.

Mike Huckabee had it right with his remarks on CNN:

"I keep waiting for someone to tell me what new gun law can we pass that would have prevented this shooting, or Sandy Hook, or Aurora, [or] Charleston – just tell me what gun law that is, [because] I have yet to hear somebody tell me what that is," Huckabee said, the Washington Times reported. "Let's ask this question: what stopped that shooter in Oregon yesterday? What stopped him? He was continuing to shoot – what stopped him? It was a police officer with what? A conversation? A reading from a book? It was a cop with a gun that stopped him."

Then there is the issue of "gun-free" zones. While Umpqua Community College was not technically a "gun-free" zone, it may as well have been. The convoluted application of the law there renders the ability of CWP holders to carry on campus virtually moot, as no one is allowed to bring their concealed weapon into any of the buildings. A concealed weapon will do very little to stop a deranged individual like Christopher Harper Mercer – the Oregon shooter – if it is locked up in a car in the parking lot.

I've written of this before, but gun free zones have been an unmitigated disaster. Since their implementation during the Clinton presidency, more than 100 innocent people have been killed in areas that didn't allow guns. For criminals, it is the equivalent of shooting fish in a barrel. Once again, it goes back to the fact that only the law abiding obey laws – not criminals.

There is another component of Obama's reaction that is deeply disturbing. The victims in this case were singled out because they were Christians. Why hasn't Obama mentioned this fact? He certainly has had no problem pointing out that the victims (or supposed victims in some cases) in other incidents were targeted because they were black, gay, Muslim, immigrants (legal and otherwise) and so forth...where is the outrage for the targeting of Christians? So far all we have heard is Obama exploiting the tragedy to promote his anti-constitutional attack on the second amendment. As far as the faith of the victims in this shooting are concerned, they are not in one of the politically correct groups that Obama panders to, so the reaction emanating from the White House thus far has been the sound of crickets chirping.

This is in keeping with Obama's selective outrage. Christians are being persecuted and executed for their faith throughout the Middle Eastern nations, but nary a word from Obama. When videos emerged of the twenty one Coptic Christians who were beheaded earlier this year by ISIS, Obama referred to the slain as "Egyptians"...no reference to the fact they were singled out because they were Christians.

The shootings in Oregon illustrate that Christian persecution is no longer limited to the Middle East. As Franklin Graham said on his Facebook page:

"Persecution and targeting of Christians isn't just in Iran or the Middle East, it's right here in America. The bold souls at Umpqua Community College who stood up to say they were followers of Jesus Christ were heinously gunned down with no mercy. Jesus said, 'If they hate you, remember they hated me before they hated you.' (John 15:18)."

It is obvious that Obama through this selective outrage, is at the very least disinterested in the persecution of Christians. In matters of practicality, his policies have had a very anti-Christian slant. It really is not surprising that Obama leaps at any opportunity to promote the politically correct "victims" he favors, and ignores those he doesn't.

His pushing for more failed gun control policies immediately after this tragedy, while totally ignoring the reason for their slayings, speaks volumes about his agenda.

All we need now is for Obama to say that if he had a son, he would look a lot like Christopher Harper Mercer.

© Chip McLean