Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Obama Uses Child ‘Props’ for Gun Control Propaganda
Townhall.com ^ | April 22, 2013 | Katie Kieffer

Posted on 04/22/2013 5:42:52 AM PDT by Kaslin

President Obama would make a terrible stand-up comedian. He would need a teleprompter to deliver his jokes. And he would need a traveling caravan of smiling children to serve as live props.

Sen. Rand Paul was right to say that Obama effectively uses children as ‘props’ to promote his anti-2nd Amendment gun control agenda.

On December 14, 2012 a mentally unstable young man named Adam Lanza took the lives of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut.

Last Wednesday, Obama rallied several family members of the 20 children who died in the Newtown tragedy to flank him in the Rose Garden as he gave a speech pouting about the failure of the Manchin-Toomey bill to expand mandatory background checks for gun purchases, including firearms bought online or at gun shows. The bill failed by six votes in the Senate on Wednesday.

Also on Wednesday, Paul pointed out how Obama politicized the failure of the background checks bill, saying: “I am a parent, I have three boys and I hate to see using people, I think, as props and politicizing people’s tragedy. ... I know they [family members] are coming voluntarily and they want to come and be part of this debate. It still saddens me just to see them, and I think that in some cases the president has used them as props. That disappoints me.”

Paul further explained on the Glenn Beck Program on Thursday: “…I think one of the things that attracts mad men to schools is the fact that they are gun-free zones. … he [Adam Lanza] didn’t go to the local police station to kill people because he knew that they would shoot back.”

Even beyond Paul’s observations, it is important to point out that not every parent who lost a child in the Newtown, Connecticut tragedy believes that gun control is the answer. Mark Mattioli, the father of 6-year-old Sandy Hook Elementary School victim James Mattioli testified before a gun violence task force:

“I think there’s much more promise for a solution in identifying, researching and creating solutions along the lines of mental health issues. … I believe these issues, especially gun violence are not as complex as you’ve been told, there’s been a lot on TV, a lot of politicians telling you the way it is. … It’s a simple concept, what we need is civility. What we are seeing is a symptoms of a bigger problem. … The problem is not gun laws. The problem is a lack of civility.

Mattioli continued: “Cultivating character. We, as parents, that’s our primary job. … Parenting is where we need to focus our attention. We do not need complex laws. … Chicago has some of the toughest gun laws in the country… I don’t think the gun laws are protecting the people, let alone the 500 who perished last year in that city. … Criminals by definition break the law. What we experienced in Sandy Hook: Did [Adam Lanza] break the law? Of course [he] broke the law. …one more law, I don’t care if you named it ‘James’ Law,’ I don’t want it, I think we have more than enough on the books…”

Mattioli is right. The problems our society faces do not come from guns. Owning a gun, a knife or a baseball bat will not turn you into a mass murderer. But a sick conscience or a mental illness can. Every young man who committed mass murder over the last few years has been mentally ill. More gun control laws will not stop mentally ill people from acting irrationally. By definition, irrational people do not do ‘rational’ things, like follow laws.

Furthermore, mentally ill people do not always use guns to commit violence. They use their own hands (think Erika Menendez who said she pushed a man in front of New York City subway train because “I thought it would be cool”). And they use hammers: many FBI reports show that more criminals have used hammers than rifles to commit murder. And they use knives (think the female blackjack dealers who broke into a stabbing fight at the Bellagio).

Dr. John Lott has written that: “There is no real scientific evidence among criminologists and economists that background checks actually reduce crime.” But better parenting and a more loving society that proactively addresses depression could potentially reduce violent crime.

There is absolutely no evidence supporting more gun control laws. So, President Obama is using children as props.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Editorial; Government
KEYWORDS: barackobama; guncontrol; newtown; propaganda; secondamendment
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-26 last
To: Kaslin

Muslims hide behind children, too!


21 posted on 04/22/2013 7:25:29 AM PDT by Terry L Smith
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Gamecock
Moral dilemma question:

If you could go back in time to this moment and had ONE CHANCE to kill Hitler (thus preventing WWII) with a machine gun or grenade, would you take it knowing the children would also be killed?

22 posted on 04/22/2013 8:09:12 AM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar (Do we now register our pressure cookers?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Ruy Dias de Bivar

You mean knowing that through my inacton countless other children would be killed?


23 posted on 04/22/2013 8:15:14 AM PDT by Gamecock ("Ultimately, Jesus died to save us from the wrath of God." —R.C. Sproul)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: Gamecock

***You mean knowing that through my inacton countless other children would be killed?****

Yes. Millions.


24 posted on 04/22/2013 8:23:31 AM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar (Do we now register our pressure cookers?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: stevie_d_64

I just came back from a week in Wash DC....believe me, your instincts are correct. Expect no course correction.


25 posted on 04/22/2013 8:50:42 AM PDT by Daffynition (The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted. — D.H.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: Ruy Dias de Bivar; All

The moral dilemma is the fact that the world has not learned from the lessons that war gave us...

Hindsight is 20/20...There cannot be a time-machine to go back and correct a known historical occurance...

If Hitler had not come along when he did, there would have been someone else to do evils bidding...

It may have been a different set of circumstances, different results, but the outcome would have been the same...And our future would have been ripe for repeating the same mistakes we have made since then as well...

It is in the nature of human existance to do these things, and repeat them as needed and as the situations dictate...


26 posted on 04/22/2013 12:46:10 PM PDT by stevie_d_64 (It's not the color of one's skin that offends people...it's how thin it is.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-26 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson