Privilege, ignorance and reptilian morals

From Dianne Feinstein, Tools to Reduce Mass Shootings Available, Just Lacking Republican Leadership.

Setting aside the gross lack of leadership demonstrated by trying to leverage a political policy issue before the bodies are even buried, I wish just for once, a politician or advocate would issue gun control recommendations which are actually pertinent to the circumstances of the deaths they are seeking to exploit.

It is bad enough Feinstein is trying to exploit someone's murder in pursuit of political power. It is even worse that nothing she is recommending would have prevented the tragedy. And I am not speaking rhetorically. No wonder politicians are held in such low regard.

We could pass every single one of the policies contained in her press release and, based on the information currently known, none of them would have made a difference in this particular crime. I am all for preventing mass murder. I am interested in policies that would actually prevent mass murders.

But it is outrageous to trot out shop-worn policies which would not have made any difference to this tragedy. When that happens only once, you could be forgiving and assume that the press release was done in error.

But when it happens every time there is a mass murder, it makes you wonder what it is they are actually trying to achieve with their policy recommendations. If the policies won't achieve what is claimed, what are they trying to achieve?

I went through this exercise after Sandy Hook and after Stoneman Douglas High School shooting. Look at the facts of the crime and compare those to the policy recommendations being pushed. In both those cases and virtually every other mass shooting for which we have good information, the result is the same. The preferred policies would not have made a difference.

And in Sandy Hook and Stoneman Douglas, there are clear examples of root causes that should be addressed - how we recognize, diagnose, and address mental illness. Those are difficult and thorny issues involving hard trade-offs between civil rights and freedoms and safety. Addressing issues of mental illness will likely be incredibly expensive.

Doing that would involve powerful political leadership and might make a difference. Instead we get politicians raising their profile and campaign finance by issuing checklist policies that won't make a difference, exploiting the deaths of citizens for their own ends. It is repulsive.