Tragic deaths seem to dredge up the worst kind of discourse from liberal punditry.
The national conversation, particularly in regards to calls for increased gun control tends to go something like this:
“Someone broke a law.”
“WE MUST MAKE MORE LAWS. WE MUST DO SOMETHING.”
“Yes, but these individuals didn’t follow the law to begin with.”
“WE MUST MAKE MORE LAWS. WE MUST DO SOMETHING.”
“Because criminals will follow a new law when they’re already ignoring all the others?”
“WE MUST MAKE MORE LAWS. MOAR LAWS. ALL THE LAWS. SOMETHING. GUNS. SOMETHING. YARRRRGHH.”
“We must do SOMETHING,” is tired mantra and one beginning to show signs of wear and tear.
Friday morning, National Review’s Charles Cooke joined Morning Joe to discuss the horrific Oregon community college shooting. Cooke writes extensively about second amendment liberties.
Cooke began:
“This is not a competition to see who is vexed, this is a public policy debate. Joe Biden doesn’t know how to fix this problem, I don’t know how to fix this problem, I think it’s fair to say you don’t know how to fix this problem. It’s a very complex question in a country with 300 – 350 million guns on the street. The way they talk is if they have the answer and there are just these recalcitrant forces in the country that say “no,” even though somewhere deep down they know their legislation will work. That’s simply not the case, it’s far more complicated than that.”
Morning Joe host, Joe Scarborough, mentioned that the laws passed by the state of Connecticut post-Sandy Hook shooting would not have prevented the shooting to begin with. “We seem to keep chasing our tail here, and sometimes there are no pad answers for these very difficult problems,” said Scarborough.
Halperin began by saying he wanted to, “engage Cooke in a civil way.” The then went on to talk about the media should be passionately trying to come up with solutions. “I completely agree with the president. People need to find solutions to this and not talk about what won’t work and that’s it’s so complicated. We can’t be the only country in the world that’s like this,” Halperin said.
“With respect, what’s your plan?” asked Cooke.
And that’s when Halperin stepped in it. Halperin had no ideas, no solutions, no plan, though that didn’t seem to deter him from preaching at Cooke that the real solution lies in our ability to… have more solutions? Halperin only slightly walked it back by declaring himself “not an expert in the field.”
“We need solutions” is hardly a remedy for mass shootings, nor will it prevent the next tragedy. Unfortunately, those tedious realities won’t stop the liberal pundit class from babbling on about vague reform, action, and solutions.
Follow Kemberlee on Twitter @kemberleekaye
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