The “ghoulish glee” of the gun grabbers

By Tom Quiner

I’m not a gun guy.

You don’t see me writing a whole lot about the Second Amendment. I react like most every American when I hear about the latest gun violence in the Navy Yard in Washington D.C..  I am sickened beyond words.

My prayers pour out on behalf of the victims, their families, their friends, and their co-workers. How does this happen? Why?

I also react with a great deal of cynicism toward the predictable reaction of the liberal establishment. One writer over at the RedState blog brilliantly characterized it as the “ghoulish glee” of the gun control lobby.

He pointed out how the liberal media (forgive the redundancy) and liberal Democrats (forgive the redundancy) jumped the gun in their reporting and reactions to the events as they unfolded. Senator Diane Feinstein’s reactions was typical:

“There are reports the killer was armed with an AR-15, a shotgun and a semiautomatic pistol when he stormed an American military installation in the nation’s capital and took at least 12 innocent lives.

This is one more event to add to the litany of massacres that occur when a deranged person or grievance killer is able to obtain multiple weapons—including a military-style assault rifle—and kill many people in a short amount of time.”

In fact, the murderer did not use an AR-15 automatic rifle, and yet some 270 news reports said he did. The gun control lobby HOPED that he used one, since it was used in previous and recent killings.

While the tragedy was still occurring, the president intoned that he will call for background checks on gun purchasers, and yet the killer at the Navy Yard had undergone the proper and legal background checks. He passed, despite a history of mental illness, because mental illness treatment is protected by privacy laws passed by liberals.

The Des Moines Register ran a letter from a Quiner’s Diner reader that put the issue into context. Steve Kirby wrote:

“In 1993, the Clinton administration issued regulations not only prohibiting military personnel and others from carrying their personal firearms on military bases, but heavily restricting the number of those on the base who could be armed. Our military bases became largely “gun-free” zones.

In 2009 at Fort Hood, 13 unarmed victims were shot and killed. Now at the Navy Yard in Washington we had 12 unarmed victims shot and killed.

Gun-free zones really work — if you’re the bad guy who wants to ensure that you are the only person in the area to have a gun.

Perhaps we should institute the ALICE program on our military bases so the personnel there could be trained to throw staplers and books at the shooter.”

ALICE stands for alert, lockdown, inform, counter and evacuate, and is a program taught in schools and campuses, thus Mr. Kirby’s apt display of cynicism in his last sentence.

The only question left to ask is: will liberals call this “workplace violence?”

In these violent times, let us remember that the Lord is our strength and salvation by praying Psalm 140:

Deliver me, 0 LORD, from evil men; preserve me from violent men, From those who devise evil in their hearts, and stir up wars every day.

Save me, O LORD, from the hands of the wicked; preserve me from violent men Who plan to trip up my feet– the proud who have hidden a trap for me; They have spread cords for a net; by the wayside they have laid snares for me.

Grant not, O LORD, the desires of the wicked; further not their plans. Those who surround me lift up their heads; may the mischief which they threaten overwhelm them.

I know that the LORD renders justice to the afflicted, judgment to the poor. Surely the just shall give thanks to your name; the upright shall dwell in your presence.

Amen.