NY Times OpEd by Joan Walsh on Pres Obama Gun Control Speech

[johnkarls]

.
New York Times – 7/23/2012

OpEd

Once More, Say What Others Won’t
By Joan Walsh -- editor-at-large for Salon and author of the forthcoming "What's the Matter With White People? Why We Long For A Golden Age That Never Was."

Listening to President Obama's speech about the Aurora tragedy, I found myself comparing it (unfavorably) to the one he gave in Tucson after the shooting of Representative Gabrielle Giffords, in which six people died. Then I realized: He's given two speeches on gun massacres in 18 months. It's going to be hard to keep it fresh.

That's cynical. But Obama and other politicians cultivate cynicism when they fail to address the debate the Aurora killings reignited: over whether to reauthorize the federal assault weapons ban, which expired in 2004 and which would have banned some of the ammunition James Holmes used last Friday. Since 2000, when conventional Democratic wisdom concluded that Al Gore’s views on gun control helped cost him the election to George W. Bush, most of the party has become spineless on the issue, and that has come to include Obama.

Speaking of spineless, Mitt Romney has flip-flopped, again, on the assault weapons ban. "Deadly assault weapons have no place in Massachusetts," he declared in 2004, as he signed a tough state ban as governor. He opposes such bans now, as he tries to lead a party that consistently does the bidding of the National Rifle Association.

But courage isn't part of the Romney brand. It is something we once expected from Obama, whose political calling card in 2008 was opposing the Iraq war when most Democrats supported it. He later defied cautious advisers to give his historic speech on race at the height of the controversy over the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. And perhaps with a little push by Vice President Joe Biden, he came out for gay marriage in May.

Clearly there's political risk involved in supporting the assault weapons ban. Polling is contradictory. Last fall Gallup found a slight majority opposed such restriction. The New York Times earlier found a majority supported it.
Obama's evolved stance on gay marriage is instructive here. It helped drive public opinion, especially among African Americans, to support marriage equality.

But if even liberal Democrats are afraid to come out for stronger gun control, we can expect the N.R.A. to control this debate, and stifle common-sense legislation, permanently.