Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era

Obama and guns

Difficulty in getting change in our country is an ongoing source of frustration, particularly when we have huge problems.

But the founders knew what they were doing by setting up the checks and balances of our constitutional republic. The delicate arrangement we call freedom should never submit to a charismatic demagogue or to an emotion-filled crisis.

The current push for gun control is case in point. It is at a time like this that we should be grateful that changing laws is hard to do.

Every normal and decent American wants to live in a country where we will never again see life lost as result of a weapon held and fired by some deranged individual.

If we knew how to prevent it from ever happening again, we all would sign off in a minute. But we don't know. And that is the point.

Ironically, President Obama acknowledges that we don't know what causes irrational violent incidents. It is the reason one part of his proposal is to provide funding to the Centers for Disease Control to study the problem.

Yet, the president and Sen. Dianne Feinstein do not hesitate to offer what they claim is a solution.

They propose further controls on gun ownership that are deeply problematic in their intrusion on our right to bear arms, guaranteed under the Second Amendment.

Why are the president and the senator so ready to compromise basic freedoms, with gun control measures that already have a dubious record of success, to solve a problem we don't understand?

To the president's credit, he acknowledges that there may be cultural reasons that contribute to this sick, violent behavior.

But he defines the cultural parameters of what he chooses to look at in such narrow terms that you have to question his seriousness or sincerity.

The president said, "Congress should fund research into the effects that violent video games have on young minds."

But why limit this discussion to video games?

Has the president walked by a local movie theater complex recently to see what is playing? How about the local fare on television? Or what about the content of rap music?

Can it possibly be that the disproportionate support that the Democratic Party gets from the entertainment industry -- major sources of gratuitous violent media -- gets them a pass from today's discussion?

Obama outraised Mitt Romney five to one from the movie/TV/music industry.

This business was in the top 10 sources of business funding for Sen. Feinstein's re-election in 2012. Not a dime went to her Republican opponent.

What about other major themes in American culture today that contribute to a sense of meaningless and lack of respect for the sacredness of life?

Of course, I am talking about our indifference to the lives of unborn children, who are murdered in our country with impunity.

Somehow those who want to intrude on gun ownership can live with the violence perpetrated on the unborn and have little interest in seeing its implications on violence in other areas of our society.

Another part of this discussion is about the mentally ill. Can Obama or Feinstein give us a good definition of mental illness and seriously tell us how this can be used to control gun ownership?

We have a serious problem on our hands, which demands serious discussion. This discussion is not yet taking place.

·Star Parker is founder and president of CURE (Center for Urban Renewal and Education), a think tank that promotes market-based public policy. Her email address is parker@urbancure.org.