Stripped down to the very basics, here are the 23 items President Obama proposed this morning regarding gun control.
1. Issue a memo.
2. Address an issue relating to health insurance.
3. Pay the states some money.
4. Categorize people.
5. Propose rules.
6. Publish a letter.
7. Launch a campaign. (Been there, done that)
8. Review standards.
9. Issue a memo.
10. Release a report.
11. Make a nomination.
12. Provide some police training.
13. Maximize enforce efforts. (Sounds Orwellian.)
14. Issue a memo.
15. Direct the attorney general.
16. Hector doctors.
17. Release a letter.
18. Incentivize schools.
19. Develop models.
20. Release a letter.
21. Regulate health benefits.
22. Finalize regulations.
23. Get Kathleen and Arne talking to people.
The 24th, unspoken item is: Ride herd on Congress to ban stuff and use the friendly press to demonize them when they don’t.
All the rest is mostly small-scale spending on things we can’t afford, and a metric pantsload of paperwork. No lives will be saved.
The President, he Took Action, man. He gave Good Speech.
The bad news is that for a substantial number of folks, kabuki is reality.
Yes – the orders seem to be all puffery relative to the impact on saving lives.
Also though, very early signals of how an issue can easily be linked as health care-related (items 2, 16 and 17) and how government can justify using the PPACA personal data infrastructure and health care providers for more than providing expanded access at lower cost.
If my doctor asks about guns in my home does this now get captured on my “medical” record? That same medical record that PPACA is encouraging be digitized and easily centralized for review?
I had the same thought. I see no reason to give this information.
If your doctor asks you that, he or she is violating the law, and should be reported for malpractice, both to the doctor’s supervisors, and to outside legal agencies.
In short, if your doctor asks you this, you should make his or her life a living hell until you get a written promise that the doctor will never ask that question of ANYONE, ever again.
I’ll just stand up, put my clothes on, leave, and look for a doctor who is friendly toward all civil rights. Let the market work.
This is gonna be a very, very long four years and there isn’t enough booze in the world to make it more bearable…
So, this template pretty much serves as an overlay anything he says, right?
I missed the one where he tells the ATF to stop giving guns to Mexican cartels …
To quote Tamara:
Wayne LaPierre goes and says we need to worry about crazy people with guns, fund better school security, and enforce existing laws & prosecute the people who break them, and the Anti-Gun crowd mocks him as a disconnected pro-gun zealot tool of the firearms industry.
Barack Obama commissions a study group headed by the vice president, and then holds a press conference stating that we need to worry about crazy people with guns, fund better school security, and enforce existing laws & prosecute the people who break them, and the Anti-Gun crowd acclaims him as a charismatic visionary taking a bold and sweeping step forward.
Vague, mostly ineffectual fluff? Yes. But personally, I’m super happy he didn’t try to do anything more extreme through executive action. The constitution has at least made it through the day without any fresh boot marks.
For that we may be thankful. We may not, however, let our guard down for one minute.