The White House statement last week denouncing the National Rifle Association's television ad about security for America's schools was about as brazen as it gets.
What ad you asked?
While accusing the NRA of using children as "pawns in a political fight," President Obama lost no time surrounding himself with children in an orchestrated media event launching his attack on firearms.
The NRA had merely pointed out that the president and his own children are surrounded by armed guards, while most everyone else's children are not. In fact, Obama is not in favor of guards at schools, and the suggestion that he should be was "repugnant and cowardly," the White House said.
A call to protect schools is not repugnant; but using children as theater props for a gun-banning agenda certainly is. Make your case, Mr. President, but please don't stoop to this level. Children are certainly precious -- on this we can agree. But they are precious enough not to be exploited for political purposes, especially when proposed political measures stand no chance of preventing random violence.
And yet there was Obama, arguing with children crowding at his elbow that his proposed gun restrictions should be adopted "if there is even one life that can be saved."
Because saving even one life is so important, he said, he will use "whatever weight this office holds" to get Congress to prohibit all private sales of firearms, ban "military-style assault weapons" and impose a 10-round limit on magazines. The impact on children "should compel us to change," he said.
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