On Sunday, President Joe Biden did what any respectful head of state would have done on the third anniversary of the Parkland school shooting: He used it to announce partisan, divisive gun control legislation.
“This Administration will not wait for the next mass shooting to heed” the call for gun control, Biden said in a statement.
“We will take action to end our epidemic of gun violence and make our schools and communities safer. Today, I am calling on Congress to enact commonsense gun law reforms, including requiring background checks on all gun sales, banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, and eliminating immunity for gun manufacturers who knowingly put weapons of war on our streets. We owe it to all those we’ve lost and to all those left behind to grieve to make a change. The time to act is now.”
The sick irony of all of this is that, putting aside the constitutionality of Biden’s rhetoric, none of these “commonsense gun law reforms” would have effectively changed what happened at Parkland.
There’s no evidence that the gunman using a rifle — as opposed to a handgun — made the shooting either possible or more deadly. Same with so-called “high-capacity magazines.” Background checks wouldn’t have prevented it, either; the shooter would have passed them all.
There’s the potential that “eliminating immunity for gun manufacturers who knowingly put weapons of war on our streets” — coded wording for repealing legislation that rightly gives immunity to gun manufacturers over frivolous lawsuits involving shootings that were done with legally sold and produced weapons — might allow them to be sued out of existence. That is, if politicians let this happen.
But Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has a 10-word message for the White House: “Biden won’t undo the #2A in TX on my watch.”
In a Twitter post Sunday evening, hours after Biden released his statement, Paxton lambasted Biden for using the occasion to introduce divisive legislation.
“The Parkland shooting 3 years ago was an act of unspeakable evil,” Paxton wrote.
“But Democrats cannot be allowed to use this tragedy as an opportunity to cram down unhelpful and unconstitutional gun laws. Biden won’t undo the #2A in TX on my watch. #Comeandtakeit.”
Paxton has long been a magnet for liberal invective — as well as at the forefront of conservative challenges to liberal overreach.
Two days after Biden was inaugurated, Paxton became the first state attorney general to challenge the new administration in court, suing over the 100-day deportation moratorium imposed by the new president. It was at least temporarily successful, as well — on Jan. 26, the Houston Chronicle reported, a judge blocked Biden’s halt to deportations.
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