Hey, why not? The entire gun control push is based on emotion anyway, so why not justify it by releasing a bunch of handwritten letters from kids urging the president to do something? It's as shameless as it is pathetic, but is anyone really surprised by now that Obama would stoop to this?
Eight-year-old Grant from Maryland, writes the President, "there should be some changes in the law with guns. It's a free country, but I recommend there needs be [sic] a limit with guns."
Grant's ideas: "Please don't let people own machine guns or other powerful guns like that. I think there should be a good reason to get a gun. There should be a limit about [sic] how many guns a person can own."
"Even though I am not scared for my own safety, I am scared for others," writes Eleven-year-old Julia from Washington, DC. "My opinion is it should be very hard for people to buy guns."
Julia continues: "I beg you to work very hard to make guns not allowed, not just for me, but for the whole United States."
Ten year-old Taejah is less specific. "I am very sad about the children who lost their lives in Conn.," he writes. "So I thought I would write to you to STOP gun violence. Thank you, Mr. President."
I especially like Taejah's letter, because it so perfectly encapsulates the mentality of a kid. Mr. President, gun violence is bad so please stop it. Sure, kid. We'll get right on that. An adolescent can be forgiven for failing to understand that the president of the United States is not all-powerful, and cannot stop evil just by deciding he wants to. He's a kid. It's fine that he wrote the letter and it's fine that he wants to see gun violence stopped.
Emotional appeal that relies on THE CHILDREN! to shield him from criticism
But it's not fine that the actual president of the United States, who is well aware of the limitations of his office and of his power, to wave around naive stuff like this as if it's justification for serious policy. Obama knows perfectly well that he is not going to make a dent in gun violence with his proposed actions, so he tries to justify it with an emotional appeal that relies on THE CHILDREN! to shield him from criticism.
Know what, though? These pint-sized letter writers are pretty typical of the mentality that elected and re-elected Obama in the first place. If you believe in the magical power of government to solve problems simply by passing decrees that declare them solved, then Obama's the kind of guy you're probably going to vote for because he encourages that belief and offers policies that presume to harness this wonderful beneficient power for the benefit of all of us.
There's a reason you can't vote when you're 8. You're too naive and immature to understand the real issues and the real nature of government. Maybe 18 is too young too, judging from the apparent mentality of so many young voters to expect the government miracles Obama promises. At least Taejah has the excuse of being 8. The fact that Obama resorts to infantile stuff like this to sell his policies tells you all you need to know about them.
