At the same time that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg issued a statement going full bore after gun owners on the heels of the tragic school shootings in Connecticut, Mayor Thomas Menino of Boston issued a similar statement. It was just as strident and just as political:
As a parent and grandparent, I am overcome with both grief and outrage by the tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut. This unspeakable act of violence will forever imprint this day in our hearts and minds. My heart goes out to the families impacted by this senseless tragedy and the many others we have recently witnessed across the United States. As a Mayor who has witnessed too many lives forever altered by gun violence, it is my responsibility to fight for action. Today’s tragedy reminds us that now is the time for action. Innocent children will now never attend a prom, never play in a big game, never step foot on a college campus. Now is the time for a national policy on guns that takes the loopholes out of the laws, the automatic weapons out of our neighborhoods and the tragedies like today out of our future.
There is no law on earth that can take tragedy out of our future. The guns used today were apparently semi-automatic, not automatic. And as for the loopholes in the law, there is no evidence of any loopholes exploited by the perpetrator. As mentioned, Connecticut has some of the most stringent gun laws in the nation — which is why Menino is calling for a national gun policy, since he clearly can’t blame Connecticut’s gun policy.
But all of that won’t stop the radical left from politicizing the shootings with minutes. And it hasn’t.