1/16/2013

The President's Wish List

Here is the press release, with my comments interspersed after the •bullets•.

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
EMBARGOED UNTIL THE START OF THE PRESIDENT’S REMARKS
January 16, 2013

Gun Violence Reduction Executive Actions
Today, the President is announcing that he and the Administration will:

1. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal agencies to make relevant data available to the federal background check system.
• Wait, don't they do that already? If not, why not?  After four years of President Obama at the head of the Executive Branch, doesn't an oversight like this look kind of bad?

2. Address unnecessary legal barriers, particularly relating to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, that may prevent states from making information available to the background check system.
• "Information" -- like confidential patient-doctor disclosures?  I thought these people used to support a right to privacy.

3. Improve incentives for states to share information with the background check system.
• "Incentives" sounds like new Federal spending.

4. Direct the Attorney General to review categories of individuals prohibited from having a gun to make sure dangerous people are not slipping through the cracks.
• "Dangerous people" sounds like more marginalization of veterans, women, elderly...

5. Propose rulemaking to give law enforcement the ability to run a full background check on an individual before returning a seized gun.
• It goes like this:  The neighbors call the cops because of a loud argument across the street.  The local Domestic Disturbance unit shows up.  "May I come in?," the officer asks.  Unless you say, "I do not consent to a search," Domestic Officer Babs is going to be followed by Black-and-white Unit Officer Bubba, who will do a thorough search and interrogation and take your property.  Just in case.  This proposal  adds another hurdle to the already lengthy process of reclaiming property seized from innocent people.

6. Publish a letter from ATF to federally licensed gun dealers providing guidance on how to run background checks for private sellers.
• I know, how about publishing a letter TO the BATFE letting them know it's not okay to give machine guns to Mexican drug gangs? (ahem*fast-and-furious*ahem)

7. Launch a national safe and responsible gun ownership campaign.
• Good idea.  We should have a national organization that advocates for safe and responsible gun ownership and sportsmanship.  We could call it the American Citizens Rifle, Shotgun, Pistol and Revolver Association -- but that's too long, so let's just call it the National Rifle Association!  Right.

8. Review safety standards for gun locks and gun safes (Consumer Product Safety Commission).
• This means Japan-style storage laws:  the few who get a firearm must store it disabled, and with its ammunition in a separate secure place.  In other words, it will be permissible as long as it is in a condition that is useless to you.  "Safety" means safe for crime perpetrators and tyrants.

9. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal law enforcement to trace guns recovered in criminal investigations.
• Wait, they don't already do this?  (see note on No. 1, above)

10. Release a DOJ report analyzing information on lost and stolen guns and make it widely available to law enforcement.
• Children are dying! We haven't a moment to lose! Quick! Write a report! Yeah, that'll work.  And again, make information available to law enforcement? Seriously?  Don't they do that already?  Helpful tip to DOJ:  I hear there's this thing called the internet...

11. Nominate an ATF director.
• Why has it taken this long?  (Better question:  Why do we even HAVE a BATFE?) What's the Chief Executive been doing, golfing?

12. Provide law enforcement, first responders, and school officials with proper training for active shooter situations.
• Another committee, another program, more money, and doesn't do anything.  Besides, in Texas, Utah, and others, "proper training" takes place at the gun range.  It's common sense...

13. Maximize enforcement efforts to prevent gun violence and prosecute gun crime.
• "Preventive enforcement" sounds creepy.  Orwellian creepy.  I can guess who will be on the enemies list. 

14. Issue a Presidential Memorandum directing the Centers for Disease Control to research the causes and prevention of gun violence.
• Oh for God's sake.  First it's, "Children are dying! Not a moment to lose! We must act without delay!" -- and then it becomes clear that what they mean by act is not what most people mean.  They take it to mean that they can use this opportunity to further their stranglehold on the Republic by shoving crime in under the Health Care apparatus.  Issue a memorandum indeed.  "Active shooter! He's got a gun!" -- "Don't worry, Ma'am, I have here a Presidential Memorandum!"

15. Direct the Attorney General to issue a report on the availability and most effective use of new gun safety technologies and challenge the private sector to develop innovative technologies.
• "Gun Safety Technologies" is Violence Policy Center jargon for micro stamping, biometric owner-only guns, and other Seussian fairy tales.  They're like zombies, they just keep coming back.

16. Clarify that the Affordable Care Act does not prohibit doctors asking their patients about guns in their homes.
• Here we are about a millimeter away from "Clarify that the Obamacare requires doctors to document guns in patients' homes". 

17. Release a letter to health care providers clarifying that no federal law prohibits them from reporting threats of violence to law enforcement authorities.
• And this has to do with school shootings because... WTF?

18. Provide incentives for schools to hire school resource officers.
• When I hear "incentives" my brain tells me "more federal spending programs".

19. Develop model emergency response plans for schools, houses of worship and institutions of higher education.
• Here we are about a millimeter away from saying that the Federal Government will get to mandate whether teachers can be armed in Utah. 

20. Release a letter to state health officials clarifying the scope of mental health services that Medicaid plans must cover.
• If the people that are going postal are doing it because of a lack of mental health care, then this might make some sense -- in the long run.  But what is it doing in this list of things-I'm-about-to-wet-my-pants-if-we-don't-do-something-now-to-save-the-children?

21. Finalize regulations clarifying essential health benefits and parity requirements within ACA exchanges.
• See, Pelosi wasn't lying when she said we had to pass it to see what's in it. 

22. Commit to finalizing mental health parity regulations.
• Did somebody just mention an unfunded mandate?

23. Launch a national dialogue led by Secretaries Sebelius and Duncan on mental health.
• Nothing like being lectured on mental health by a couple of ultra liberal nutcases.

- - - -
That's all the spur-of-the-moment stream-of-consciousness crowndottery for now.

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