As Vice President Joe Biden gets ready to present the recommendations of his gun violence prevention task force, he is already talking about the ways in which the President could implement stricter gun laws (hint: it doesn’t involve Congress).
BIDEN: The president is going to act, or executive orders, executive action that can be taken. We haven't decided what that is yet, but we're compiling it all with help of the attorney general and all the rest of the cabinet members, as well as legislative we believe as required. So we're here today to deal with a problem that requires immediate action, urgent action, and the president and I are determined to take action. This is not an exercise in photo opportunities or just getting to ask you all what your opinions are. We are – we are vitally interested in what you have to say. And as the president said, if our actions result in only saving one life, they're worth taking.
If the logic is simply: if it saves one life, ban it, there are a lot of things that will need to be scrubbed from society.
“If it saves one life, we should ban peanuts. If it saves one life, we should ban building things. We should ban sports. We should ban fishing. We should ban electricity, if it saves just one life,” Glenn said. “We should ban alcoholic beverages. We should ban hammers. We should ban knives.”
“If it saves just one life, we should ban coffee tables. If it saves one life, we should ban travel and mountains. If it saves just one life, we should ban subway trains,” he continued. “We should ban passenger aircraft. If it saves just one life, we should ban water. If it saves just one life, we should ban sleep. If it saves just one life, we should consider banning everything but sitting.”
On second thought, Glenn concluded that sitting was dangerous too. After all, if you spend your whole life sitting and become morbidly obese, the fire department will have to come, cut a hole in your wall, and cart you out to the hospital because chances are you are going to die.
While it seems that Biden’s logic of “saving one life” bans just about everything, Stu managed to find a caveat. “Interestingly too, if it saves one life, you would need guns because guns clearly save much more than one life when people break into your home to kill you,” Stu said. “You need guns to save lives in many circumstances.”
“If it just saves one life, we should arm every citizen,” Glenn concluded.
Benjamin Franklin once said, “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” While recent events, like the movie theater shootings in Aurora, Colorado or the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, are tragic, acting emotionally instead of rationally is never wise. And it has become clear that having the President unilaterally rule on an issue as controversial as gun control will do little but fan an already raging fire.