Thursday, TIME magazine released its list of the 100 Most Influential People on the planet.
In it, you’ll find, to no one’s surprise, that the students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, better known as the Parkland students, made it to the list.
Better yet, the individual to pen the blurb in support of what the Parkland students have done and continue to do is none other than former President Barack Obama.
Now, there isn’t an issue with the Parkland students making the list. After all, they were the critical piece of the massive March for Our Lives a month after the Parkland shooting. What is interesting, though, is that Obama, a former president with diminished power, is latching himself onto this movement to create momentum for gun control on Capitol Hill.
Democrats and gun control advocates, in general, give off the impression that a federal solution — and a federal solution only — is the answer to reducing the rampant problem of gun violence in this country. If that were the case, wouldn’t it have served Obama better to address gun violence when he had a supermajority in Congress during his first two years in office?
Of course, it’s nearly impossible to predict when these terrible tragedies take place. But seeing as how Congress often deals in hypotheticals, it would’ve been prescient of Obama to spearhead a federal solution on guns early on in his tenure, when Republicans had virtually no chance of stopping his legislative agenda.
Now, Democrats have provided nothing but knee-jerk reactions to these tragedies, often calling for solutions that would not have addressed the particular case (see: “No Fly, No Buy” after the Pulse nightclub shooting).
The fact of the matter on guns is that that tightening gun laws alone will not fix the issue. It’s imperative to address how law enforcement handles potential threats and don’t drop the ball like in Parkland. Additionally, suburban and rural schools need to harden their security in the mold of urban schools.
The Parkland students and Obama don’t seem to understand that. And there will be a time when Democrats regain the White House, House, and Senate. Will they seize the opportunity to find a legislative solution to reduce gun violence, or will they demagogue it and only use it as an issue to get elected?
If history teaches us anything about the Democrats on issues like immigration or healthcare, the answer is ultimately the latter.
