Right Sentiment. Woefully Wrong Approach.

You have got to be fucking kidding me...

This is one of the worst. Front. Pages. Ever.

The Editors of the New York Daily News thought it would be appropriate to blame President Obama on the front page of their rag today, in the aftermath of the Aurora shootings.

They continue in their editorial to point fingers at the NRA and its Vice President Wayne LaPierre, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, and the "millions of zealots who would sooner see blood flow and lives end than have to check a box on a gun registration form."

They have a point, but man, do they go about it in a strange way. The first half of their editorial comes across as hacky, amateurish and way over the top, describing the scene in Aurora as if the President and his opponent were right by the shooter's side.

While I understand their sentiment in pointing out the lack of enthusiasm among most politicians in legislating stricter gun laws, attempting to cast blame on Obama or Romney for not taking the opportunity to pull an Andrew Shepard "I'm gonna get the guns"moment the second they got in front of the cameras while the country was still in shock is simply ludicrous.

Look, we all know the NRA has Washington DC by the balls, but to blame 535 people on the hill and one in the Oval Office is complete misdirection. There are 4.3 million members of the National Rifle Association and staggeringly, that is a fraction of the approximately 47% of American adults that self report ownership of a gun, let alone the possibly millions of unregistered firearms in this country. But I suppose if you want to sell papers in a dying industry, it wouldn't be quite so powerful putting a crowd of a 100 million gun waving people on the cover.

I'm not happy with the Obama Administration's grade when it comes to gun laws, and yes, I wish someone would take the lead on this, whether it be Obama or Congress. But I don't remember the editors putting George W. Bush's face on the front page of the paper when the Assault Weapons Ban was allowed to expire in 2004.

And let's not forget that at this point in time, the gun crazies - LaPierre included - think (or want the rubes to believe) that there's some vast Obama conspiracy to take away everyone's guns when there are absolutely no facts to back it up. And it continues to work. Since the 2008 election, gun sales have shot through the roof (no pun intended) for fear that Big Brother is coming for their guns and restrict or flat out revoke their precious 2nd Amendment rights. Can you imagine the wall to wall pout-rage by the RWNJs if the President had even broached the subject legislating a curb or ban of assault weapons due to the most recent tragedy? And the backlash and accusations for making political hay out of it?

We don't live in a vacuum. As much as I'd like to live in an Aaron Sorkin world, the reality is that politics plays a role in everything, including the timing of when to take on certain issues. And while I still believe that there's some time to turn the gun issue around for the Obama administration - after November 7th in a second term? - the day of a national tragedy is not the time for pulling the gun control card. And the editors of the New York Daily News know that, but chose to take a cheap shot anyway.

(Cross-posted at ABLC)