Retired from editing a newspaper, working for an economic development organization.

Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Gibbs, Trump cite Obama policy in wake of Parkland slaughter

This headline appeared in my NY Times digital subscription last night:

Trump Finds Unlikely Culprit in School Shootings: Obama Discipline Policies

It sounded familiar. My congressman U.S. Rep. Bob Gibbs, R-Ohio 7th, pointed to the Obama administration when he replied on March 2 to an inquiry I made in late February. It was an inquiry about his views on the subjects of school gun violence and the NRA’s influence on government.

Gibbs, and the president, and, as it turns out, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., have cited an Obama administration program that discouraged school districts from sending minority students to police arrest instead of in-school discipline. You can read the NY Times story at the link below. You can form your own opinion about the Obama policy and whether it had a bearing on the most recent slaughter of school children and teachers in Florida.

I asked both Gibbs and his November opponent, Democrat Ken Harbaugh, to comment on school gun violence and the influence of the NRA on politics. Gibbs did not address the NRA inquiry but pointed out that he is a defender of the Second Amendment.

So am I. The Bill of Rights is the foundation of our citizen freedoms. Our freedoms come with appropriate limits, determined by law and the courts. One appropriate limit might be a limit on weapons of rapid human slaughter.

In Harbaugh’s reply to my inquiry, he stated that he will not take NRA money. The NRA has been a political funder of the congressman and the senator and the president.

Here is The NY Times story, which contains links to a similar argument made by U.S. Sen. Marco  Rubio, R-Florida:


Thanks for reading.

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