Hours after Wednesday’s tragic shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., U.S. Sen. Harry Reid was filing a gun control amendment to the omnibus spending bill that will force a debate on the controversial issue while most members of Congress are focused on avoiding a government shutdown.
Although no details had been released about what type of weapons were used or the motive for the California attack, that didn’t stop the Nevada Democrat from politicizing the event along with last week’s shooting at Planned Parenthood.
“Gun violence has become a cancer on this nation,” Reid said in a statement after Wednesday’s shooting. “We can, and must, make common sense gun reforms that can keep weapons out of the hands of dangerous criminals and the mentally ill.”
To that end, Reid wants to ban anyone who has ever protested at an abortion clinic from owning a gun.
His amendment says it would apply to anyone who violates the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which means that if you ever sent a letter or made a phone a call to a clinic that harasses or is hateful, or if you ever participated in a blockade to a clinic, you broke that law so you shouldn’t own a gun.
Reid is expected to force a vote on the amendment during consideration of the Republicans’ Obamacare repeal bill, which would use the complex budget reconciliation process to eliminate major parts of the health law.
Would this have prevented the Planned Parenthood shooting? We have no idea, because we don’t know how the killer obtained a weapon or whether he had violated clinic access law. But that doesn’t matter to Democrats.
All they care about is politicizing these tragic events so they can pat themselves on the back for passing dubious laws that further restrict our freedoms.