Obama Plays Politics With Gun Control

After four years of President Obama's leadership, government spending is up by almost $1 trillion. The federal debt is up almost $6 trillion. Poverty is up, as is the number of Americans looking for work. Meanwhile, median family net worth is down, as is median family income. Indeed, nearly every aspect of Americans' lives has deteriorated since Obama took office, with or without his involvement.

But there has been one unambiguous bright spot in the Obama era: Violent crime is down. In 2008, 14,224 Americans were murdered, 9,538 of them by firearms. In 2011, the most recent year for which data are available, only 12,664 Americans were murdered, and just 8,583 of those deaths were caused by a firearm. For comparison's sake, more than 32,000 Americans died in automobile accidents that same year.

The best thing about Obama's success in driving down violent crime is that it required no effort on his part. Until yesterday, Obama rarely mentioned gun control at all and had not pressured Congress to pass any new controversial and divisive legislation. Yet there he was Wednesday in the White House, surrounded by children flown in from around the country, to promote 23 executive actions to prevent gun violence and push Congress to pass a new "assault weapons" ban.
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