ONLY SOME VICTIMS HAVE “UNIQUE MORAL AUTHORITY”

For his weekly radio address last Saturday (4/13) President Barack Obama turned the microphone over to Francine Wheeler, mother of Ben, 6, one of 20 children murdered at the Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut Dec. 14.

Her eyes moist with tears, Ms. Wheeler pleaded with listeners to pressure the Senate to pass new gun control laws "before our tragedy becomes your tragedy."

Ms. Wheeler didn’t explain how the legislation she supports would have prevented the murder of Ben and so many others.  She couldn’t, because it wouldn’t. 

"There is nothing in this legislation that addresses the fact pattern at Sandy Hook," a "senior Senate aide" told the Weekly Standard.  If all the measures currently before the Senate had been law on Dec. 14, they’d have done nothing to impede Adam Lanza’s murder spree.

This fact hasn’t prevented sponsors of the gun control measures from claiming their bills should be passed to prevent a repetition of the massacre.

After he made a speech in Hartford April 8, President Obama invited Ms. Wheeler and 11 other family members to fly back to Washington with him on Air Force One to lobby the Senate to pass measures he claimed would "make it a little harder for our kids to get gunned down."

The news media — beginning with a feature on CBS’s "60 Minutes" program — have showered sympathetic attention on them and their lobbying efforts. 

"The families are well educated, and many are well off," said Politico.  "With access to money and media, they’re using persistence, visibility – and, most all, their unique moral authority – to help prod Senate action."

To remind the lawmakers of their victim status, they leave behind a color photo of their slain relative, Politico noted approvingly.

For liberals — liberal journalists especially — the trump card in any political debate is the "unique moral authority" of victims.  Their feelings must be assuaged, even if doing what they advocate won’t advance the goals they seek.

That’s essentially what 15,000 law enforcement officers surveyed last month by PoliceOne.Com said.  A ban on "high capacity" magazines won’t reduce violent crime, said 95.7 percent of respondents. Banning so-called "assault rifles" would have no effect on crime, said 71 percent.  Such a ban would make crime worse, said 20.5 percent.

If all the gun control measures President Obama advocates became law, it would have no effect on their safety, said 60.6 percent.  They’d put cops in greater danger, said 24.6 percent.

All sympathize with parents who have suffered so terrible a loss. But in judging the efficacy of particular gun control measures, the opinion of police officers should carry more weight.  So why haven’t the bigfoot media reported the results of this survey?

That was a rhetorical question.  Even if they were sincere, we should reject emotional appeals to "do something" in the wake of a tragedy, because laws should be based on facts and logic.  But for liberals — liberal journalists especially – only victims with the proper opinions have "unique moral authority."

* Mark Mattioli’s son James, 6, was killed at Sandy Hook, but journalists who’ve lavished attention on Ms. Wheeler have ignored Mr. Mattioli because he doesn’t think more gun control laws will help.

* Patricia Smith is a grieving mother, too.  But journalists pay little attention to her quest for answers about her son’s death because he was killed at the consulate in Benghazi on 9/11/2012.

* More of our kids are getting gunned down in Chicago than anywhere else, but Chicago has strict gun control laws, so little of the murder epidemic there is reported.

* Philadelphia abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell is accused of beheading babies born alive.  Most in the MSM have paid scant attention to the fate of his innocent victims.

The youngest victim of the Boston Marathon bombings was Martin Richard, 8, waiting at the finish line to when shrapnel ripped through his little body.

The bombing was an act of domestic terrorism by the "extreme right," many in the MSM speculated Monday, without a shred of evidence to support them.  If this turns out to be so, we’ll hear as much about Martin Richard as we have about Francine Wheeler’s son Ben.

But if Islamic terrorists are to blame, he’ll join Mark Mattioli’s son James in the MSM’s Memory Hole.