Romney Blames Single Parents for Gun Violence

Having candidates go off the rails when asked a question is an expected and entertaining part of any presidential debate. But still, my heart went out to the woman who asked a simple question about restricting access to assault rifles and got a lecture on the evils of single parenting. The question was a simple one, directed at President Obama:

QUESTION: President Obama, during the Democratic National Convention in 2008, you stated you wanted to keep AK-47s out of the hands of criminals. What has your administration done or planned to do to limit the availability of assault weapons?

Obama answered in the expected way, reiterating his support for an assault weapons ban and then immediately shifting into Lecturing Dad mode, talking about how violence can really be suppressed only through community efforts. Fair enough; while mass shootings by madmen grab headlines, most gun murders in this country are the result of people who know each other shooting each other. By invoking community, Obama basically stole Romney's only real angle to paint himself as anti-crime while still reiterating his support for keeping the kinds of guns you shoot up movie theaters with totally legal

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Shooting response shows Tories have opposition cowed on crime

Six and a half years ago, the Boxing Day shooting of Jane Creba near Toronto’s Eaton Centre sent Paul Martin’s re-election campaign into a downward spiral from which it never recovered.

That may be why the opposition parties appeared to be going to such lengths to avoid any mention of Saturday’s fatal shooting at the Eaton Centre food court – proving, once again, that the criminal is political.

The Conservatives displayed no such reticence. Julian Fantino, the Associate Defence Minister and former head of the Toronto and Ontario police forces, declared that the attacks demonstrated the tougher sentencing provisions of Tory crime legislation were needed.

“If all else fails, the only thing we have left is the criminal justice system,” he said Monday on CTV. “We need to find ways to isolate law abiding, decent citizens from those who actively seek to victimize and continue their life of crime,” he said. “And jail is the answer, I’m afraid, if all else fails.”

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