Trying to help out

A lot of people are mourning the loss of Grace Owens, the septuagenarian victim of gunfire in Thibodaux whose life was take so randomly and so aimlessly, police said by a neighbor named Kai Williams.

Williams, from everything neighbors have said, had a lot of trouble being a human being, in general. But he didn’t have a whole lot of trouble getting his hands on a .45 caliber handgun, which police say is the murder weapon.

We don’t know anything about Mr. Williams’ gun yet. We don’t know enough about him to figure out if he should have been denied one through information in an instant background check.

But we know of one person who obviously wouldn’t care very much.

On the same day I was writing about the death of Grace Owens, along comes a press release from Sen. John Kennedy, whose last name should not be confused with that of the late president.

He made a point of announcing his opposition to the Fix National Instant Criminal Background Check System Act. It asks that federal agencies and states do a better job of reporting criminal offenses and other information into the National Instant Criminal Background Check System database, designed to control who can purchase a gun.  The bill would threaten federal agencies with loss of bonus pay for shoddy compliance and offer states greater access to federal grants in exchange for full compliance.

 “I abhor the tragedy that occurred in Sutherland Springs, Texas, and the bureaucratic incompetence that contributed to it,” said Sen. Kennedy, who needs to know about a bunch of dead people in his home state. “That doesn’t mean we need to put yet another law on the books. State and federal workers already get an incentive for loading records into the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.  It’s called a paycheck.  If they don’t want to do their job, then fire a few of them.  The rest will fall into line.  One of the main problems in making government more efficient is that nobody ever gets fired.  The simple truth is that we should be firing government bureaucrats if they are not doing their job, not telling them ‘pretty please with sugar on top’ and giving them more taxpayer money.”   

People are dying and people have died, and in this newspaper we have already pointed out following the Sutherland Springs shooting incident how many holes there are in this instant background check system.

In connection with Sutherland Springs, it was Air Force people who fell down on the job of reporting the perpetrator’s arrest to that system. But instead of offering ways to tighten the system up, Sen. Kennedy pontificates like someone’s old crotchety uncle, about firing people and firing government. I challenge Sen. Kennedy to bring forth a piece of legislation that will help perhaps save some lives, as if he would care about offending the NRA.

We haven’t checked yet with Sen. Bill Cassidy, who being an MD hopefully possesses more sense.

I have been the first to agree with the suggestion that blindly calling for gun control is not always the best response to horrific gun violence, and I try not to kneejerk.

But to respond as some people have, certainly as Sen. Kennedy has, to suggestions for fixing things, for seeing to it that how people are kept safe is kept a priority, is equally wrong.

People are dying. It wouldn’t hurt to try and help out. •