Ayotte on Target About Gun Control

US Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-New Hampshire) voted against the abortive background check bill last week, despite the emotional pandering of President Barack Obama, who used the Newtown, Connecticut victims to stir up shame and sentiment to force a vote on the issue.

No matter how much liberals plead, no matter how hard progressive interests push against Washington, US Senators in purple-red states, most of whom are Democrats facing a tough reelection fight in 2014, will not vote against the grain and bearing of their constituents. The expanded background checks bill failed to breach cloture by six votes, including Democrats from red states.
Republican US Senator Ayotte, former Attorney General for the state of New Hampshire, has been a reliably conservative vote in the upper chamber in Congress, and her vote against the gun control bill crafted by Joe Manchin and Pat Toomey shines out. Now gun control advocates have her in sight, aiming to take her down with attack ads shaming her for refusing to support the legislation. Ayotte even faced a strident and emotional daughter at a recent town hall meeting. This woman's mother was the principal killed at Sandy Hooke Elementary School in the Newtown, Connecticut shooting late last year.

Ms. Ayotte's response to the daughter's frustrated outrage was reasonable and respectable:

Erica, certainly let me just say that I'm obviously so sorry, and as everyone here no matter what our views are, for what you have been through.

Later she explained why she voted against the Manchin-Toomey bill:

The enhanced improvements to our background check systems, as you and I know, the issue was not that system. Mental health, I hope, is the one thing that we can agree on.

Voters in New Hampshire and commentators around the country should commend Senator Ayotte for her principled and calm explanation. Too much of the debate in this country around fraught issues like gun control, health care, and even fiscal and foreign policy has devolved into "shame, blame, defame" rhetoric, both anti-intellect and anti-civility. Gun control has had no effect on detering crime. Preventing law-abiding citizens from purchasing a firearm has not prevented criminals and the mentally ill from harming others.

Ayotte's vote also reflects the balanced values of the Granite State. New Hampshire is home to a different stand of conservatism, one based on a more libertarian tempo of "live and let live", which matches with the state motto: "Live Free or Die." The tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary should invite pause and reflection, yet the heated debate which pushed gun control with enhanced background checks was the wrong route for all intended purposes. The aggravated tragedy of twenty children and six care givers is beyond description, and the pained frustration of the victimized daughter should not dissuade anyone from facing this issue of gun violence on our schools. However, the spur-of-the-moment emotionalism which has pressed liberal legislators and frustrated independent thinkers and Second Amendment Advocates can never serve as the first or final basis for comprehensive legislation. All the laws in the world cannot uproot the evil in men's hearts. Proper protection best eliminates the threats of sudden gunfire. "The best defense against a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun".

Senator Ayotte's assertion about mental illness deserves greater attention, and her insistence on refusing contoured measures which would have appeased vocal interests and assuaged temporal fears deserves more praise than Ayotte is currently receiving. However, the greater issue which left an elementary school an easy target has not been addressed. Connecticut, like many states in the country, has concealed-carry laws, yet "gun free zone" provisions which prevent lawful, trained gun owners from bearing arms on public school campuses. Such backward policies have created "safety free" zones on public schools, and deranged assailants can attack these schools and hurt children without fear of reprisal.

Ayotte was on target about gun control because she refused to endorse a bill which would have expanded background checks, only to hinder law abiding gun owners and Second Amendment advocates, while at the same time doing nothing to alleviate the suffering of the Newtown, Connecticut victims, both the families and the community at large. If only more US Senators like Kelly Ayotte served in the US Senate. Her presence of mind to ignore the pressures of the media and heated special interests, as well as the blatant emotional pandering of President Obama by using the Newtown children and grieving parents as political props, deserves props and praise from all voters.