The target: Shootings are being used for gun control politicking

The day after the shooting that left nine dead at an Oregon community college, one of the network morning show "talents" was interviewing the sheriff of the county in which the tragedy occurred.

After a question about how the investigation was going, the talking head moved to the next query, this one a little surprising.

He had discovered that the sheriff had spoken against gun control previously, sending a letter to Vice President Joe Biden.

He then asked him if he still felt the same way about gun control.

Not, "How is the community doing? How are your officers doing?" Not, "What a tragedy, our hearts are with your community."

Gotcha.

We won't go into the interesting question about who leaked the fact that the letter was sent, or why some public relations hack and morning show dum-dum felt it was the right thing to do to a citizen trying to muddle through this sort of horrific event.

But the fact that the question was asked brings up a point.

It is easy to sit in your New York City ivory tower office and to pass judgment on those who wear uniforms and battle crime every day, to pontificate about gun control and how the law is handled in the real world.

It is the difference between paper law enforcement and real law enforcement.

There is a need for a discussion about how to handle the real world issues that are creating so many of these senseless events -- including another one today.

But it must be about more than gun control. Because as many law enforcement officers will tell you, the ones who will give up the guns will not be the people committing the crimes.

We have to talk about mental health, drugs, desensitization to violence and really bad parents.

And we have to talk about also how to keep guns out of the hands of people with mental health concerns -- and criminals.

The sheriff in Oregon did not take a gun and enter a community college and execute nine people. He should not be the one answering for why the crime occurred.

And he should not have been on the hot seat for expressing his views.

But that is what the coverage of these events is turning into -- targeting of anyone who does not think that wholesale changes to gun laws will stop crimes like this.

We need to find a way to stop more innocent people from being killed.

But the way to do it is not some hasty, knee-jerk law that will do nothing other than create a show of stopping gun violence.

That is the difference between paper crime prevention and real crime prevention.

Published in Editorials on October 9, 2015 11:58 AM