That's more or less the drift of yesterday's press release from the Family Research Council:
If Congress wants to stop these tragedies, then it has to address the government's own hostility to the institution of the family and organizations that can address the real problem: the human heart. As I've said before, America doesn't need gun control, it needs self-control. And a Congress that actively discourages it--through abortion, family breakdown, sexual liberalism, or religious hostility--is only compounding the problem.
Too many guns in the hands of too many dangerous people is
not part of the problem. It's abortion that leads to gun massacres. This is part of a
tired refrain from those on the right, particularly the social-conservative right: guns have nothing to do with anything (unless they're
fake guns, in video games...then we need to crack down on the absurd levels of fake gun violence!). It's abortion, gay people, women, teachers, etc. In case there's any doubt, Perkins outlines why he believes common sense gun control like background checks simply will not work:
Essentially, the measure would have expanded the background check policy to include gun shows and Internet sales--giving the Justice Department broad powers to regulate guns even more strictly. One troubling section would put innocent sellers at risk of five years in prison for committing a crime that they didn't know was a crime. As Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) pointed out, if criminals aren't following current laws, why would they follow this one? It's predicated, he said, "on the assumption that [criminals] will single out this one law to comply with."
There's a glaring flaw in this line of "reasoning" (to say nothing of the lie about prosecuting unknowing violators -- the text clearly states that prosecutions are for knowing violations) ... nobody is expecting the
criminals to comply with the law, but we are expecting the law abiding citizens to do so. You know, the law abiding gun sellers, who will know who not to sell to with a comprehensive background check system in place. Unless Perkins' argument is that gun sellers are not law abiding citizens, in which case we have a whole different set of problems...
Hat tip Right Wing Watch