This week, New York's Mayor Bloomberg attacked both President Obama and the presumed GOP nominee Mitt Romney for refusing to challenge the NRA lobby on gun control (after ignoring gun control for five days, the president on Wednesday suggested a "common sense" approach to the issue, but went no further).
On Wednesday, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie took on Bloomberg, declaring that everyone should stay out of politics during tragedies, and recalled that Mayor Bloomberg himself had recommended that politics be kept out of the "tragedy of 9/11." The two situations, Aurora and 9/11, are in no way comparable. When Bloomberg talked about Aurora, he was commenting on a criminal massacre that might have been avoided if Congress had not repealed the law automatic weapons in 2004. When Bloomberg was talking about 9/11, it was long after the event itself -- he was suggesting that the politics and infighting that persisted for years after 9/11 should end.
More importantly, the U.S. Government, Congress and the president could pass laws that might result in the decline of the mass murders perpetrated over the past five years. Unfortunately, no part of the US Government, Congress or the president can pass laws restricting al Qaeda. Preventing 9/11 was the job of the CIA and the FBI, and they failed.
As a matter of fact, the Bush administration's response to 9/11 was rife with politics. There were major rivalries among government agencies about which one would assume the responsibility for "homeland security" and, after the Department of Homeland Security was created, which departments would surrender which agencies to the newly created department.
Republican party stalwarts were themselves divided over who would provide airport security, Tom DeLay, the House Majority Whip, favored contracting that duty out to private companies while others thought that it would be best that federal employees do the screening. The issue went all the way up to President Bush, who decided in favor of federal employees. All this in the midst of national mourning.
The time to meet a crisis is when it occurs. We are in the midst of a national crisis, a rash of deaths caused by automatic weapons. The best way to mourn for the victims is restore the ban on such weapons, and playing politics is the only way to do that. President Obama and candidate Romney should have the guts to talk about that issue now, and blowhards like Chris Christie should at least have the courage to keep his big mouth shut.