The Sunday political talk shows were virtually absent of gun rights advocates, with the massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary School the major subject on the programs — even though the shows tried to book some gun rights voices, reports the Los Angeles Times’ Show Tracker.
"Meet the Press" featured New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an outspoken supporter of gun control policies, who restated his appeal for President Obama to take action, while the NBC show also included a visit from California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who said she would introduce an assault weapons ban in the new Congress.
The show’s host, David Gregory, said the program "reached out to all 31 pro-gun-rights senators in the new Congress to invite them on the program to share their views on the subject this morning."
"We had no takers," he said.
Gregory meant that the senators were those who had received an "A" rating from gun rights groups, according to an email from "Meet the Press" executive producer Betsy Fischer.
The situation on CBS’s "Face the Nation" was similar, the story adds. Host Bob Schieffer spoke to gun control supporters including Dan Gross of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, and explained on air that the National Rifle Association had declined to appear on the show, as did the Republicans serving on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which oversees guns.
The only pro-gun voice on the Sunday morning shows, the story notes, was Texas Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert, who appeared on "Fox News Sunday.”
Speaking of the school’s principal, who was killed in the attack, he said, "I wish to God she had an M4 in her office, locked up, so when she heard gunfire, she pulls it out … and takes him out and takes his head off before he can kill those precious kids.”
Of course no politician will come forward when they are wrong. It is too late for gun control, that cat got out of the bag decades ago. What the Republicans and Democrats will also avoid is talk about the lack of mental health and the way those budgets are slashed at state and federal levels. There will also be no talk of increasing a “health care” budget now to include something that few insurance companies cover. Mental health is an intangible that is expensive. Therefore all bean counters (fiscal conservatives) that cannot put their finger on a solid cause that will cost X will forever fight budgetting for it. These will continue until the mentally impaired can get help without them being austesized from friends and family. Good luck with this. We can’t get health coverage for easily curable diseases without a ridiculous fight.