8 June—Whoops. Yesterday was National Gun Violence Awareness Day. And The Monitor neglected to note it in the National Days panel or a disquisition. What can we say? Apparently people were supposed to wear orange to observe the great occasion. We funked that, too.

(For some reason, there doesn’t appear to be a National Gun Violence Prevention Day. Evidently it’s quite enough to be aware of gun violence.)

Readers can rest assured that our omission wasn’t intentional. Because we value the opportunity to remind them that we’re most certainly aware of gun violence and that gun violence is terrible. In fact, all violence is terrible. (And, of course, all lives matter.) But the trouble is, most advocates of preventing gun violence really want to prevent gun ownership by infringing the people’s constitutional right to keep and bear arms subtly, incrementally, and insidiously. And that’s all there is to it.

Well, maybe not all. Michigan’s Democrat Governor Gretchen Whitmer proclaimed yesterday (she actually issued a proclamation that detailed all the topically wonderful things she’s done to get reelected) that opened with the barbed hook that “gun violence is a uniquely American problem.”

Where has Gretchen been? Gun violence (like all violence) certainly is an American problem, but it’s not uniquely American in any way. Gun Violence (like all violence) is a worldwide problem—even in countries where the private ownership of firearms is prohibited.

Americans do tend to be pretty damn good at all manner of violence, mind you—as at most things we do. But guns shouldn’t be blamed for the way people use them.

Even more mawkish, distasteful, and politically expedient than Gov. Whitmer’s self-serving proclamation was Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison’s statement. At least it wasn’t a proclamation:

“Throughout President Biden’s first term in office, he has shown us what . . . action looks like. He established the first White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention and implemented the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. While extreme Republicans were trying to drag progress back at the behest of the gun lobby, President Biden was passing the most significant gun safety legislation in nearly three decades.

“Enough is enough. It’s evident that Donald Trump and extreme MAGA Republicans will put the NRA before our children. Trump made that clear when he told gun violence survivors to ‘get over it.’ He will fight for the gun lobby before he will fight for our communities, our safety, and our lives. The stakes are far too high to let them win. We must reelect President Biden and send him a Congress who will stand up to the NRA and stand up for commonsense gun reform.”

Jaime Harrison certainly didn’t realize that he was giving non-MAGA Republicans and even Never Trumpers, among others, yet another good reason to not do as he suggests . . .