President Obama on Wednesday launched a gun-violence task force, led by Vice President Joe Biden, that will be charged with offering recommendations by January on how to prevent massacres like the mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. "The fact that this problem is complex can no longer be an excuse for doing nothing," Obama said. "The fact that we can't prevent every act of violence doesn't mean we can't steadily reduce the violence and prevent the very worst violence." Furthermore, Obama called on Congress to vote on several measures that a "majority of Americans support," including a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition clips, as well as background checks for all prospective gun buyers.
It was Obama's most explicit call for gun control since the Newton tragedy, and represented the first time that a sitting president has even discussed the issue with any seriousness for years. But the creation of another presidential commission — the place where good ideas die before they even get to the mass graveyard of Congress — looked a lot like a classic political dodge. Obama, well aware of the sketchy reputation of task forces and the like, even went so far as to say that his Washington commission "is not some Washington commission."
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