Newtown tragedy leads liberals to jump the gun

It's saddening when there's a tragedy, particularly one involving children.  I have children and I cannot imagine a world where they are taken away, particularly by senseless violence.  My prayers and thoughts are with those victims' families in Newtown, Connecticut.

But progressives have, forgive the expression, jumped the gun in their response to this act of senseless violence by a disturbed individual.

CREDO, a progressive grassroots group, is organizing a march on the National Rifle Association's lobbying arm in Washington, D.C. Monday.

"After the shooter Adam Lanza, no one is more to blame for the massacre of 20 first graders and six women at the Sandy Hook Elementary School than the National Rifle Association," CREDO wrote on the Facebook page where the march is being organized. "To stop the senseless killing we must first stop the NRA."

Here's why they've jumped the gun:

(1) This tragedy requires a period of mourning not an immediate finger pointing crusade.

(2) No one is more to blame than the NRA?  REALLY? No one is more to blame than the guy who did the killing.  Claiming the NRA as the primary culprit is immoral, misleading and self-serving hyper-partisanship. 

(3)  They're planning a march on the NRA.  Again it's premature given the first two points but more importantly it is another example of the left's attempts to demonize opponents and divide the nation.  To do so using this tragedy as a reason is downright disgusting.

(4) It's not clear how far they want to take this effort, but it's not hard to imagine the absurd extent that they could take it.  Assault rifles have to go.  And then hand guns.  And then hunting rifles. And then archery equipment and knives.  And then any type of poison that could be used instead of a gun after guns are prohibited.  And then anything that could be used to manufacture poisons.  Where does it stop?

I'll admit, guns can make mass murder easier, but would have a gun ban prevented this tragedy or others?  Perhaps the form the tragedy took but not the evil intent.  Killers have used guns in countries where they are banned.  Mass murderers have used all sorts of instruments, even Tylenol and Kool Aid.

Knee-jerk reactions we've come to expect do not make the tragedy preventable.  They're designed to make those who believe certain things feel better about themselves in light of a horrific tragedy, that's all.