ANALYSIS/OPINION
A man identified as Francisco Sanchez isn’t a suspect in the spate of killings and violence that checkered the country over the Fourth of July holiday weekend.
The District, Milwaukee and Chicago are among the metro areas where a rash of shootings exploded alongside backyard fireworks displays, leaving our celebrations of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness bloodied.
Because of the bloodletting, which included police officers shooting suspected violent offenders, I was actually looking forward to President Obama on Monday making a profound plea for more peaceful streets, particularly since his hometown was again hit hard.
Instead, we heard more of the same:
The gun violence is the fault of people who support the Second Amendment.
The gun violence is the fault of the National Rifle Association.
The gun violence is the fault of the Republican Party.
Oy!
The violence is the fault of those human beings who did or tried to take the life of another human being.
That’s clearly what happened in Chicago this weekend, when a gunman snuffed out the life of a 7-year-old boy as the gunman was trying to take the life of the boy’s father. Either way, the gunman is a killer, the life-taker — and gun rights advocates and Republicans are no more to blame than the president and other liberals who press and press and press for gun control.
Besides, Chicago has some of the strictest gun controls in America, but that little boy is still as dead as a doornail. And it wasn’t because the gunman got clearance from background checks. Bangers like him don’t write checks. They are more likely the cash-and-carry type.
Francisco Sanchez is a far different breed. He’s a bad mother-shut-your-mouth.
Francisco Sanchez is a career criminal.
Francisco Sanchez was convicted in the United States of several felonies.
Francisco Sanchez was deported to Mexico five times.
On Sunday, Francisco Sanchez said he was on the San Francisco waterfront, picked up a gun, and the gun “started to fire on its own,” he said. The gun “on its own” shot and killed Kathryn Steinle, 32, who was walking on the pier with her dad.
Francisco Sanchez should not have been on the streets of San Francisco, but you haven’t heard the White House, Obama sidekick Nancy Pelosi and other leading Democrats confess as much.
See, Mrs. Pelosi was among 28 Dems who got Governor Moonbeam — er, uh, California Gov. Jerry Brown — to sign legislation that goes easy on illegals and other immigrants who commit crimes or are convicted of committing crimes.
San Francisco — Nancy Pelosi’s San Fran — is a sanctuary city, like Washington, D.C. Immigrants, especially illegal immigrants, know they can roam freely there, do their dirty and unlawful deeds and effectively be left alone.
And San Francisco law enforcers said so Monday, the day after the gun “on its own” shot dead Ms. Steinle.
Francisco Sanchez was arrested, praise heaven. Now comes the hard part.
I’m not sure why Democrats and other liberal politicians — and socialists, for that matter — don’t espouse personal responsibility.
For sure, guns direct their bullets as targeted. But guns are directed by the hands of human beings.
The tragedy in all of this senseless violence is that human beings who can help stem the bloodletting aren’t trying to. Their preference always seems to blame the instruments of violence.
After Charleston, after Washington and Chicago and Baltimore, and after Milwaukee and Ferguson and now San Francisco, it’s time.
It’s time for Mr. Obama to plead with Americans to stop the violence.
No American city should be a sanctuary city.
No American city should be winking at violent lawbreakers.
Sanctuary cities encourage criminals, and the leaders of the free world are their enablers.
• Deborah Simmons can be reached at dsimmons@washingtontimes.com.
• Deborah Simmons can be reached at dsimmons@washingtontimes.com.
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