Poor Paulie. His gun prohibitionist ship is sinking fore, aft and amidships and he's still trying to take over the helm.

Paul Helmke with a "dangerous and irresponsible person," 19 April 2010.

Folks,

In the press of the Gunwalker scandal I missed this from four days ago: "Brady Campaign Attends Obama Gun Summit, Not NRA." Old Paulie gives us an insight in his day in the sun at the Obama "gun control summit."

On Tuesday, I attended a meeting at the U.S. Department of Justice with representatives from the White House, the Vice-President’s office, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the FBI, and others from the Obama Administration, along with leaders from the gun violence prevention movement, to discuss how to reach the goals outlined in the President’s statement. Officials from the Administration indicated that this was the first of what they hoped would be a series of discussions. They said they had not settled on, or excluded, any relevant proposals.

I began the discussion by listing basic measures that the Brady Campaign, and others, felt could make a difference. The list included: a strong background check system, with good and complete records of dangerous and irresponsible people, applicable to all commercial gun sales; more tools for law enforcement to stop trafficking in illegal guns; increasing the number and type of military-style weapons, including “assault clips,” that should not be readily available to civilians, like machine-guns and fully automatic weapons. Administration officials then asked questions. My colleagues and I gave examples and arguments for legislative, administrative, and voluntary policies that could help reduce the bloodshed.

The meeting lasted more than 90 minutes. Having this many Administration representatives spend this much time on this initial meeting signaled to me that the President is serious. He wants to do something meaningful about gun violence. After meeting with others, including law enforcement and “gun rights” groups, Obama’s representatives will be presenting specific proposals. We hope those will include all the “sound and effective steps” that the President called for in his statement.

He can wish for prancing unicorns to crap chocolate candies too, but that doesn't mean anything of the gun confiscationist program is going to survive the Gunwalker scandal. This political offensive is doomed before it starts. The gun control fortress is collapsing, burning and falling down around his head. Helmke knows it, too. He's just going through the motions, until somebody finally gives him the word that "alles ist kaput!" and he can come out of the ruins with his hands in the air.

A German firearms control scheme collapses in the middle of the 20th Century.