Tim Carney, the Washington Examiner muck-raking maestro, remonstrates:

Scariness is what “assault weapons” talk is all about. The 1994 “assault weapons ban” didn’t have a real definition of assault weapon. … And restricting rifle ownership has very little bearing on curbing murders. According to FBI data, rifles are responsible for less than 3 percent of all U.S. murders for which the murder is weapon is known. You are five times more likely to be killed by a knife or a blade than by a rifle. Handguns, the data show, are used in a vast majority of gun murders. But handguns don’t look as scary as the AR-15.

Mr. Carney also decries President Obama’s maudlin use of children as props, and his use of their innocent, understandable concern for the implications of gun policy, expressed after Sandy Hook in letters to the White House, as emotional ammunition against political opponents.

Children should not be exploited by the leaders and guardians charged with their best interests. As a family man with children of his own, Mr. Carney understands that.