It’s astonishing the lengths that Democrats like those in the Biden administration will go to push for gun control, including using an unspeakable family tragedy to talk about “gun violence.”
On Wednesday, police in Enoch City, Utah found the bodies of Michael and Tausha Haight, their five children, and Tausha’s mother in the family home. A day later, police determined that Michael Haight shot and killed his wife, children, and mother-in-law Gail Earl before turning the gun on himself.
The New York Post reports that Tausha Haight had filed for divorce from her husband two weeks prior to the day police discovered the murder-suicide. Michael Haight had also reportedly resigned from his insurance job near the end of the year as well.
Another report from the Post points out that Michael Haight had removed all the guns from the home in the days prior to the murder-suicide, a move that one family member said left Tausha and her mother “vulnerable.”
“Protective arms were purposely removed from the home prior to the incident because all adults were properly trained to protect human life,” the Earl family announced in a statement. “This is the type of loss that will continue to occur in families, communities, and this nation when protective arms are no longer accessible.” The family also noted that Tausha and her mother were trained in personal protection.
The horrific and heartbreaking nature of this shooting hasn’t stopped the Biden administration from using it to hawk its gun control agenda. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre issued a statement about the murder-suicide on Thursday.
“The President and First Lady are mourning with the Enoch City, Utah community in the wake of a tragic shooting that has reportedly claimed the lives of five children and multiple adults in their family home,” the statement began. That would’ve been enough, but no. This administration kept going.
“Too many Americans have lost loved ones or had their lives forever changed due to gun violence, and gun violence remains the leading cause of death for children in America. Less than one month after we marked 10 years since the Sandy Hook tragedy, another mass shooting has claimed the lives of five more children in Enoch City.”
That’s right — the White House went there. But the statement went even further, touting what the Biden administration has done to stem the tide of “gun violence,” including the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.
You know the Biden administration can’t stop even there. The statement goes on to call for even more action on gun control.
“The President believes there is more to be done to keep our homes, schools, and communities safe, including enacting an assault weapons and high-capacity magazine ban to get weapons of war off our streets, requiring safe storage of firearms, and closing the dating violence restraining order loophole in our gun background check system,” the statement concluded.
The statement is music to the ears of the “thoughts and prayers aren’t enough” crowd, even as it repeats the same boilerplate terminology that the anti-gun crowd has bandied about for years. What’s most irresponsible and opportunistic is that the White House lumps different kinds of shootings under the umbrella of “gun violence” as if they’re all the same.
A school shooting and a family murder-suicide are equally heart-rending, and saying that they’re different doesn’t diminish either the Sandy Hook shooting or the deaths of the Haight family members. But the truth is that they’re not the same issue — unless all you want to do is take guns away from people.
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