From USA Today:

Trump policies spur gun violence. Next president must use federal authority to stop it.

President Donald Trump’s inability to condemn white supremacists and his callout to the Proud Boys from the presidential debate stage has drawn outrage from across the spectrum, as well it should. And while we are constantly subject to Trump’s verbal assaults, and are forced to consider whether his words will inspire violence, we must remember that his policy choices are causing violence every day.

Bullshit.  Straight, unadulterated bullshit.

As protests across the country have called for an end to racial injustice, the Trump administration has not only failed to address the root causes of police violence, but its actions will lead to an increase in gun violence.

This perpetuates a theme we have been seeing on the Left, where police shootings are tossed in with criminal gun violence.  For that matter, most of the shootings that have resulted in protests have turned out to be justified once the facts were reviewed.

This is also bullshit.  The protests have led to a number of shootings, almost all (and perhaps all) of them conducted by the side supposedly fighting “to end racial injustice.”

In 2020, gun violence and gun-related homicides have already claimed nearly 16,000 American lives. A recent analysis by criminologist Jeff Asher of 59 cities found that the number of homicide victims was up 28% compared with the same period last year. This spike in violence has not been confined to geographic or ideological boundaries; it is occurring in communities across America.

Even in small cities such as Aurora, Colorado, and Toledo, Ohio, the homicide rates are significantly higher. While fully unpacking what is driving the rise in the homicide rate could take years, it is hard to imagine that George Floyd’s death at the knee of a Minneapolis police officer in May and the spinal cord injury of Jacob Blake, shot in the back multiple times Aug. 23 in Wisconsin, and other incidents of police violence that diminish trust in law enforcement are not a contributing factor.

Or bail reform, people going stir crazy over the lockdowns, politicians using the COVID to let people out of jail, police getting the distinct impression that Prosecutors/District Attorneys are ideologically aligned with the protesters and are happy to fan the flames and throw the cops under the bus.  None of this is Trump’s fault.

The Trump administration has ignored effective interventions that approach the root cause of police violence. The federal government has the ability to require local law enforcement agencies to implement police accountability reforms. Both Attorneys General William Barr and Jeff Sessions criticized this authority as federal overreach.

House Democrats killed a very good bill by Senator Tim Scott.  That is on them.

Programs that interrupt cycles of retaliatory violence and connect services to high-risk individuals can save lives. Yet instead of investing in a proactive approach, the Department of Justice seems to have divested from community programs, embracing a “boots on the ground” approach to address violence after it has happened.

The federal government has both the authority and tools to combat the twin crises of community-based gun violence and police violence. Let’s hope the next administration has the will to do it.

Go after the cops and legal gun owners, don’t arrest protesters or criminals who commit actual crimes seems to have worked so well in California and New York City so far.

The entirety of this OpEd and the political ideology that it is part of can be summed up this way:

Remember that the Left has been demanding retribution for Trump’s victory in 2016.

If they manage to steal this thing after- post and deliver a Biden victory, the next two to four years will be them exciting revenge on Trump’s base.

This OpEd is a window into what the looks like, where the police and law-abiding gun owners will be made to suffer while criminals commit crimes unabated because of Progressive policies on justice.