So it’s not at all clear that legislation Mr. Obama favors would have much if any impact on gun violence generally – and there’s no evidence whatsoever that it would have prevented the attack that occurred yesterday in Oregon. Which means the notion that “we collectively are answerable” to the families whose loved ones were gunned down by a mad and malevolent gunman is absurd.

But if we’re going to follow Mr. Obama’s logic, it’s worth pointing out that he was in a position to pass gun control legislation in his first two years in office, when Democrats controlled the House and Senate, and he didn’t lift a finger. So perhaps the president is busy writing notes of apologies to the families of the victims for having made the political choice he did that allowed yesterday’s mass murder to occur.

I should say that I’m open to some of Mr. Obama’s suggestions when it comes to gun laws. But for the president of the United States to use the dead victims and their families as props in his liberal morality play – as pawns to help him pursue his liberal agenda — is pretty contemptible. And to suggest, as Mr. Obama clearly did, that opponents of his agenda have blood on their hands is a disgrace.