Conservative Columnist Comes Around -- a Little -- on Guns

Obama's baby steps on guns finally having an effect?

Kathleen Parker is hardly a fire-breathing reactionary conservative, so it's not time to break out the champagne or put your guns up on craigslist. But it is heartening that a nominal GOP supporter -- with a pulpit as big as the Washington Post -- is ready to call Republicans out for both their do-nothingness and knee-jerk reactions to any suggestion that weapons of death might not be the best cause for the GOP to endlessly advance.

So, credit where credit is due, no matter how squishy. Parker:

What concerns most people, meanwhile, are those weapons, especially semiautomatics with large magazines, whose only purpose is to kill people. Many argue that no current law could have prevented any of the mass shootings in recent years, but is this sufficient justification for doing nothing when doing something could make a difference we may never know about — the child who didn’t die because new technology prevented him from firing a pistol? The Islamic State-inspired terrorist who didn’t murder holiday revelers because he failed an online background check?

Obama’s actions won’t go unchallenged, needless to say. And much political hay will be threshed, bundled and sold to Republican primary voters in the meantime. But GOP voters should be as skeptical of those ringing the gong of doom as they have been of Obama. In a civilized society, more guns can’t be better than fewer.

More like this, conservative pundits. It's a start, if not a tipping point.