Attorney General Loretta Lynch testified before a Senate appropriations subcommittee that funds Justice Department activities Wednesday, calling for millions of dollars to fund President Obama’s recent anti-gun executive orders to combat “an epidemic of gun violence”—despite the fact that violent crimes in general, and firearm-related crimes in particular, are at their lowest levels in decades.
“We are targeting not just the gun traffickers but the trigger-pullers, gang violence, places where we’ve seen an increase in violent crime,” Lynch claimed. But if that’s the case, then why has her Justice Department gutted prosecutions of federal gun crimes to their lowest levels in over a decade?
Consider us unconvinced. Indeed, maybe the best summary came from subcommittee chairman U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., who said during the hearing, “I believe that (President Obama) is more interested in grandstanding and engaging in anti-gun theatrics than actually doing the work necessary to protect this country.”
