The congress is hard at work passing a Juvenile Crime Bill that will include a provision for background checks for gun buyers at gun shows and mandatory trigger locks on guns. This is a wonderful political issue for the Democrats. Wonderful ways to be on the "feel good" side of the issue and accuse the Republicans again "not getting it!" Never mind that it is a better "issue" than a positive policy initiative with any real effect.

We have had a run of this type of false feint. The government has forced the television industry to put ratings on the shows. When is the last time you checked the rating and did something about it? At the time it was a wonderful issue, today it means nothing. The TV makers will have to put V-chips in television sets so parents can filter out objectionable programs. The rest of us with no children in the home will have to buy the V-chip. The kids can already run rings around us on Computer, TV's and VCR's… how long will it take for parents to learn how to program the V-chip... and how long will it take the child to figure out how to get around it. The latter will be about 25% of the former!

I am sure the government will force everybody to have internet filters on our computers to filter out objectionable internet sites.

I don't belittle these small efforts. Each one might help a little, but only a little. But the bigger issue is that all of these initiatives put the government in the place of parents. Sure they say these initiatives "help" parents and "save" children. But will it really make a difference? Did the TV show ratings make a difference? How long will it take an ingenious child to figure out a trigger lock… or how long will it take for the owner to forget to use the lock?

All this reminds me of the skit about a nursing home advertising to Baby Boomers as a great place to put their parents. They used the line "We care, so you don't have to!" It is hard to oppose such small legislation when is will "save the children" but by doing so we provide cover for parents not to be parents. Parents job is to monitor the activity of your child… whether on the 'net or watching TV. A crutch in the form of a V-chip or trigger lock does not take your place.

Congress is a lot like all of us… me at least. Perhaps it is just human nature. When I am facing a big difficult problem in the office, I find all sorts of little things to do and take me away from the difficult problem. I find these "important" little things to do to allow me to avoid the BIG problem.

The congress faces Medicare and Social Security systems that are broken and need reform… tough problem. They face campaign financing reform… difficult problem. They face a war, they face a military that is depleted, they face the fact that the highest people in our government allowed and perhaps facilitated the transfer of our nuclear secrets to a foreign nation. All tough problems.

It becomes much easier to pass a little piece of legislation that "sounds and feels" good, but does little to change America rather than working on the major issues facing the country. Worse yet, it allows us to think we are actually doing something to find out why kids kill other kids. A generation ago, guns were available, not locked, no trigger locks and kids did not shoot each other. Obviously trigger locks are not the reason nor the answer.

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