CT Carry of Connecticut,  a gun rights group, finds that one of the Obama administration's photo-op parents of children who died at the Sandy Hook School is somewhat more familiar with portrait photos that include a set of numbers directly below his full facial and side profile images.

Sitting next to Gabby Giffords and the president at a White House photo event was Neil Heslin, the father of a boy shot at Newtown, Connecticut.  Heslin was clearly advocating for much stricter gun control laws, yet Richard Burgess, President of CT Carry, has a possible explanation in a press release:

A felon with a long rap sheet of fraud, substance abuse and reckless behavior is the poster boy for background checks and gun bans. But not in the way he thinks he is...

All of which means that Neil Heslin is not allowed per State and Federal law to purchase, own or possess any firearms. So often we find that the strongest critics of the right to bear arms are those people who cannot be trusted with firearms themselves.

In fact, despite multiple convictions for drunk driving and losing his license, Mr. Heslin continued to drive and was eventually charged with driving under suspension.

Mr. Heslin is living proof that the criminals we need to be concerned with do not follow permitting laws and that people who so callously risk other people's lives continue to do so without regard for the laws.

If all this wasn't enough, Mr. Burgess points out that Heslin "has been sued several times for not paying his bills through his businesses and for not paying child support as well" -- and appears to have a new career lobbying against honest citizens having the right to own guns.

And the Huffington Post is up in arms -- so to speak -- about this CT Carry press release, calling it a "smear" of Neil Heslin."  Since when is telling the truth and detailing a felon's rap sheet a smear?  I guess the HuffPo is now operating on the advice of Humpty Dumpty who famously said in "Alice in Wonderland" that "When I use a word ... it means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less."

So here we have a convicted felon advocating that honest people be limited in their access to self-defense with a gun -- if not entirely disarmed.  And Heslin appears to be exploiting the memory of his dead son for his own personal gain and notoriety.  One of the obvious takeaways from this situation is that if the federal government is such a capable and responsible overseer of background checks, then why didn't the feds do one on Neil Heslin before they made him a high-profile advocate for gun control?

This is the perfect example of a favorite utopian fantasy: if we pass a law or put up a sign, then the issue is solved as if by magic and we can even disarm honest citizens.  On the state level, back in 2002 or shortly before, the Beltway Shooter, John Allen Muhammad, was able to purchase a semi-automatic rifle, even though:

... Muhammad was twice divorced; his second wife, Mildred Muhammad, sought and was granted a restraining order. Muhammad was arrested on federal charges of violating the restraining order against him by possessing a weapon. Under federal law, those with restraining orders are prohibited to purchase or possess guns as per the Lautenberg Amendment to the Gun Control Act of 1968.

Muhammad had purchased his rifle in the liberal State of Washington, which had a Democrat governor and legislature "overseeing" various state-level gun rules at that time.

In an example with a less pressing threat of the liberal utopian fantasy of "making a statement equals enforcing a policy," I was able to enter the 2007 New York Times Annual Meeting, despite having received a letter from the Times informing me that only shareholders of record from February 2007 would be allowed into the meeting (I had purchased my one share on March 23 of that year).  The Times did not ask to see ID or a confirmation of my stock purchase when I arrived at the annual meeting in that or the subsequent two years.

These utopian examples seem to show a philosophy of protection of life and property based on the 1939 song "Wishing (Will Make It So)," made popular by Vera Lynn.  I would prefer the utopians take a liking to a 1960s recording of "I Washed My Hands in Muddy Water" by Elvis Presley.  People like Neil Heslin need to have "bloodhounds on their trail," be they the four-legged kind or the two-legged variety from CT Carry.