Outrageous: President Obama using schoolchildren as White House stage props for his anti-gun message.

Foolish: A New Hampshire legislator carping that a normal activity involving guns, specifically a police chiefs' fundraising raffle, should cease because of the Newtown, Conn., school shooting tragedy.

We thought the national issue for the President was the safety and well-being of young children. In the wake of Newtown, we were told repeatedly not to even bring up that terrible massacre with the little ones. So what does Obama do?

He puts some of them on stage, spotlights the tragedy, and thereby attracts the attention and curiosity of thousands more children around the country. Pleasant dreams, kids.

Here in New Hampshire, Democratic state Rep. Sharon Nordgren of Hanover takes offense that the Chiefs of Police Association didn't cancel a raffle begun last October to raise money for an annual youth police academy.

Nordgren doesn't like it that guns will be raffled off to qualified winners. It is insensitive, says she, not only because of Newtown but because of previous shootings.

"They should be pulling back and trying to not be so upfront," she said.

Nonsense. The chiefs' association is to be applauded for its long-standing sponsorship of the youth training academy and for a perfectly sensible and obviously popular (it is already sold out) gun raffle.
 
jmcquaid@unionleader.com