Having completely succeeded in her efforts to eradicate the COVID threat — granted, the only thing eradicated about COVID is any possible threat to believing the CDC has a clue, but still — CDC director Rochelle Walensky has graciously turned her attention to the pressing problem of lead poisoning. The forcibly induced kind.

With a cheerleading backdrop courtesy of CNN so blatantly over the top Jen Psaki would be embarrassed to carry on in such a manner for President Biden, Ms. Walensky has decided that the Centers for Disease Control is somehow now chosen as the great government superhero to eradicate all those rampaging guns currently roaming the streets squeezing their own triggers.

Walensky doesn’t phrase it in such an overreaching manner, of course. Instead, with more than a little framing from CNN’s Elizabeth Cohen, she aims at the human angle. Because it’s all about the children and WE CARE!!! A LOT!!!

COHEN: “One recent weekend in Chicago, we had 74 people shot. That same weekend, a party in Florida, five teenagers shot. That same weekend, a man in New York City, in Times Square, shot in the back. And the list goes on and on, week after week after week. Can anything be done about this?”

WALENSKY: “Something has to be done about this. So, 40,000 firearm-related deaths a year. 120,000 serious firearm-related injuries per year. The scope of the problem is just bigger than we’re even hearing about and when your heart wrenches every day you turn on the news. You’re only hearing the tip of the iceberg.”

COHEN: “When you wake up on a Monday morning and you hear all the reports of the children who were shot the previous weekend, as CDC director, what does that feel like to you?”

WALENSKY: “That’s heavy. It hurts. It hurt before I was CDC director. I think any American citizen that turns on the news just can’t fathom another one of these mass violence issues.”

Oh, but fear not, all you bitter clingers … er, people who have actually read the 2nd Amendment. Walensky isn’t proposing some massive gun grab or anything of the sort! No siree, Bob!

She wants dialogue!

COHEN (voice-over): “And this time she wants the CDC to find common ground with gun owners.”

WALENSKY: “Let’s agree we don’t want people to die. Let’s just agree there. What can we do to stop people from dying?”

COHEN (voice-over): “She wants to allay gun owners’ fears.”

WALENSKY: “Generally the word ‘gun,’ for those who are worried about research in this area, is followed by the word ‘control’. That’s not what I want to do here. I’m not here about gun control. I’m here about preventing gun violence and gun death.”

COHEN (voice-over): “And she wants to involve gun owners in the CDC research to save lives.

COHEN: “If a gun owner said to you, ‘Dr. Walensky, I’m afraid you want to take away my gun?’”

WALENSKY: “And my answer to that is, come be part of the solution. Come to the table. Join us in the conversation. I don’t want you to feel that way. Right? I want you to teach me what you have done to make your gun safe. And then I want you to teach everybody else.”

One could detail at this juncture how the self-same gun owners she expresses a desire to include in this dialogue have at least, if not more than, the common sense God gave a goose. Thus, one and all they know not only how to, but actually do, practice maximum gun safety at home. See, they’re not the problem, and pretty much every single one of them are more than happy to give a quick, thorough lesson on gun safety to anyone who asks.

The problem is people acquiring guns, said guns far more often than not illegally, for the purpose of using them — brace yourself — illegally. People whose view of humanity is sufficiently twisted and satanic to take another person’s life for the purpose of material gain or “lack of respect” are, as amazing as it may seem to those who believe the pursuit of lollipop dreams in a cotton candy sky will magically erase all evil from the earth, rather indifferent to fundamental teachings regarding gun safety. They are diseased vermin deserving nothing aside from maximum punishment under the law.

Setting aside the usual paranoia regarding the slightest whiff of mention by anyone in any government office regarding guns, certainly every legal, responsible gun owner wants guns out of criminals hands. Said legal, responsible gun owners want every other legal, responsible gun owner to know how to safely and correctly handle a firearm. Also, a renewed commitment to mental health measures finds no detractors, provided zealous anti-gun bigots are not permitted to seize simple gun ownership as a sign of mental illness. Which is a problem.

The greatest issue with Walensky’s entering the fray is the fundamental distrust she has earned in the area of not making this a partisan government overreach. She has been unable to get her story straight regarding COVID. Walensky has offered zero evidence she will not turn matters of national interest into conduits for family financial gain. These are not the hallmarks of someone capable of negotiating the frenzied waters of anything involving guns in this country.

There is no sane gun owner who believes the current situation in Chicago and other locations where death by gunfire ranks alongside dog-bites-man in the commonplace occurrence file is acceptable, and who also believes guns should be removed from criminals’ hands by any and every legal method available.

However, Director Walensky’s approach comes off as far more idle wishing than an action plan. Unless she plans on somehow devising a method of cleansing the human heart from evil (no disrespect, but she’s not up to the task), it simply will not work — no matter what she might wish.