As if the sudden winds of political change are not enough to worry President Obama, now the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence is down on the president too.

The anti-Second Amendment group last week criticized Obama for “continuing concessions to the ‘guns anywhere’ mentality of the gun lobby.”

 What had Obama done? In the words of the Brady campaign, he “signed legislation letting people carry concealed weapons in national parks and in checked luggage on Amtrak trains, adopted the gun lobby’s empty rhetoric about just ‘enforcing the laws on the books,’ muzzled Cabinet members who expressed any support for stronger gun laws, and failed to appoint permanent leadership at the agency that polices the gun industry ... .”

There’s nothing empty about asking that criminals be held to strict account for gun crimes. Beyond that, the actions for which the Brady campaign gave Obama an “F” actually seem sensible.

The restriction in national parks was unenforceable, and lifting it has caused no harm as far as has been reported.

Likewise, the Amtrak ban on transporting guns in checked baggage was nonsensical on its face, considering that the only people it affected were legitimate hunters and competitive shooters traveling to marksmanship matches. It forced these people to transport their equipment on the highways instead of taking the train. Criminals, on the other hand, if any were taking Amtrak trains, could carry their handguns  concealed as they got on the train.

By signing acts of Congress that got rid of these restrictions, Obama did the sensible thing. (hh)