CNN and a sheriff stoked anger, politics

are not standing up for them until you say, ‘I want less weapons.’ ” The crowd cheered. “You will get this done,” Sheriff Israel told them. “Vote in people who feel the same way you do.” They cheered some more. What the public didn’t know at the time of Israel’s speechifying was that on the day of the shooting, a Broward deputy sheriff was stationed at the school.

When the shooting began, Israel’s armed deputy hid outside in safety and remained there.

But if the good sheriff — a political cat — had explained that business about his frightened deputy, he’d have ruined the show. So he kept his mouth shut. The grief of the survivors is legitimate. If you weren’t moved by the parents and the students and their fear and anger, then you don’t have a heart. As a parent, I was certainly moved.

But the heart doesn’t make policy. And speaking from the heart alone isn’t the wisest thing to do when moving quickly to “do something” to the Bill of Rights.

There are things that can be done, including hardening the soft targets of suburban schools and using state legislative measures, including temporary gun violence restraining orders to take guns away from threats like Nikolas Cruz. Yet even that takes time.

A day after the CNN event, an amazing thing happened. The news broke about how that armed deputy stationed at the school had failed to act, and later news sources suggested three other deputies at the school did not enter during the shooting. Sheriff Israel had to say something.

“I’m devastated. Sick to my stomach. There are no words,” he said of the deputy who avoided danger that day. “These families lost their children. We lost coaches. I’ve been to the funerals . ... It’s just — there are no words.”

No words, sir? No words? Yet you had plenty of words at that CNN event, where you played the demagogue in front of a crowd of grieving Americans.

The framers of the Constitution were worried about people just like you. It’s why the Bill of Rights is there.