Take a moment to bask in the cognitive dissonance.

The Interior Department was expected to announce today that it would begin re-evaluating regulations that currently prohibit visitors from carrying loaded weapons in America’s national parks.

The agency’s plans were preempted, however, by yesterday’s news that a gunman in Illinois had killed five students and wounded 16 others before killing himself.

And so, out of respect for the dead and injured, who were killed by a handgun and a shotgun, the Interior Department has —what? Changed its mind? Thought better of its plans? No. It has merely postponed its announcement until next week.

Stop and think about this for a moment.  The Times is suggesting that the Interior Department rethink its decision to perhaps change regulations on guns in national parks because of the shooting in Illinois.  But just the opposite is true.  The shooting in Illinois should serve as evidence to hasten the Interior Department’s move toward allowing guns in national parks.

Why?  Because much like current gun policies in national parks, the Northern Illinois campus was a gun-free zone.  The shooting in Illinois didn’t happen because guns were allowed on campus.  The shooting happened because some loony decided to go there and start shooting.  If anything, the situation was made worse by the fact that none of the people in the area of the shooting when it broke out happened to be armed.

Had guns been allowed on that campus there would probably have been a smaller body count.

Of course, the editorial board of the New York Times doesn’t let things like “logic” and “reason” get in the way of its anti-gun agenda.