Keller @ Large: We Need Better From Clinton, Trump On Gun Problem

BOSTON (CBS) - A local police officer is dead, apparently at the hands of some dirtbag with a gun.

And we are once again confronted with the cost of living in a society that is awash in guns.

I don't often get into this issue for the simple reason that there doesn't seem much point in it. Opinions on guns are pretty much set in cement, and there doesn't appear to be anything that could happen to change those minds.

Responsible gun-owners I know feel demonized by anti-gun activists and persecuted by some gun regulations.

People of goodwill alarmed about gun proliferation – including many police officers – look on in horror as the gun lobby digs in against virtually any reforms.

And now, unsurprisingly, guns are becoming a hot issue in our presidential race from h-e-double-hockey sticks.

Hillary Clinton has trashed Bernie Sanders during the primaries for being sensitive to the concerns of rural gun owners, and panders when she endorses gun-buyback programs, which do little to solve the problem.

Trump, who endorsed President Obama's gun-control ideas after Newtown, is now busy pandering himself, embracing the NRA and claiming "Hillary Clinton wants to take your guns away and…abolish the Second Amendment," completely false on both counts, but at this point Trump has become like the teenager in the old joke: how can you tell if he's lying? His lips are moving.

I would just make this sure-to-be-ignored request of both campaigns – if you don't have anything new or honest to say about our gun problem, please just keep the rhetoric in its holster.

Listen to Jon's commentary: