While the Department of Defense has taken some lumps over its failure to report the Sutherland Springs shooter to the NICS database, it’s not willing to go down without a fight. After all, we do tend to want our military to fight, though possibly not on something like this, but if they’re in the right–or at least not in the wrong. There’s a difference–I don’t blame them.

The DOD argues the lawsuit overreaches what should be permissible by law.

The Department of Defense told a federal court last week a lawsuit pending from three major cities over the gun background check system overreaches.

In a 25-page response filed Jan. 12, federal attorneys called the expedited discovery request — via a claim under the Administrative Procedure Act — from the legal team representing the cities of New York City, Philadelphia and San Francisco “both meritless and premature,” insisting the court deny the motion ahead of the case’s April 6 hearing.

“Plaintiffs seek to wield this scalpel as a bludgeon, asking the Court to engage in far-reaching oversight of Defendants’ compliance with … a statute directing agencies to report criminal history data to the Attorney General, over a period of decades,” the motion says. “To that end, Plaintiffs have filed for a preliminary injunction and ask this Court to grant expedited discovery. Every aspect of Plaintiffs’ request is disfavored.”

City officials sued the department Dec. 22 for its repeated failure to report disqualifying service member records to federal authorities — a longstanding issue illuminated by the shooting at a Texas church last year.

The legal challenge seeks an injunction and judicial oversight to mandate the department submit missing criminal records to the databases feeding the National Instant Criminal Background Check System — restoring its integrity for the sake of the three cities whom “regularly” rely on it.

This comes as Congress is currently considering a bill to fix the NICS, a bill that seeks to correct oversights that many feel resulted in the Sutherland Springs massacre.

I get where these cities are coming from, though. Someone who should be barred from owning firearms can pass the NICS check? All because someone didn’t forward the information to the right database? I’m sorry, but I get where some folks are coming from on this.

However, I’ll also say there’s no cause so righteous that it won’t attract some fuggheads who will screw the whole damn thing up.

That’s what I feel is happening here. Rather than leaning on elected officials to pass the Fix NICS bill, they want to push a lawsuit? They’re taking taxpayer money to sue and entity using taxpayer money to accomplish something that could easily be handled legislatively. The fact is, the NICS issue is about as bipartisan as you can get, though a handful of folks are a little worked up over some things they believe are in the bill.

A legislative fix would make a lot more sense than a judicial one.

But since these cities are liberal bastions, they simply want to make sure they can grandstand on the issue and a lawsuit is much more of a show than a legislative fix. That’s what it all really boils down to.