Oxford, Michigan is located in Oakland County. This is relevant information needed to have a glimpse of what I’m going to talk about in a bit.

You see, the district attorney for that county plans to use taxpayer money allocated for her office to put together a panel that will, ultimately, push for gun control.

When asked why she was announcing a commission of local and national experts to investigate and recommend solutions to address gun violence in the county, Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald listed off four of her reasons at a Monday news conference.

“Hana, Madisyn, Tate and Justin,” said McDonald, referring to the four Oxford High School students — Hana St. Juliana, Madisyn Baldwin, Tate Myre and Justin Shilling — who were killed in a mass shooting at the school last November; McDonald said she keeps those four names in her mind in everything she does as county prosecutor.

The commission, which comprises first responders, health experts, local elected officials, faith leaders, individuals who have been impacted by gun violence and more, aims to create an evidence-based curriculum to prevent gun violence and mass shootings in Oakland County and potentially elsewhere.

So far this year, there have been 30 school shootings that resulted in injuries or deaths, according to Education Week, which started tracking such incidents since 2018. Since then, there have been 122, according to the organization, with the highest number of shootings last year when there was 34.

OK, so, a couple of things.

First, the shootings reported by Education Week include any shooting that just happens to take place on school property. Many of them are not even during school hours and aren’t necessarily carried out by or against students. For example, several being shot outside of a basketball game counts for their purposes, so that data is, at best, misleading.

Second, I note how none of the people being considered for this commission are necessarily gun people. It seems clear that there will be no attempt at looking to balance policy recommendations with people’s rights.

Further, there don’t appear to be any actual policy experts being included. As a result, there won’t be anyone there to tell this commission that their ideas have been tried and haven’t actually accomplished what the commission wants them to accomplish.

In other words, this “commission” is being built with the sole objective to create gun control policy recommendations and make it look like an unbiased party.

If that wasn’t bad enough, though, who is paying for this commission? Who is footing the bill for McDonald’s foray into state political issues? That would be the Oakland County taxpayers, actually.

Even if everyone on the commission is a volunteer, there are still expenses generated. Someone has to pay for those, and that likely means the DA’s office will foot the bill. In other words, taxpayer money meant to prosecute criminals will instead be used to try and create even more of them.

All for policies that have failed time and time again.

I’m glad I don’t live there and I feel bad for those who do.