Snub or missed opportunity?

Correction appended

Did Rep. Eliot Engel get snubbed at the State of the Union after waiting many long hours with his bagged lunch, saving an aisle seat just for a chance to shake the president’s hand?

Did President Barack Obama’s left handshake make up for the appearance of a cold shoulder (since, after all, the president is a lefty), or did it constitute a double dis?

Though such questions might be good fodder for talk show pundits, back here in Mr. Engel’s district, we don’t really care. 

Being represented by a man best known for camping out like a crazed teen at a rock show may be embarrassing, but we’re used to it by now. What’s troubling is Mr. Engel’s failure to use the speech as an opportunity to highlight an important issue facing our country and his district.

At least 42 victims of gun violence attended the presidential address, many of them brought as guests by their representatives. 

Rep. José E. Serrano invited Gloria Cruz, a Bronx anti-gun violence activist who lost her niece to gunfire in 2005. 

The point was to put a face behind what is sure to be the heavy lift of changing gun laws, something Mr. Engel claims to care deeply about. 

Still, one of the four representatives from the Bronx, where 114 people were murdered in 2012  — chose to bring his son and make it a family picnic. 

In a quote he gave to the Daily News before the address, he actually sounded proud that his annual handshake is his most memorable moment in the minds of his constituents. 

“I will be in my district somewhere in December and someone will say to me, ‘I saw you on TV,’” Mr. Engel told the News. “I’ll think it was one of the many interviews I’ve done, but they’ll say ‘No. You were shaking the President’s hand.’ People remember me shaking the President’s hand.”

And while he didn’t bring the needs of his district to the show, he made sure to bring a campaign poster for the president to sign. 

A previous version of this editorial incorrectly reported the number of U.S. representatives in the Bronx. The Bronx is represented by four members of congress.