It occurs to me that if the NRA were genuinely interested in reducing gun violence without reducing gun ownership rights, they are very well placed to help develop such practices and procedures in conjunction with government, mental health professionals, schools and so forth.
Unfortunately the calm, rational approach would scupper their current funding scheme, which is to periodically yell “THEY’RE COMING FOR YOUR GUNS! QUICK - GIVE US MONEY!” and watch the checks roll in. ISTR even normally rational Dopers mentioning in passing that whenever they felt there was some threat to their gun rights they reached for their checkbook, although they appeared to do so without considering whether the people they were writing checks to had an ulterior motive in exaggerating the magnitude of that threat in order to provoke such feelings.
I thought I’d check in to see if any of that filth has developed a conscience. I’m not optimistic, because their emotionality shuts down the rational thought and perspective taking necessary for empathetic responding. I would ask that if they do have any humanity, that they try, just once for one second, to block the automatic thinking they’ve come to rely on to keep their cognitive fear coping structures in place. In that one moment, can they imagine a girl who just got her first valentine at school from a boy in a romantic relationship. Imagine her joy and her hopes and expectations. Then imagine the moments of terror that filled her just before her life came to an end.
What made your fear - and more importantly your maladaptive coping strategy - more valuable than her joy and hopes and dreams?
If you cannot engage your humanity, then answer this: What have you done that would have made Nikolas Cruz less likely to be able to obtain an AR-15?
But I see that one of the biggest gun fetishists here has become a fucking moderator! I suspect that suggests something about what this place has become and that I probably haven’t been missing anything.
It’s not the gun that the problem, it’s the shooter. How else can he make it such a tragedy by choosing the one day that has a big impact? Valentine’s Day!
We will have to control guns somehow because we can’t control the sickos running around who’s smart enough to make a big impact on society using guns.
The manufacturers have needed one ever since Trump’s election interfered with the fearmongering that served them *so *well under a black Democratic president.
Not really. They had a pretty good bump after the Las Vegas shooting. As long as we have one of these shootings every couple of months, the gun manufacturers and dealers will be okay.
This thread is too long (and I’m too weary of the nonsense) to search and see if anyone has linked to Jim Wright’s essays on gun violence in the U.S., so I’mma put them here. Jim is ex-Navy, a Chief Warrant Officer, ex-Navy IW special operations. He understands weapons and politics, and if you aren’t reading him you should be.
They’re long, sobering, infuriating reading. I consider myself a good writer, but Jim is articulate on subjects that reduce me to sputtering frustration. Well worth a read.
No, no its not. Its just liberal editorials. He trades on his military background for some credibility among liberals but he does the same spinning and cherrypicking as any other talking head liberal or conservative.
But you actually provided the links. And Jim’s articles on this can’t be recommended enough.