As they say, “I’m a hunter, but I don’t need an AR-15 to shoot deer or wild turkey.”
It’s not Dems who are always saying it’s too soon to politicize the latest gun massacre.
Look, you’ve got one party that’s largely in favor of gun control, but is all too aware of how heavy a lift it is. And you’ve got another party that’s in favor of making it easier for people to get their hands on high-powered weapons of mass slaughter.
That depends. The Second Amendment, rationally interpreted, is a quaint, obsolete, but otherwise harmless provision that should be repealed mainly because it’s useless in the 21st century, as it was in the 20th. The much bigger problem is the Heller ruling, wherein Scalia and his fellow wingnuts declared that the “well-regulated militia” preamble – which is the sole and central reason for the existence of the 2nd amendment – was just decoration and could be ignored, leading to the conclusion that you state. What it will take to change this in some hopeful future is a gun control challenge that makes it to a more rationally constituted Supreme Court, one with fewer idiot wingnuts on the bench.
The dead schoolchildren should be hailed as heroes who gave their lives so that we could maintain our Second Amendment freedoms.
I’m serious: the Dems in Congress should sponsor legislation giving the wounded and the families of the dead in such incidents the same benefits that soldiers wounded in combat, and the survivors of soldiers killed in combat, receive.
And to make sure it ticks off the right, and makes the news, those killed in such shootings should be eligible for burial in our military cemeteries. They’ve given their lives for the ‘freedoms’ that conservatives value more highly than any other, so why the fuck not?
wolfpup @45:. Good luck with that. The Republican Senate determined two years ago that Democratic Presidents are no longer allowed to appoint Supreme Court Justices.
The Republican Senate will not exist in 2021 (or perhaps even 2019). And with the filibuster eliminated for Supreme Court justices, President Duckworth will be able to nominate replacements for (hopefully) Thomas, Roberts, Alito, and Gorsuch. Wishful thinking but it’s possible that they retire or die in Democratic administrations.
“Libtards” aren’t making a whole big deal about it. The people with guns are. This school wasn’t a big deal at all two days ago, and now it is, because a guy with a gun made it one.
This could be a brilliant idea, politically speaking. It’d be awfully hard, politically, to argue against honoring and benefiting survivors and families of school shootings, and arguments against it would be perfect for political attack ads.
Republican Decision Tree – Gun Violence / Mass Shooting Response
1.0 Identify Shooter
1.1 If shooter is non-white or an immigrant, go to 2.0.
1.2 If shooter is white, go to 3.0.
2.0 Immediately propose sweeping and aggressive action to show strength and resolve. Examples can include overhauling immigration (numbers, screening, etc.), border walls, stop and frisk, profiling (racial or otherwise), more police, greater access to guns, etc.
3.0 Offer thoughts and prayers. If necessary, point out that it’s too soon to politicize such a tragedy.
Yup, America’s gun culture is pretty much a manifestation of white American male insecurities. If the shooter is white, well waddaya gonna do? If the shooter is dark skinned and/or a Muslim then we must act now!
A majority of Americans support stricter gun control and an overwhelming percent support background checks on all gun sales. Clearly having the government opose the majority’s will is tyranny. Fighting tyranny is why we have the 2nd ammendment. So the solution is for the majority to take up arms and force congress to act. How is that for irony?
Ha! It would have been more accurate if when the Russians invade, the militia said “thank God you’re here! There’s a black man in the White House, can you help us? Wolverines!!”
Mass shootings don’t seem to be dropping. This is deeply concerning, it’s now a cultural norm - if you harbor a grudge against a group of people, you buy an AR-15 and shoot them all. It’s like our suttee, or honor killing, or seppuku.
Guns aren’t dropped on us from planes, though. Wouldn’t a violent, pathologically individualistic and hierarchical culture like ours be the one that values guns to this extreme?
I’m not saying it’s a bad idea, just that it’s not enough (setting aside whether it’s possible). Mass shootings are a symptom, and there’s nothing wrong with treating symptoms alongside the actual illness.
If you don’t like school shootings every other week, then repeal the 2nd.
For some reason, politicians and numerous advocates keep pressing for background checks, restrictions, assault-weapons ban, this and that, all the while unaware (or aware) that it is simply just nibbling around the edges of the real issue. As long as the 2nd Amendment exists, massacres are embedded in the Constitution.
First of all, the belief that Americans would lose their liberty if there weren’t guns all over society is the biggest load of crap since Paul Bunyan’s ox took his last dump. There are dozens of peaceful, democratic countries that have maintained their free democracies for centuries in gun free societies. It’s just NRA scare tactics to frighten people into wanting a gun in every home.
For those of you with obsessive-compulsive firearms disorder, realize this: there is a number. Whether it’s the total number of incidents, or the rate of incidents, or number of victims or the frequency of deaths, there will be a number at which you say “Holy shit, that’s too many! We have to change this.”
For the most impaired among you, we will never reach that number. However, for many of you, it will come.
The question that you probably won’t have the guts to ask yourself at that point is, “Why wasn’t this number enough?” Why wasn’t Feb 14, 2018 enough for you?