Eventually I’m sure, but for now just the internet.
I’m sure most Canadians would look at that feel that all too frequent smugness of “See look how much better we are than Americans!” I see that and I see two school shootings too many.
I think the pro-gun violence crowd just are not familiar enough with the horror of gun violence. Like a survivor of Sandy Hook, living by pretending to be dead laying among the bodies of her classmates, on the phone with her mother saying “I’m ok mommy, but all my friends are dead.”
Or a child in a bathroom stall hearing in the next one over “Help me! Help me! Please I don’t want to be here.” followed “But you are here.” and then gunfire.
The death cult that is the Republican party needs to be expunged. The worship of guns and the violence they bring needs to be expunged. And I know the pro-gun violence will say “we’re not pro violence, we’re just pro guns, or pro right or whatever.” BS. They love the violence. They dream about the day they get to be the good guy with a gun and save 'Merica. This blood is on their hands.
We also have gun licences here, which are a good a idea and I am very much in favour of.
Individual firearms registration, which is the thing I don’t like, is one of those things that sounds like a good idea on paper but has a lot of issues that people tend to wilfully handwave away then make a shocked Pikachu face when they discover the firearms registries cost literally millions of dollars each year to run, and the information they have isn’t accurate, and doesn’t tell anyone anything useful anyway.
“John Smith has a gun licence. He also has a gun.” Really? No shit.
Basically, it’s the licensing process that does the heavy lifting of keeping guns out of the hands of people who shouldn’t have them, not the convoluted and expensive bureaucracy that is arms registration.
I stuggle to imagine a more family-centered culture in America than a rural Hispanic community.
My gun control proposals
The following guns are allowed, subject to background checks
Revolvers
Shotguns, break action
Rifles , bolt action, small magazine
Guns must always be unloaded and securely bagged -except in the following places.
Your own property
Anothers property , with owners permission
A licenced shooting range
A designated hunting area
Maximum ammunition allowances
12 rounds per gun type
(Exception: licenced shooting facilities)
This seems to me to cover all legiitimate self defence, vermin control and sporting cases for gun ownership.
[brought over from the breaking news thread]
Issues as multifactorial, tightly coupled, and complex as societal ills don’t generally lend themselves to pith, but …
I’ve said for years that the US stands pretty much alone among advanced economies in the degree to which we profit from misery (ie, perverse incentives).
War, disease, crime and punishment, public safety, substance abuse, etc., etc.
Solutions must create profit (for the right people). They cannot diminish or collapse industries that do widespread societal harm. They must, instead, give rise to profitable band-aid solutions.
Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
To me, it is the truth that underlies the “American Exceptionalism” fig leaf. It’s the bumper sticker philosophy that enables the grift. That, and “Freedom !” give de facto license to promulgate policies that cause immeasurable pain – to the ‘right people.’
As long as they also create measurable profit – again: to the ‘right people.’
It isn’t new. I’ve often posted part of a famous speech given by RFK in 1968. In part:
And this is one of the great tasks of leadership for us, as individuals and citizens this year. But even if we act to erase material poverty, there is another greater task, it is to confront the poverty of satisfaction - purpose and dignity - that afflicts us all. Too much and for too long, we seemed to have surrendered personal excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our Gross National Product, now, is over $800 billion dollars a year, but that Gross National Product - if we judge the United States of America by that - that Gross National Product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them. It counts the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and counts nuclear warheads and armored cars for the police to fight the riots in our cities. It counts Whitman’s rifle and Speck’s knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children. Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.
Sick society, indeed.
So the flipside of this, then–if you’re conceding no legislation can be passed, why take the political hits? Just have Democrats (especially in competitive districts where it might matter), run as pro-gun candidates? I have trouble understanding the simultaneous beliefs that absolutely nothing can be done and the desire to position the party such that it maximizes the amount of votes it is going to lose on the issue.
Something else, while it is trendy to say we can never get anything done in America, and legislatively it is certainly much harder, there actually has been a lot of things done in various areas of policy at both the State and Federal level in the last 15 years–some of it that started off unpopular. I saw some of this on the Republican side, where previously unpopular proposals slowly gained support over time with consistent effort built behind them.
I’ve never really seen anything like that from the Democrats. They seem to weakly propose a few Diane Feinstein style AWB ban resurrections and other things that not only are political non-starters, it’s just a bridge too far. I think some recognition needs to be inherent that the Democrats have lost on this issue, massively, for over 30 years. This means the football is like on their own 2 yard line. You can’t chuck out proposals like you’re on the opponent’s goal line, when you start at such a grave disadvantage where much of the momentum is with the other side, your initial goals have to be more limited.
Or, again–if you really think nothing can be done–why take the political hits?
I never said that–I said they consistently win the battle of perception on crime, which is why in many opinion polls across the country for years have shown Republicans poll higher on issues related to crime, and do better in elections where crime is a top concern for voters. I think “effective at dealing with crime”, is like managing the economy, it isn’t black and white and there are lots of factors outside of direct political control, I would never make any broad statement that one part vs the other is more effective at dealing with crime, I’m talking purely about the politics of crime.
That question can no longer be asked. The access has been granted. The question now is if i you want to take it away, how do you do so, what is the political process where that would occur, and how do you go about it? How viable are any of these ideas?
Viable means it can pass a legislature–by definition laws that cannot do that, are not viable.
I agree with this 100%, to the word. Democrats have been unable to find any way at all to win on this issue, unless they can change that, it needs to be dropped, frankly. I was trying to get the conversation here through more subtle means but maybe you coming out and saying it directly is the better way.
Yep, as a former Republican this is the one thing I think I understand the least about Democrats. It seems like…they genuinely don’t care if they lose elections? I don’t understand how that is viable for a political p arty.
You’re correct about the school situation but I also really do not feel the school should be the ones mainly responsible for this mental health care. They can be a starting point for sure but families need to step up but we know there are many who will not. But if congress were to fund more counselors and therapists for schools I would be good with that. My wife works in a high school and I hear all the time about the issues they are facing with many of the students. If people only knew the half of it.
Who are you to tell me what I can and cannot own and what I need for self defense? I am a responsible gun owner and I am good with tightened ownership/background rules but your restrictions will only cause many to dig their heels in for more of a fight.
A voting citizen
Your post here will only make the gun owners dig their heels in due to your extreme rhetoric.
Why take political hits? The reality is that when one sees the old canard of Republicans just saying “just enforce the laws that are already in the books” is that many Democrats (and a few Republicans) took those hits in the past, so as to have something better than the irresponsible way the extremists in the gun lobby wants it.
It has to be mentioned that Biden did win in part by promising to do something about it, that he has not been as able to fulfill promises has a lot to do with chicanery from Republicans regarding elections and the shady funding of extremist politicians.
Oh no. They’ll go from 110% opposed to gun control to 120% opposed to gun control. The gun control debate is over. The pro gun violence crowd will NEVER agree to anything that could possibly prevent the slaughter of children because of the almighty 2nd amendment. The only way to get gun control in the USA is for people to vote out the Republicans.
Me, that’s who. Maybe. Possibly. I’ve seen people at CCW classes in different states that I would never trust with a gun.
But you’re likely not one of those people. You may have seen them too, @EDOK9Trainer . Maybe you know what I mean.
Too many gun advocates (and I’m not saying you are one of them) focus on the 2nd Amendment saying Gun ownership is a right and not a privilege like driving or other licensed activities are. But they (we) need to remember the predicate: A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State.
So were most of these mass shooters, until they weren’t. Forgive me if I’m not eager to trust you or any other random stranger with my life.
I’m fine with that. Protect you and yours as best. you can when and if the need arises. And I really hope it doesn’t.
And you make sure to feel comfortable while thinking about “Help me! Help me! Please I don’t want to be here anymore!” and “I’m ok mommy, but all my friends are dead.” Hopefully it is never your child uttering these these sorts of words.
At Uvalde, the legal weapons and body armor only protected the shooter
I was actually just listening to an NPR story on the way home about this last night. Bottom line, most cannot afford it.
The other point that was mentioned in the piece is that, even for the districts that can afford it, there are simply not enough to fill those positions.