Clair Davis, 1997-2014
More children murdered while in school. Today, it’s Roswell, New Mexico. Last week, it was Arapahoe High School, in Colorado.
Yesterday, 71 year old retired police captain Curtis Reeves shot and killed Chad Oulson, 43. Mr. Oulson was shot because he allegedly threw a bag of popcorn at Mr. Reeves.
While the Tea Party and GOP paralyze Congress, and while too many “Democrats” go catatonic when it is time to face down the NRA, the ocean of blood continues.
How many children must die? How much blood must flow?
When we will we stop this insanity?
Please share widely!
Would be to mandate these kinds of smartlocks, though the technology is still in it’s infancy.
Assault bans and trigger clip limits appeal to a broad cross section of Americans, but thanks to the Senate over-representing rural areas, those are non-starters and the background check bill was weak tea. But getting the great silent majority of gun owners, who’s ownership would not be threatened (though it may be slightly inconvenienced) from increased regulation to come out of the woodwork and back some proposals would also help. Though they would need to come out in a pack, since individuals can even get their lives ruined by the gun lobby
Fighting fire with fire as Bloomberg has tried to do is another good move. For now, this is one of those issues, like marriage equality, marijuana legalization, the public option, or immigration reform where blue states will be getting ahead of the feds.
…one radio host finds the Sandy Hook massacre a little too “convenient“. It was interesting in his attempt to clarify he focused on the word “massacre” which I don’t mind him using, but I definitely object to him calling it convenient.
That if there were going to be any time to make even the most modest progress on this issue, it would have been post-Sandy Hook.
Everything about that tragedy cried out for reforms.
The problem, as I see it is that there is no counter-balance to the point of view that Amendment No. 2 is uniquely sacrosanct and therefore regulating guns at all is out of the question. (When was the last time you heard anybody call for its outright repeal?) With the extremists jumping up and down on the far right end of the spectrum (scaring the hell out of all but the most confident and principled lawmakers) and everyone else clustered (logically) much closer to the center, the see-saw can only go one way.
I am leery of any proposal that requires changing the Constitution-since it’s incredibly hard to do and many laws and regulations could be passed around it. One problem is the Heller case-which then Sen. Obama signed an amicus brief for-makes even basic regulations like the one in Chicago incredibly untenable. In an ideal world we would have same conservatives like Berger who recognized the intent was clearly for militia purposes and that law enforcement has an intrinsic interest in regulating firearms.
Perhaps we should take the NRA by its own mantra-guns don’t kill people-people do and throw it back at them with a strict licensing regime like the kind they have in Britain. If we can’t ban assault weapons , limit clips, and the like maybe we can make the process at least as difficult as driving a car and ideally as difficult as getting a passport. To the extent that causes owners to go underground or black market than we up the enforcement powers if agencies to combat that and sell it as pro-law and order.
I honestly don’t see why in a post-9/11 environment these steps have not been taken.
…say something like, “Darn right we’re politicizing this tragedy – that’s the only way we’ll get anything done!”
These are our children, and they are being murdered every day. That’s right. Children are being murdered!
Yes, we have a responsibility to our children to improve the safety of our schools and that means politicizing these events. It would be an even greater tragedy if let these things happen and said absolutely nothing.
Case in point: 9/11 brought about dramatic erosions of everyone’s Fourth Amendment rights–we’re still learning to just what extent–much of which happened in a rush of action right after the event.
Instead of TV ads that aren’t going to change enough public opinion, I think former Mayor Bloomberg (or any other well-intentioned billionaire) should take some of his many millions and create a counter balance to the NRA. An organization that is every bit as dogmatic and frothing-at-the-mouth as the NRA–in the opposite direction. Use its resources to go after NRA coddling politicians the way the NRA goes after politicians who dare show they have a heart and a brain. We may have to hold our noses, but if you see your opponent doing something effective, why not steal their approach?
But I was very reluctant to do so on the facebook pages of two New Mexicans (if thats the proper term) I know that live near by the affected school and are HUGE gun nuts. In due time perhaps I’ll open up the conversation.
Tom Toles is on point today (January 16).
Guns are deeply rooted in our culture, and getting rid of them is going to be a long battle. Generations. We better get started.
As someone observed, you’d think a member of Congress getting shot would make Congress act. It didn’t. There’s a political stranglehold, but the deep culture of guns is what really enforces that. NRA spending, for all we make of it, probably doesn’t sway races. But it’s enough to scare people away from doing what they’re already reluctant to do.