Now is not the time to talk about gun control (2 Viewers)

But, everyone should have guns right? That’s the way we should all want to live in this country, or so I’m told. It’s a freedom fest here because everyone is free to have guns.

Omg, tell me there aren’t people trying to justify that shooting

MT15 said:

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Well, Maine wanted it, and they're reaping what they sow. I'll never understand states not requiring background checks for all gun transactions, let alone licensing and training which really should be mandatory.

DaveXA said:

Well, Maine wanted it, and they're reaping what they sow. I'll never understand states not requiring background checks for all gun transactions, let alone licensing and training which really should be mandatory.

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I believe all states require gun dealers to perform a federal background check. Now, a private sale of a firearm is a different story.



"Federal law requires federally licensed firearms dealers (but not private sellers) to initiate a background check on the purchaser prior to sale of a firearm. Federal law provides states with the option of serving as a state “point of contact” and conducting their own background checks using state, as well as federal, records and databases, or having the checks performed by the FBI using only the federal National Instant Criminal Background Check System (“NICS”) database. (Note that state files are not always included in the federal database.)"

Optimus Prime said:

Frequent shootings put US mass killings on a record pace

Data maintained by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University shows 88 people have died in 17 mass killings since Jan. 1.

apnews.com

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Yesterday was the 24th anniversary of the Columbine shootings. At the time it was shocking, now it would have been just another Tuesday.

Maybe we can outlaw advertising for guns - similarly to the way they outlawed cigarette advertising? It would be a start - and gun advertisements are just obscene these days (having recently seen some real doozies).

Outlawing gun ads wouldn’t infringe on anyone’s rights.

MT15 said:

Maybe we can outlaw advertising for guns - similarly to the way they outlawed cigarette advertising? It would be a start - and gun advertisements are just obscene these days (having recently seen some real doozies).

Outlawing gun ads wouldn’t infringe on anyone’s rights.

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Maybe I'm looking in the wrong places, but I haven't noticed much gun advertising lately.

That said, I agree that would be a start. But you know those 2A warriors are gonna scream bloody murder, maybe even shoot some people if that happens.

Republicans in Idaho have been criticized for “glorifying political violence” after the party hosted Kyle Rittenhouse, the American who shot and killed two people at an anti-racism protest and injured another, as a celebrity guest at a fundraiser.

The 20-year-old was the guest of honor at a Bonneville county Republican party event, in Idaho Falls, Idaho, on 15 April, where an AR-15 style rifle signed by Rittenhouse was auctioned off as part of a fundraiser and people could buy tickets to “Trigger time”: a Rittenhouse-hosted shooting event at a gun range.

The event, amid a prolonged spate of mass shootings – many conducted with AR-15s – suggests a further embrace by Republicans of the most extreme elements of the gun lobby in the US, despite polls showing a majority of Americans, across party-affiliation, supporting some gun control laws……

“For a GOP [group] to not only host and organize a fundraiser with him, and a shooting range event, call that event trigger time, I think really is the very epitome of glorifying political violence.”…….

Rittenhouse’s appearance comes as the GOP and rightwing media have increasingly embraced rhetoric previously confined to fringe extremist groups, Piggott said, sparking fear and potentially increasing violence.

“The rhetoric that I’ve seen from elected officials, from media personalities, especially when it talks about things like urban crime is practically indistinguishable from what I’m seeing from white nationalists talking about the same subject,” he said.

“We’re at a point now where elected officials and media personalities are almost doing the work for white nationalists, especially when talking about crime.”…….

This is what lawmakers have to deal with in trying to pass sensible gun safety measures. This is an overtly threatening letter about red flag laws:

Those of us who are not gun fetishists are supposed to "keep our powder dry" on the subject, but it must be said: The Second Amendment is as antique as a muzzle-loaded long gun, and should be treated as a historical artifact.

We're not supposed to even whisper such things because the NRA and right-wing extremists have sensible Americans — including many gun owners — so bullied and cowed that we feel we are only allowed to hope for sensible gun-safety legislation around the edges of their highly profitable assault on American lives.

We've said it before, but it is always worth repeating for the millions of younger people coming to voting age each year who may not have considered it before: It doesn't take a grammarian or a constitutional scholar to tell you that the opening clause of the Second Amendment is obviously conditional:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

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Meaning, so long as a militia of citizens is necessary (and a well-regulated one, at that), then what follows is true. But only if that first part pertains.

It no longer pertains and hasn't since the modern National Guard was formally established in 1916. We've got the Army, Navy, Marines, Coast Guard, Air Force and even that Space Force thing, as well as the National Guard, with members who swear an oath to both their state and their federal governments. (I note that dual allegiance for all the anti-federalists still lurking out there, seething about some "tyranny" of the federal government, while at the state and local levels you busy yourself with taking away voting rights, reproductive rights, public schools and public libraries.)

The six branches of the armed forces, including the National Guard. No other militia need apply. It's covered.

If you want to help protect the interests of your state and your nation, assist citizens during emergencies, understand tactical maneuvers and carry a gun (and learn how to operate it), you can sign up here or here. Join the Coast Guard. Or you can become a police officer. It turns out we need better ones. Your service will be deeply appreciated, if only by lip service from the right-wingers who drone on and on about how much they love the military and the cops.

So, the need for a well-regulated militia, crucial to the early history of the country, is no longer in play. We need to rewrite the amendment, dispensing with the oddball capitalization and punctuation, to fit the times:

The right of the people to serve in the armed services or the National Guard, or to serve as law enforcement officers if duly qualified, shall not be infringed.

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I dropped the prefatory clause, since everyone ignores it anyway. And that word "militia" has gotten especially confusing of late. Now the thing is up to date.

But don't take my word for it. After the Parkland, Florida, school shootings of 2018, former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens wrote an op-ed in the New York Times describing the Second Amendment as "a relic of the 18th century" and arguing it should be repealed. Former Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger, a conservative appointed by Richard Nixon, said in 1991 that the NRA's reading of the Second Amendment was "a fraud" and said that if he were writing the Bill of Rights today he'd flat-out dump it...............

Washington’s Governor Jay Inslee signed a trio of bills meant to prevent gun violence on Tuesday – one banning the sale of certain semi-automatic rifles, one imposing a 10-day waiting period on firearms purchases, and one clearing the way for lawsuits against gun makers or sellers in certain cases.

A crowd of gun-control activists and Democratic lawmakers broke into cheers as he signed the measures, which he said would not solve all gun violence but would save lives.

“Just because they don’t solve all the problems does not mean the state of Washington does not take action,” Inslee said. “Inaction against gun violence is unacceptable.”…….