Those suggestions on the NFA sound great. Let’s do that.
Also, let a few of the families of these latest school shooting victims sue the manufacturer of the gun that was used. Their children are dead because this weapon functioned exactly as it was intended, to kill as many people as possible as quickly as possible. Maybe they’ll start a trend. Anyway, it’s at least something. I hate this doomloop of “it’ll never change, may as well get used to it”.
Nothing like seeing the awful character of our fellow Americans when something like this happens. Like Frank Lee.. " only " 13 mass school shootings" , I shouldn't have to elaborate on that or the rest of his " rant".
I don't understand how we " the greatest, most amazing and exceptional nation EVER and with that shining city on a hill" can't do anything. Nope nothing to see, can't be stopped. Except...Australia, New Zealand, The UK and Norway seemed to have..also most of our Allies too.
The comments on most forums from these Americans tell me we have lost our way and possibly without a return ticket. The callousness is telling.
The one thing always at these horrors is the guns, always the guns...so maybe the problem is ..The Guns!!
"The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun", except when they stand outside for 40 minutes or more. Didn't the armed school resource officer stay safely outside in Florida too? Yep, those good guys with guns sure stopped all that murder.
Here is a weird take. I am a mostly retired big law firm partner. These days, I take contract cases from the local public defender as penance for the last 4 decades that I spent making the world safe for the rich.
Today, I dropped a client off near his home in what can fairly be described as a midwestern city ghetto. There, I saw a late model, black on black, 21st century drug-dealer mobile with a HUGE bumper sticker that read FIGHT FOR THE SECOND AMENDMENT.
Guns prevent crime?
Not where my clients live, I am certain. And nowhere else, I suspect.
Hi Bulwark community. Thanks for creating such an informative discussion, everyday. I have a question--Can someone please weigh in on where the police unions come down on the sale of weapons/armor that put their police force at risk of being outgunned? I've not seen much reporting on this, but maybe haven't been looking in the right place.
That is fine if you are into meaningless symbolic political wins and not really solving the problems.
The White House used to be open... any citizen could walk in and request audience with the President. Today all government buildings are locked down like Fort Knox. Most private office buildings have the same. You cannot get on an aircraft without running the gauntlet of security. Fancy Nancy put up razor wire and called in the military because she was Nervous Nancy about some bearded blue-collar worker protests.
We have recognized that there are risks worth the cost of security for the adults in these places, but we just ignore the same for our children. I am pissed at Republicans for failing to take the lead on this. I am pissed at Democrats for ambitiously milking the tragedies to implement their matriarchal Karen prohibitions on our Second Amendment rights. Take the damn $40 billion that they are going to give to the corrupt regime of Ukraine and instead use it to outfit every school with building security and an armed guard at each door. We might not like it, but it is our reality... a reality we have already conceded with all the other security measures.
Democrats are fools for their open border, defund the police and their radical Soros funded DAs because the public sees that with Democrats in charge they cannot count on the government to keep them safe. So no gun bans will be accepted. Democrats have shot themselves in the foot with hypocritical positions and the voters just don't trust them.
Today we have a significant mental health issue with kids... and again, this is mostly because of Democrat actions to keep schools closed without of any science to justify it. I am done with the teachers unions. It is clearly an evil organization that needs to be irradiated for what they did to these kids.
Another point that is being buried in the mainstream press is the connection to cannabis. Both the Buffalo and the Texas shooter were significant pot heads. 50% of the diagnosis of psychosis and schizophrenia today have a cannabis connection. But the Democrats use their media connections to bury that fact and to push this anti-gun agenda destroys the conversation about these real root causes. We have a mental health problem not a gun problem. Guns don't walk around and shoot themselves.
If Sandy Hook didn’t move the needle I’m sorry to say that this will not either. 2012 was before Qanon and utterly hateful party divisions. It was no picnic but things are even worse now. Most republicans and a few democrats won’t do anything on guns in an election year, just for starters. After an election year they will tell themselves another story to soothe their consciences. As someone said below, voters are responsible for demanding gun legislation. In the end, we get the politicians we deserve.
What would be the response by the current "Silent Majority of the Republican Party" concerning the proliferation of open-carry and permit-less gun ownership if all of a sudden there was:
~ a reemergence of the "Black Panther Party" walking in urban America in military garb like they did in the 1960s, [Gov. Reagan supported a law from a Repub legislature in 1967 that required much stricter gun access once the Blacks had guns]
~ an equally open-carry by an Hispanic equivalent, let's call it in ReTrumplican't terms "The Sombrero Posse,"
~ a Chinese 21st century version of "Yihequan" (Righteous and Harmonious Fists), the "Boxers" made famous in the movie "55 Days to Peking."
~ an armed Japanese-American "Yakuza" (mafia-like organized crime syndicate).
Add any non-white ethnic group carry copious amounts of guns without state licensing, may have the MAGA-Trump tribe reconsider the current policy
While the White Supremacists would say "bring it on mongrel hoard", that ReTrumplican't Silent Majority would be staining their skivvies, ready to deal with the hated unAmerican, anti-Christian, Communist "Democrat" Party Libs to have some semblance of modified gun control.
Why not have a 200% (or 2,000% for that matter) tax on the ammunition and clips for assault rifles and any similar non-hunting weapons?
There is no wording in Article Two of the Constitution protecting the right to purchase and own ammunition.
I am old enough to have witnessed many changes in our country and this "sacrifice of children and innocent people" will not stop considering the mad-dog adherence to protecting Article Two.
so if Border Patrol really couldn't break through the locked classroom door - that is good in most cases (when the shooter isn't in the room). But did it really take them that long to find a key? I think the timeline is still pretty much not well defined yet.
As someone who avoided right-wing commentary - in print or on TV/radio - until the never Trump movement, I am curious Charlie. Could you share with us what kind of concerns you were expressing on your radio show in the days following the Sandy Hook massacre? This is not me knowing the answer and playing "gotcha" - this is me not knowing and being honestly curious. I am glad to have found common ground with many on the center-right in the (hopefully) post-Trump era, but I find it helpful to know stances some people I now agree with once held. (I am sure in my more leftward days, I held views or said things that you would find abhorrent, then and/or now.) Thanks
Those suggestions on the NFA sound great. Let’s do that.
Also, let a few of the families of these latest school shooting victims sue the manufacturer of the gun that was used. Their children are dead because this weapon functioned exactly as it was intended, to kill as many people as possible as quickly as possible. Maybe they’ll start a trend. Anyway, it’s at least something. I hate this doomloop of “it’ll never change, may as well get used to it”.
Nothing like seeing the awful character of our fellow Americans when something like this happens. Like Frank Lee.. " only " 13 mass school shootings" , I shouldn't have to elaborate on that or the rest of his " rant".
I don't understand how we " the greatest, most amazing and exceptional nation EVER and with that shining city on a hill" can't do anything. Nope nothing to see, can't be stopped. Except...Australia, New Zealand, The UK and Norway seemed to have..also most of our Allies too.
The comments on most forums from these Americans tell me we have lost our way and possibly without a return ticket. The callousness is telling.
The one thing always at these horrors is the guns, always the guns...so maybe the problem is ..The Guns!!
"The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun", except when they stand outside for 40 minutes or more. Didn't the armed school resource officer stay safely outside in Florida too? Yep, those good guys with guns sure stopped all that murder.
There have been only 13 mass school shootings over the last 56 years. Obviously we want it to be zero, but let's maintain some rational perspective.
Here is a weird take. I am a mostly retired big law firm partner. These days, I take contract cases from the local public defender as penance for the last 4 decades that I spent making the world safe for the rich.
Today, I dropped a client off near his home in what can fairly be described as a midwestern city ghetto. There, I saw a late model, black on black, 21st century drug-dealer mobile with a HUGE bumper sticker that read FIGHT FOR THE SECOND AMENDMENT.
Guns prevent crime?
Not where my clients live, I am certain. And nowhere else, I suspect.
Hi Bulwark community. Thanks for creating such an informative discussion, everyday. I have a question--Can someone please weigh in on where the police unions come down on the sale of weapons/armor that put their police force at risk of being outgunned? I've not seen much reporting on this, but maybe haven't been looking in the right place.
Can you please make: Is the gun debate hopeless? A separate link.
It has a lot of really good info that I want to share.
Thank you for considering this request.
Lj
"Something can be done about guns."
That is fine if you are into meaningless symbolic political wins and not really solving the problems.
The White House used to be open... any citizen could walk in and request audience with the President. Today all government buildings are locked down like Fort Knox. Most private office buildings have the same. You cannot get on an aircraft without running the gauntlet of security. Fancy Nancy put up razor wire and called in the military because she was Nervous Nancy about some bearded blue-collar worker protests.
We have recognized that there are risks worth the cost of security for the adults in these places, but we just ignore the same for our children. I am pissed at Republicans for failing to take the lead on this. I am pissed at Democrats for ambitiously milking the tragedies to implement their matriarchal Karen prohibitions on our Second Amendment rights. Take the damn $40 billion that they are going to give to the corrupt regime of Ukraine and instead use it to outfit every school with building security and an armed guard at each door. We might not like it, but it is our reality... a reality we have already conceded with all the other security measures.
Democrats are fools for their open border, defund the police and their radical Soros funded DAs because the public sees that with Democrats in charge they cannot count on the government to keep them safe. So no gun bans will be accepted. Democrats have shot themselves in the foot with hypocritical positions and the voters just don't trust them.
Today we have a significant mental health issue with kids... and again, this is mostly because of Democrat actions to keep schools closed without of any science to justify it. I am done with the teachers unions. It is clearly an evil organization that needs to be irradiated for what they did to these kids.
Another point that is being buried in the mainstream press is the connection to cannabis. Both the Buffalo and the Texas shooter were significant pot heads. 50% of the diagnosis of psychosis and schizophrenia today have a cannabis connection. But the Democrats use their media connections to bury that fact and to push this anti-gun agenda destroys the conversation about these real root causes. We have a mental health problem not a gun problem. Guns don't walk around and shoot themselves.
If Sandy Hook didn’t move the needle I’m sorry to say that this will not either. 2012 was before Qanon and utterly hateful party divisions. It was no picnic but things are even worse now. Most republicans and a few democrats won’t do anything on guns in an election year, just for starters. After an election year they will tell themselves another story to soothe their consciences. As someone said below, voters are responsible for demanding gun legislation. In the end, we get the politicians we deserve.
Isn't Trumpism without Trump simply Assholism?
"The future of the Republican party will not be... It is far more likely to be Trumpism without Trump."
The future is a no-brainer. The GQP will be fascist.
Come to think of it, it already is. Trumpism ticks off most items characteristic of gutter totalitarianism.
Possible road to gun control:
What would be the response by the current "Silent Majority of the Republican Party" concerning the proliferation of open-carry and permit-less gun ownership if all of a sudden there was:
~ a reemergence of the "Black Panther Party" walking in urban America in military garb like they did in the 1960s, [Gov. Reagan supported a law from a Repub legislature in 1967 that required much stricter gun access once the Blacks had guns]
~ an equally open-carry by an Hispanic equivalent, let's call it in ReTrumplican't terms "The Sombrero Posse,"
~ a Chinese 21st century version of "Yihequan" (Righteous and Harmonious Fists), the "Boxers" made famous in the movie "55 Days to Peking."
~ an armed Japanese-American "Yakuza" (mafia-like organized crime syndicate).
Add any non-white ethnic group carry copious amounts of guns without state licensing, may have the MAGA-Trump tribe reconsider the current policy
While the White Supremacists would say "bring it on mongrel hoard", that ReTrumplican't Silent Majority would be staining their skivvies, ready to deal with the hated unAmerican, anti-Christian, Communist "Democrat" Party Libs to have some semblance of modified gun control.
Charlie,
Per one of Nick Kristof's points:
Why not have a 200% (or 2,000% for that matter) tax on the ammunition and clips for assault rifles and any similar non-hunting weapons?
There is no wording in Article Two of the Constitution protecting the right to purchase and own ammunition.
I am old enough to have witnessed many changes in our country and this "sacrifice of children and innocent people" will not stop considering the mad-dog adherence to protecting Article Two.
so if Border Patrol really couldn't break through the locked classroom door - that is good in most cases (when the shooter isn't in the room). But did it really take them that long to find a key? I think the timeline is still pretty much not well defined yet.
Also why was the Border Patrol there?
good list.
"And, even here, there are gun control laws that would make a difference.
Red flag laws
Raising age for gun purchases
Banning high capacity magazines
Banning bump stocks
Universal background checks"
As someone who avoided right-wing commentary - in print or on TV/radio - until the never Trump movement, I am curious Charlie. Could you share with us what kind of concerns you were expressing on your radio show in the days following the Sandy Hook massacre? This is not me knowing the answer and playing "gotcha" - this is me not knowing and being honestly curious. I am glad to have found common ground with many on the center-right in the (hopefully) post-Trump era, but I find it helpful to know stances some people I now agree with once held. (I am sure in my more leftward days, I held views or said things that you would find abhorrent, then and/or now.) Thanks