As usual, liberals are snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
We are wasting an opportunity, and handing the conservatives more base-energizing (and expanding) ammunition in one incompetent stumble, cheering all the while.
Most of us aren't getting the terms of this discussion wrong, we're getting the problem itself wrong.
Further restricting firearms ownership when the problem is actually the social darwinism at all levels of society that leaves people to become so broken and desperate that they give in to their sick urge to take lives, does nothing.
The only two things that could actually significantly reduce firearms deaths - ending the Drug War and implementing single payer healthcare with on demand mental health and addiction services - seem mostly neglected in these discussions.
Anyone that actually cares about reducing violence of all types, and gun violence in particular, should be focusing on the CAUSES, not the SYMPTOM.
We should be flogging how the ACA would improve these services, not fapping about restricting the rights of the law abiding. We should be pushing to expand it to further improve these services.
We should be having the discussion about ending the drug war that creates the black market that creates and feeds the cartels and their satellite gangs and distribution networks. The flawed laws that cage casual users with hardened criminals in prisons that are more run by gangs than wardens or guards. Ie, the cause of most violence, particularly firearms violence.
Momentum is on our side, it's up to us how to use it, how we frame the issue.
But here we are, discussing the symptom instead of addressing the actual problem.
It's as if two sides of a partisan donation machine - the NRA and the equally malevolent Brady anti-gun lobby - are cynically manipulating their respective demographics for profit. Have no doubts, each requires the other to stampede their respective constituencies in the desired direction.
Focusing on anything beyond closing the gunshow loophole and improving mental health reporting will do absolutely nothing to curb violence.
An assault weapons ban or attempts to restrict magazine size will *cause* violence in the form of right wing terrorism, as demonstrated throughout the 90s.
An all out ban will cause even liberals like myself to think twice about the reasons behind the open insurrection that would result, and the countless lives it would cost.
Assuming you could actually get any of these passed, common sense or not.
A complete waste of political capital.
Most of us aren't getting the terms of this discussion wrong, we're getting the problem itself wrong.
Further restricting firearms ownership when the problem is actually the social darwinism at all levels of society that leaves people to become so broken and desperate that they give in to their sick urge to take lives, does nothing.
The only two things that could actually significantly reduce firearms deaths - ending the Drug War and implementing single payer healthcare with on demand mental health and addiction services - seem mostly neglected in these discussions.
Anyone that actually cares about reducing violence of all types, and gun violence in particular, should be focusing on the CAUSES, not the SYMPTOM.
We should be flogging how the ACA would improve these services, not fapping about restricting the rights of the law abiding. We should be pushing to expand it to further improve these services.
We should be having the discussion about ending the drug war that creates the black market that creates and feeds the cartels and their satellite gangs and distribution networks. The flawed laws that cage casual users with hardened criminals in prisons that are more run by gangs than wardens or guards. Ie, the cause of most violence, particularly firearms violence.
Momentum is on our side, it's up to us how to use it, how we frame the issue.
But here we are, discussing the symptom instead of addressing the actual problem.
It's as if two sides of a partisan donation machine - the NRA and the equally malevolent Brady anti-gun lobby - are cynically manipulating their respective demographics for profit. Have no doubts, each requires the other to stampede their respective constituencies in the desired direction.
Focusing on anything beyond closing the gunshow loophole and improving mental health reporting will do absolutely nothing to curb violence.
An assault weapons ban or attempts to restrict magazine size will *cause* violence in the form of right wing terrorism, as demonstrated throughout the 90s.
An all out ban will cause even liberals like myself to think twice about the reasons behind the open insurrection that would result, and the countless lives it would cost.
Assuming you could actually get any of these passed, common sense or not.
A complete waste of political capital.