I've had a really hard time this past weekend, trying to get between friends who sit on opposite sides of the political aisle and stopping them from exercising what seem to be deep-seated pet bigotries, intolerances, and hard feelings... over what may or may not have been the motives of the AZ gunman. Attempts to get them talking *to* one another and not *at* one another were wholly unsuccessful. Another acquaintance quipped, "It's got pretty bad, Matt, when things are so bad *you're* the one urging moderation and being level-headed." I'm not sure if it was backhanded compliment, a full-on insult, or something else. Of course, many of the people I know believe my politics are crazy, "out there" or that at the very least I'm quite misguided
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Don't thank me entirely. There is a strong swipe at the ordinary conservative interpretation of the Second Amendment in there. But the attempt to get the Tea Party in general and Sarah Palin in particular just made me sick, making use of dead people including one dead little girl, before the bodies were cold. And that bloody sheriff in Tucson ought to resign on the spot.
This. There is so much more at play here than political slogans I'm sickened the blame is being laid fully the rhetoric of Palin and the Tea Party
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From the founding of the country to 1950 there were 16 assassinations of politicians. From 1950 to present there were 16 assassinations of politicians - i.e., assassinations are far more frequent in the last 60 years than in any other era. Meanwhile, gun ownership (self-reported) has been dropping, at least since 1973. So there is no correlation between rates of gun ownership and frequency of assassination.
(Disclaimer: This doesn't account for unsuccessful assassination attempts or assassinations of non-politicians. Adding in those numbers may alter things.)
But the weapons available today are infinitely more precise and deadly than those available in 1860, when Wilkes Booth had to come within touching distance of Lincoln to be sure of him. The reason why we now have Texas Tower snipers is that sniper rifles are available. It does not happen only in America (check out events in Germany and Finland in the last few years) but it happens far more frequently there than anywhere else, and if you think that has nothing to do with the enormously widespread gun ownership in your country, you must be a man of robust faith, to say the least.
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From the founding of the country to 1950 there were 16 assassinations of politicians. From 1950 to present there were 16 assassinations of politicians - i.e., assassinations are far more frequent in the last 60 years than in any other era. Meanwhile, gun ownership (self-reported) has been dropping, at least since 1973. So there is no correlation between rates of gun ownership and frequency of assassination.
(Disclaimer: This doesn't account for unsuccessful assassination attempts or assassinations of non-politicians. Adding in those numbers may alter things.)
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