Commercials Continued
A thought occurred to me when I heard the third version of the Greg Abbott attack ads against Beto O’Rourke. It seems he is too extreme on gun control. They played what was obviously an abrupt cut of him saying he would confiscate everyone’s AR-15. Then, they went on to talk about how he has an F rating according to the NRA in terms of his voting record.
I could say a lot of things here and did when I was in the car by myself. A few of those things are words that shouldn’t be said around young children or anyone of a delicate nature. I could also say a few choice things about the NRA and have before. If I ever run for office they will be data mined and I’ll have to explain them off somehow. That’s kind of the point. This is the world we live in now.
If I translate my inner thoughts in the most delicate way possible, I’d say I couldn’t care less what the NRA thinks of me or my stances on gun control. I’m not looking for NRA approval after all. I’d rather be a good human being and promote policies that support life and public safety. If they would like to abrupt cut that and infer that I am saying they are not for supporting life or public safety they can go ahead. Hell, I’ll even underline and bold it for them.
As much as I or anyone else would like to call them domestic terrorists or people that sponsor domestic terrorists it wouldn’t be responsible for me to do that. After all, most people don’t make complex distinctions between sane and responsible gun owners and those that are insane and unreasonable.
The point is that when we advocate something we have to consider the feasibility of it getting approved and whether it would actually work. There are any number of ways of taking guns off the streets that don’t involve going door to door and taking it from their cold, dead hands. The unfortunate reality is that if you used the door to door method you would likely invite that outcome more than a few times.
Few things in this world make me more angry than gun violence. When I hear the stories of dead children, scared children, or frightened multitudes in any public place it makes me want to scream at every Republican politician and anyone with an A grade with the NRA. I’d like to say they can take their A grade and thousands in PAC contributions and shove it up their backside.
As Democrats, liberals, progressives, leftists, or caring moderates we must agree on one thing and only one thing. We want to make the world a better and safer place. I think all of us can agree on that. We may not agree on how to completely do that or what lengths we need to go to so that can happen. We need to focus on what we do agree on and move from there. In terms of gun control, we agree on background checks, waiting periods, and the ban of certain weapons. We agree that other weapons shouldn’t be legally owned or wielded by teenagers.
We need to enact these laws on things we do agree on and put our heads together on the rest. Confiscation is way too controversial and likely too dangerous to enact. Let’s think of other ways to regulate behavior without punishing responsible gun owners. We are smart people, so we can make this happen.
We keep being held hostage by the minority. Only 1/3 of the country owns guns, some own many guns. But there are 2/3 of us who don’t. Also I saw a Recents survey that said that 80% of the people who did on guns are not opposed to common sense restrictions So that takes it down to 1/6 of a country that is holding us hostage
1Unless you’ve been held up at gunpoint, you can’t truly imagine having your life flash before your eyes – I have and it was the most slowed down fast moment of my life. My view is that EVERY gun owner needs a license, just like a drivers license – take a test on gun laws, prove to an officer you know how to operate a gun, and then every gun you own needs liability insurance with 15% of the illegal shooting payout going to the PD who arrests you. I’m tired of people saying “I’m a responsible gun owner, why should I have to do that?” I am a responsible car owner but I guarantee I could kill someone with a car, and we have enacted laws to try to minimize that – why not he same for guns? I’m through ranting now!
2Lorlee – Your math is off. One fifth of 33% is 6.6%. That’s who squawk about “you will take my gun from my cold dead hands.”
3I want the government to take every one of those semi-automatic/automatic guns off the street and I’m thankful Beto is saying it out loud.
4When I hear that guns make us safer, it makes my blood boil. I’m not going to do a bunch of research but I’m pretty sure the US has the most guns per capita, the most high capacity magazines, the most murders per capita, the most mass murders and probably the most lax gun controls. We ain’t safer. “Responsible” good guy/gal gun owners need to own up to that and not just say they agree with reasonable gun controls but vote that way. They won’t, so here we are.
5“As much as I or anyone else would like to call them domestic terrorists…”
They’ve already adopted that label. See the pictures at CPAC.
680% of gun homicides are committed with guns the original purchaser let go of- sold, gave away, lost, left unsecured, pawned, etc.
If first purchasers were held liable for their weapon’s use for its lifetime, only those who acknowledged that a weapon is not just another appliance would be careful never to let it out of their control. They would destroy it rather than release it (even to a friend who they considered “responsible’). The first time a seventy-year old granny was sent to the hot seat because of the use of a gun she gave to her nephew 40 years ago, the harder people would think twice before they bought a weapon.
People could still buy as many as they wanted, but they would not have any Constitutional right to let go of them. The NRA could change its motto to, “You can have my gun when you unglue it from my cold, dead fingers.” And 11,000+ lives would be spared annually.
The public would have a higher standard by which to hold gun purchasers– ranking them with King Arthur, who never lent Excalibur to anybody else. The gun owners who didn’t meet that standard would be mocked, derided and pitied.
7STEVE @4 —
some basic research. According to the 2018 Small Arms Survey (from Switzerland), “The US ratio of 120.5 firearms per 100 residents, up from 88 per 100 in 2011, far surpasses that of other countries around the world.” And during the pandemic “7.5 million US adults – just under 3% of the population – became first new gun owners between January 2019 and April 2021.” We handily beat Yemen at 52.8 to be #2 on the list.
Even so, we don’t lead in gun homicide per 100,000. see Peter Squires’ article: https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/opinion/2022/06/05/study-shows-countries-fewer-guns-per-capita-have-less-gun-death/7460859001/ Population of 330 million, “only” about 20,000 firearms homicides — puts us substantially behind some neighboring nations: Honduras, El Salvador, & Jamaica. Even adding in the other 25,000 deaths — suicides (where we FAR exceed other nations), “official” actions, accidents, & undetermined, we don’t get to that level.
8Thanks for your time to verify the gun deaths per capita. The big countries we lead in that is also significant. Of notice, many of the countries that have higher gun deaths are places people flee from and become immigrants- legal and not legal. Probably still lead in the other areas I mentioned but that’s not my point. We’re not safer with all those guns and we aren’t a 3rd world country.
9Cgregory,
I think that is a more common sense solution. The idea of the government “taking” all of the automatic and semi-automatic weapons sounds great until you consider the mechanics of what that would look like. I have to buy liability insurance for my car. Why shouldn’t I have to for my gun? The government regulates every single activity and while the constitution doesn’t directly address cars, it does mention interstate and intrastate commerce which is often construed to include travel in the state and between the states. So, if the constitution includes travel and we still regulate travel with traffic laws, insurance, and registration we can easily do this with the second amendment as well.
As a matter of record, I would assume that any actual sale of a firearm could occur in a similar way as a used vehicle. You could require an FBI background check and therefore transfer title (and liability) as long as you can document that the FBI background check was done and produced no red flags. Any sale that took place without said background check would not have a legal title transferred and therefore the responsibility would be the person that still had the title in his or her name.
10The most effective argument I’ve found with rabid gun nuts is “We’ve got to keep guns out of the hands of nut cases.”. Yes, I know that is not the way to refer to folks with mental problems. When (invariably) I’m challenged about what is a nut case, I cite the most extreme cases, stealing a logical fallacy argument from the cons. E.g., the guy who stays at home in his bedroom and only communicates with his mother in the same house via email. And who insists on changing his socks 7 times a day. And has assembled enough ammo and weapons to stock a military fire squad.
If challenged further, I again use the same arguments cons do: “so, you think we should give guns to batshit crazy nut cases?” Since arguments by anecdote seem to be effective on the Republican brain (alleged brain, that is), I’m happy to use them in arguing for sensible policies.
Using solid numbers and data works on people whose minds aren’t closed tighter than a clam. For the rest, I’ve started using the kind of techniques that Fox News uses.
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