Liberal Gun Laws

(6 minute read)

June 8, 2022

There is NO constitutional right to kill or endanger other people.

More Guns = More Death

            There isn’t anything new to say about the horrific mass slaughter of innocents in Uvalde or the 35 mass shooting events that have happened since then.[1] Just as in other mass shootings, a “…well regulated Militia” member went into a school and slaughtered innocents.[2] I wrote about gun regulation in 2018 and the only thing that has changed is that we’ve had hundreds, yes hundreds, more mass casualty shootings[3].

            We are a nation awash in guns[4] thanks to the Republican Party of old and the new Trump Republican Party. They never met a gun they didn’t like. Guns are their friends. They stand up for their assault weapons. For decades they have fought sensible gun regulation legislation at every turn.

It’s what they do.

Tipping point

            For all the talk from the Republican Party of Trump about the Dems coming for people’s guns the Trump GOP has passed more less-restrictive liberal gun laws with each passing year. We have more liberal gun laws than anywhere except for lawless war zones. Despite the vast number of guns already in individual hand, the Republican answer to the future slaughter of children that will surely happen continues to be that we need more guns, hardened schools, more body armor, armed teachers, etc. It’s always their answer, their solution. More slaughter. More guns. More slaughter. More guns.

Their circle is unbroken.

They’re coming!

            The Trump GOP seeks to create the very tyrannical government that they say we need to be protected from. They show up at state capitols armed with military-style long guns. They walk the streets with them. They threaten local governing bodies with guns. They are the ones threatening the Civil War that they are arming for. They are the ones threatening to cede from the Union. They have militias that Trump called on for help, to liberate states. They are the Trump GOP supporters that stormed our Capitol in a coup attempt like some third world banana republic to overturn the vote of the people. The Evangelical Christofascists are the ones talking about executing gays.

            Brown colored immigrants are portrayed as invaders, rapists, murderers, disease ridden scum by Trumpers. More guns will stop them. The overwhelming majority of militant anti-government extremist hate groups in this country are white people.[5] It’s small wonder that the Party of Trump doesn’t want history taught. CRT is dangerous to them and needs to be banned! Racist white Christian Nationalists will save the nation!

            Who’s going to protect us from them if they’re in charge?

They don’t believe in democracy.

No guts, no glory

            Speaking of the Trump GOP being in charge.

            As it turns out there are major exceptions to being able to constitutionally carry guns everywhere. When former President Trump addressed the mighty NRA everyone had to be disarmed because evidently the Secret Service didn’t get the memo that having more guns makes places safer. With every law-abiding citizen armed and present at an NRA Convention it should have been one of the safest places in the United States of America.

(Side Note:  Did you by any chance watch Trump do that cute little dance after he read off the names of the slaughtered children and finished up his speech?)

            But no, they let the government take their guns away without putting up even token resistance. Good grief! Does the Secret Service really think that the MAGAT Head Evangelical Trump Republican Party at an NRA convention poses a threat to Trump? Besides, if anything bad happened they could have just blamed it on a trans-immigrant POC Antifa socialist Muslim Democrat when everybody opened fire on the person with the gun.

It would have been a win-win for them.

Fortress America

            Just how exactly do they plan to harden all the schools anyway? Since 50 caliber weapons are readily available what caliber will they harden against? Bulletproof glass in all the windows? What about the walls? Bullets go through walls. Concentrate all the kids and staff at one door? Checkpoints to stop and frisk POC for guns? Excellent targets for an AR15 or IED. Fences topped with barbed wire around the schools? What about school sporting events or is that open season? Armed teachers? What if one goes postal? Bullet proof vests with steel inserts for the kiddies? How do you tell who is the bad guy with a gun if everyone has a gun? Just curious. Thanks to the Trump Republicans, Evangelicals and NRA all the gangs that they tell us to be afraid of in this country are now incredibly well armed thanks to them. Are they now part of the well-regulated militia?

            Like the old Republican Party the Trump Republican Party is a party of death, only they are way better at it. Throughout the pandemic they have stacked up a few hundred thousand of needless deaths through their Constitutional right to endanger and kill others. It’s the same Constitutional right that they claim as they continue to take us back to the Wild West days of yore.

They are grooming kids to use guns and kill.

Start somewhere

            It took decades to get us into this mess and it will take decades to get us out. The problem is the incredible proliferation of weapons in this country. The Republican Party has been an exceptional sales agent for gun manufacturers. Evangelicals claim that it’s a lack of God (their God) that’s causing the problem of mass shootings. God isn’t keeping them safe either. It’s why they’re arming with AR15s. How about Evangelicals acting like its treating guns as an idol that’s a problem in America? Perhaps they should try worshiping God not guns. Just a thought (and prayer).

            Ban assault weapons of all types from being sold. Ban certain kinds of ammunition being sold. Require permits, licenses and training to buy a gun. Have a one week cooling off period before a purchased firearm can be picked up. Classify AR15 type weapons in existence as class 3 firearms and ban future sales. Ban open carrying of long guns in public areas. Seriously what kind of people feel the need to do that? Defending the country from a tyrannical government is a big responsibility and needs responsible people.  Do not allow concealed carry without a license and training. Stop voting for gun-nut politician would be an excellent place to start. It’s time to well regulate the militia.

Lives depend on it.

 

 

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[1] https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/charts-and-maps Scroll to the bottom and click on the text “Mass Shootings in 2022.”

[2] Amendment 2 of the Constitution of the United States of America:  “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.”

[3] Gun Violence Archive (GVA) definition:  Mass Shootings are, for the most part an American phenomenon. While they are generally grouped together as one type of incident they are several with the foundation definition being that they have a minimum of four victims shot, either injured or killed, not including any shooter who may also have been killed or injured in the incident.

[4] Guns.com  434 million firearms in civilian possession. AR15s and similar weapons account for 19.8 million of those.

[5] Southern Poverty Law Center Hate Map. https://www.splcenter.org/hate-map

Constitutional Slaughter [GUN CONTROL]

More Guns!

        The NRA has mutated a long way from its 1871 origins to now serving as a surrogate for weapons manufacturers under the guise of protecting a second amendment that was never under attack any more than praying in school has been. They created a threat that didn’t exist and then built a base to support the agenda of militarizing a civilian population to protect us from immigrants, criminals, terrorists, crazy people, gangs, media and last but certainly not least our own government. Without fail whenever guns are in the news negatively their argument is that what is needed is more guns.

        Yes, government is in the above list. Why? Because a fear often expressed in defense of having military weapons in the hands of civilians is that we will lose our Constitutional Second Amendment rights and that our guns will be taken away! Who would do that exactly? Who would come for our weapons? Ah yes, the Government! More specifically our soldiers or federal police. The NRA and pro-police Neo-Republicans champion having arms for us to use against our own soldiers (Government) and police. This is their ultimate fear and their rallying cry. The government, a.k.a. our friends, neighbors, police, fellow citizens and family members that are serving will be coming for our guns. 

Be ready to shoot them when they do.

 

        Up front. I am not going to take up arms so that I can shoot at our own soldiers and police. They aren’t a threat. They aren’t coming for my guns and I choose not to live in the weird paranoid ultra-conservative neo/Nazi/Confederate/White Supremacist world where they are.

 

Save the guns!

        Whenever there is a slaughter of children there follows a national demand for action even though such deaths are a small percentage of gun deaths overall. The NRA immediately hits the streets with propaganda explaining how any laws limiting weapons are wrong and advocating fixing everything BUT weapons. Weapons are innocent bystanders! The arguments are usually kicked off with “they’re after our second amendment rights!” Followed by misdirection and deflection. Our culture of violence is blamed. Video games are blamed. Parents are blamed. Our educational system is blamed. The authorities are blamed. The kids themselves are blamed. Not enforcing the laws we have is blamed. (That last one is truly ridiculous given the NRA has worked on a national scale to eliminate laws pertaining to weapons and advocates getting weapons in the hands of as many people as possible.) They’re a large part of the reason why we have citizens walking the streets with long guns.

        One of the most effective memes that I have seen circulated had a phrase that truly encapsulates the entire argument. “Let us take a moment to honor the sacrifice of our brave schoolchildren who lay down their lives to protect our right to bear arms.” There is NO constitutional right to slaughter and/or endanger our fellow citizens. The Constitution provides for the rule of law. Regulating fire arms is a part of that law.

Body Count

        I’m not going to waste a lot of time here with statistics. Here’s what I believe is most relevant to the ongoing problem of how do we dig ourselves out of the mess that we’ve created. Between 1984 and 1994 there were 19 incidents involving 6 or more people dying resulting in 155 deaths. Military style weapons were banned from 1994 until 2004. During this time there were 12 incidents resulting in 89 deaths. In 2004 the assault weapons ban was allowed to expire. Between 2004 and 2014 there were 34 incidents resulting in 302 deaths.

        Now in the scheme of things the above number of deaths isn’t really that big a number when separated out from all the other gun deaths. Mass shootings grab our attention though and make us acutely aware of the problem that we as a nation face—the proliferation of arms. So the NRA makes dead children an irrelevant statistic in the grand scheme of how many people die annually. Well, they aren’t irrelevant. They shouldn’t be marginalized because enough of them aren’t dying yet. 

 

Hardened America

        When we have actual firefights taking place in the streets, movie theaters, night clubs, schools and churches, the NRA will have succeeded in attaining their goal of market saturation. Some might say that we’re there already. Not quite. In a firefight all sides will be throwing lead. Then when maximum carnage is taking place the NRA can declare a victory and will be the quintessential arms dealer lobbyist for having supplied all the combatants.

        Our Republic as envisioned by the NRA and Neo-Republicans will be an armed camp with a militarized civilian population, militarized police force, militarized educational system, militarized government with hardened schools, theaters and just really anyplace that provides for a concentration of people. We’ll be going through metal detectors everywhere. Those that can afford it will live in hardened homes or protected enclaves; armed guards everywhere. Corporations and the ultra-rich will be like warlords and have mini armies protecting them. What a beautiful paranoid world they envision for us to live in.

 

Gun's rights

        OR we could as a nation begin taking things in another direction and start electing people who aren’t opposed to passing legislation to commence de-militarizing the nation. It’s going to take decades to build a peaceful society but it can be done and is worth pursuing.

        We need to stop passing legislation to protect the rights of guns as if they are somehow innocent bystander victims in all of this and put people first. There’s nothing wrong with regulating inanimate objects. Realistically it’s going to take years of concentrated efforts in multiple areas to turn things around. In the meantime we’ll wait for the next body count to make the news.

 

Hunting people

        We need to elect people that believe fully automatic weapons in general aren’t necessary to our civilian population. Military styled weapons need to go. High capacity magazines need to go. Open carry needs to go. Permitted conceal carry that requires training should be encouraged. People may want AR15s to hunt but they really don’t need AR15s to hunt. If people are afraid of their government then elect people to office that aren’t fanatics. The above are just a few suggestions and not in the least nor meant to be comprehensive. As a nation we need to stop electing dithering politicians and elect those that will be serious about arms control and willing to do something.

        I think that it’s only appropriate to finish this with words from a survivor of a school shooting. The link below is to an essay from Emma González in Teen Vogue. Her closing words in a video presentation at the same link. “Why are we doing this? 

Because it’s about damn time someone did.”

 

 https://www.teenvogue.com/story/emma-gonzalez-parkland-gun-control-cover