With all due respect and empathy for the victims and families of this latest gun created tragedy......
Since a preponderance of the people seem to think our easy access to automatic weapons with high capacity magazines designed only to kill and maim as many people as possible as quickly as possible is somehow "our right" as Amuricans, I'm writing this standardized post in response and will post it again every time this happens until we actually come to our senses, say ENOUGH, and create a sane gun policy in this country.
This will not be the last time some mentally unstable individual legally obtains ordinance designed for military use and shoots up an innocent crowd of people. And the reasons we should stop this from happening and how to do so are obvious.
Here are some of the arguments we read and hear every day. Nothing new here. Just felt like it couldn't be said too much as we once again watch the discourse ignore the obvious.
1. Argument: If we outlaw guns, only criminals will have guns.
Response: We as a nation will never outlaw guns, and IMHO, this is just yet another straw man set up to deflect from the real issue. We do need to re-ban assault weapons with high capacity magazines. Yes, there is still a black market and bad people will use it. That doesn't mean We, as a People, need to support those weapons with force of law. It means bad people who have those weapons can be pulled from the streets simply for owning those weapons (since they only have One Use). And, since all of the massacres of the last few years involved legally obtained weapons by people with clean criminal records, why are we even talking about this?
In any case, finding and using a black market requires real street smarts and lots of CASH. Because black markets rip people off, kill people, cost ten times more than the corner gun shop, and they don't take credit cards! Mentally unstable people only attack large groups of people with assault weapons because they can easily and legally obtain assault weapons at a corner gun shop or a gun show (no background check even necessary!) and PAY FOR THEM WITH CREDIT CARDS. Requiring a potential executioner to use either a black market or slower guns/knives/butt plugs makes them less likely to act and easier to stop if they do. It's the difference between a tragic murder and a MASSACRE like we just witnessed. Again.
2. Argument: Our unlimited gun ownership rights are the only thing standing between us and a tyrannical government/corporate takeover.
Response: Isn't it funny how, in spite of us being armed to the teeth, our government (really, the plutocracy) doesn't really give a rat fart about what we think and has no compunction about pepper spraying and shooting ANYONE who disagrees and has the cajones to say something about it in public? Unlike socialist gun control paradise FRANCE where the government routinely wets its pants at the thought of its gun controlled populace, who routinely take to the streets by the millions to protest any attempt by the plutocracy to steal what they've worked for.
And you know this is true: If the government (really, the plutocracy) wanted to take away your guns, it'd just do it. And shoot you with bigger and more guns if you resisted. Hell, they could just blow you up with a drone controlled from Tampa. Ask the folks from Ruby Ridge if you have any doubts about this one. In short, cold dead hands, meet pry bar. But it ain't happening.
The fact is, what passes for "discourse" in this country is so polluted by unadulterated bull crap from the right wing extremist entertainment complex, large swaths of the population believe all kinds of nonsense that is patently and demonstrably UNTRUE. For example, Obama is demonstrably NOT Muslim or Kenyan....and he also doesn't want to take away your guns. No one does.
I can't make this point strongly enough: First, the military/prison/debt complex is firmly in control; you only have the "right" to unlimited firepower because the NRA is really mostly a front for a thriving firearms industry that can't operate anywhere else in the world; if these asshats wanted to declare marshal law, they'd just do it (it's bad for business, so they're doing it incrementally); and every free country in the world has very tightly controlled gun laws.
And let's face it. Outside of Occupy, we don't leave the comfort of our computers to march in the streets against injustice in sufficient numbers to give them pause. And the government (really, the plutocracy) knows that and counts on it in every calculation. A little pepper spray with your humble pie?
3. Argument: Guns don't kill people. People kill people.
Response: Try shooting 26 people dead with a six shooter before someone takes it away from you. Or a bunch of knives. It's the difference between a murder and a massacre. It severely limits the number of people one can kill/maim before someone steps in and stops it. Because this is America and someone(s) WILL step in and stop that sh!t. But they can't if someone shoots them with a machine gun.
4. Argument: It's enshrined in the Constitution.
Response: So we're supposed to ignore the phrase, "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state...." The framers envisioned a nation with no standing army and a citizen militia that rises up to defend the nation against foreign invaders. With muskets and cannons. Personally, I'd trade our military industrial complex for citizen militias, but I don't think that's gonna happen.
The framers did not envision automatic weapons with high capacity magazines. Or the Gatling Gun. Or hand grenades and nuclear bombs. Three of these items are restricted by law to military use and it's not controversial. Your right to massacre your fellow citizens is not written into this document. We have to draw the line somewhere. The ability to commit mass murder is where we've generally drawn it and the courts (even the conservative ones) have agreed this is an accurate reading of the 2nd Amendment.
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So here are some "simple" solutions (not so simple because the discussion isn't even heading this way):
1. Reinstate the assault weapons ban and include ANY rifle like the ones used in all these attacks and all high capacity magazines. I mean how hard should this be after how many attacks by legally purchased assault rifles with high capacity magazines? The test: Can I commit mass murder with this weapon without reloading? If yes, it's banned.
2. Strengthen the 72 hour waiting period to purchase firearms. Have a good fair appeals process. Include gun shows and private sales. And fund the freakin agency responsible.
3. End the Drug War and put the funding into busting up the black market in assault weapons created by these laws. Put people in jail who belong there and give the prison industrial complex something to do. (I know. They won't go for this because it's easier to arrest and jail peaceful potheads than folks with automatic weapons. But it's worth suggesting).
4. Require gun manufacturers to carry insurance on every weapon and bullet sold. Call it the Chris Rock Bullet Control Act of 2012. The insurance policy would drive up the price of firearms and compensate victims. Because guess who's paying for this latest attack. I can tell you it ain't the gun manufacturer who profited from this atrocity. (Hint: it's the same people who paid for the bank bailouts). I don't see why I need insurance on my car while you can spray bullets all over the place with no financial responsibility in the event that you have no assets to sue or seize.
I mean, look what driving up the price of cigarettes to the $5-10 range has done to the number of smokers. (I quit when my Basics hit $2/pack, lol). It just covers the actual costs to society, in monetary terms at least.
But I know what will happen. Nothing. I'll be posting this again soon because we are captive to a phony debate sponsored by our own low expectations and the armament industry, an unofficial and very profitable arm of the Military Industrial Complex. And close partner with the Corporate Media, Inc.
OK, time for more uncontrollable sobbing while I try to figure out where to send my little girl (4) to school next year here in the soon-to-be teabagged state of North Carolina. Where everything ALEC that just happened in MI is about to happen here, including allowing concealed weapons in schools. Nice. Guess I'll need to tuck a snub nose in her coat. Because concealed carry for kindergartners is probably right around the corner here.