The Colorado State Open Thread is for those who have an interest in all things Colorado, be they animal, vegetable, mineral or some combination of the three. I guess you could also include an interest in the four traditional elements — Earth, Wind, Fire and Air. Or in their music. Anyway, please take guesses as to where the festival in the picture was, as well as being willing to contribute your own pictures, thoughts, questions you’d like to have answered or anything else that might be on your minds.
The question on the top of my mind came from some reader of a Los Angeles newspaper and it was posed to someone on their editorial board who then posted it to their opinion page tweets. I have no idea who the original person was; I can’t even remember the paper. The question is:
Why doesn’t President Biden call a summit at Camp David to bring together the gun dealers / manufacturers / NRA / various parents and victims groups of gun violence / Congressional representatives and have them work out some sort of agreements that can bring about a decrease to gun violence?
I realize this is a big ask, but we lose 45,000 people every year to gun violence — there is nothing being done to resolve this with all the different groups that are using the media to talk past each other and speak to their own base members. It is a very difficult, if not impossible task, but if something could be agreed upon, think about how much better off the country could be. If the various groups are invited and they decline to come, then they can be hammered in the press for being unwilling to even try to get an agreement and the ones who do show up can claim that their solution is the only broadly supported solution.
To not even try is to guarantee failure, and so far, President Biden says the only way to gain a solution is through Congress, so he’s ceding all the power to the Senators, essentially, and that boils down to the obstructionist Manchin and possibly Sinema. The House would likely go along with anything the White House proposes — they’ve already passed HR8, and if something were presented that has the backing of the White House, and makes any progress whatsoever, I think the House would go along, even if it were to mean a small step and right back to try for more legislation once this first small step was made.
The Senate, with the filibuster and Mitch McConnell being against anything the White House and Democrats are for, is quite a hill to climb, especially with Manchin refusing to even carve out an exception for this issue. If a compromise bill had the support of this working group / summit, then it would give enough Republicans and even Manchin cover to get it passed. I can’t imagine anything being supported (or at least not being fought) by the NRA not being passed. Any proposals could be hashed out at Camp David before becoming public, especially if all participants were to agree that “Anything that happens at Camp David stays at Camp David.” I realize that may be asking a lot from these professional poseurs, especially politicians and the NRA, but having Congress work within themselves isn’t getting it done.
I’m not a dreamer, either. I know the various interest groups have a great deal at stake and not only are there many opposing viewpoints, many have staked their entire existence on opposite sides of this issue. However, even I can see some places where compromises might be made. If there’s give and take, with a focus from the President, Congress and national media that are all now trying to come up with SOME sort of solution, maybe, just maybe, there might be some solutions. OK, OK, I know I’m a dreamer. But I’m not the only one.
We have a state with an unfortunate number of the country’s worst mass shootings, including Columbine, Aurora movie theater, King Soopers in Boulder as well as several that were fortunately smaller in scope. We could all benefit from safer streets, businesses, schools, parks and parties.
On a different note, the photo from last week’s Open Thread,
Should be a little clearer here:
I look forward to reading your thoughts about why my proposal sucks, or perhaps you have ways to improve it. I will forward this diary to President Biden, Congressman Neguse and the two Senators. Anyone else who might like to forward it to their congress critter is welcome — even someone like Ms. Boebert might find some idea to like. In the meantime, the floor is yours for any thoughts on this or any other topic you might like to discuss.