Gun Control Common Sense
Comments (0) So I have a friend that was asking when I would get around to posting about the Colorado shooting. I don’t think there’s much to say about the actual shooting itself. The shooter will either spend the rest of his life in jail, or be facing the death penalty. But the amazing thing has been the news stories coming out. Especially those that are saying “Now is not the time to be having a discussion about Gun Control”. I guess after 9/11 wasn’t a time to talk about Terrorism then? I mean when is a better time to talk about it?
That this is Colorado again (following Columbine) also sort of amazes me. After Columbine the one big thing that the Colorado Legislature did was censure Howard Stern. I don’t even think they closed the loopholes that allowed the guns to be purchased (via a 3rd party without a background check) at a gun show. I mean you think the natural response would be to find ways to tighten gun control. But no, censoring Howard Stern was at the top of their list.
Some people are shocked that someone could buy an assault weapon and then anonymously buy thousands of rounds online. Really I don’t find it surprising at all. The worst part is that there probably will never be a push to try and limit the ability for people to almost anonymously buy thousands of rounds online. There should be a system or a red alert somewhere that this person was buying a shitton of ammo for no apparent reason. But hey, that’s capitalism today, profits > sanity.
The fact of the matter is that the only reason Gun Control is an issue is because the gun lobby is so huge. Somehow it’s nearly impossible to convince people that maybe it isn’t such a good thing. I even saw a dumb comment saying that if someone in the shooting had a gun they could have taken the shooter down. Yes, a dark movie theater filled with smoke is the perfect time for wanna be vigilantes to start shooting. The gun industry makes a lot of money, and the NRA’s lobbying is insane.
I never understood why for example Vito Fossella took campaign contributions from the NRA and gun rights advocates. Gun Control is a non-issue on Staten Island and in NYC in general. People wouldn’t really care one way or another. Then again Fossella took money from everyone, including the cigarette lobby and it never hurt him. But as someone else has said, it’s gotten to the point that you can’t yell fire in a theater, but you have the right to bring weapons into a theater. Because words are a lot more dangerous then guns.
When the constitution was written, the average gun could maybe fire 3 shots within a minute or so. They could hardly imagine a future in which hundreds of bullets could be fired off in less then 30 minutes. The reality is that they didn’t expect the United States to have a regular standing army (something we didn’t really have for decades). They expected the militia/minuteman system to continue to be used. The failures of the War of 1812 showed how Militia couldn’t be counted on. There were also worries that one day the British Empire or another world power might try conquering the colonies. Worries that no longer exist.
Most of the time when you have a gun or gun in your house, in the long run the person that’s going to get hurt is someone you know. But if your just defending your house, or even hunting, what do you need an assault rifle for? The Assault Rifle ban should really be put back in place. It’s not a defensive weapon at all in this day and age, and I’m willing to bet that since the repel of the assault weapons ban more of them have been used in crimes then in “Self Protection”.
It’s too bad that no one is willing to make a stand, because they might actually anger the NRA. The NRA itself is an amazing dinosaur, hopefully it will die off in a few years. That’s always the hope though, that the next generation will get it, because this generation seemingly doesn’t
