Series: Guns

Not toolong ago the Teabagger crazy in the Tennessee Legislature decided it would be a good idea to roll back restrictions on where a person shouldn’t carry guns. So Rep. Curry Todd decided it would be a good idea to introduce a law allowing handgun carry permit holders to bring guns into bars. Because, you know, guns and drunks are always a successful combination…if you desire is to clean up the gene pool. Unfortunately, Rep. Todd forgot about another law in Tennessee making it illegal to be in possession of a fireman when intoxicated.

Some time has lapsed from the horror that was the Newtown shooting, and now there have been even more gun deaths, and five people were shot accidentally on “Gun Appreciation Day,” hastily thrown together by the gun nuts. Now I grew up hunting with my Grandfather and other friends. I know my away around guns, and believe they are something that responsible should have for sporting purposes, but extremists have gone entirely too far with the rhetoric, and their arguments that every person should have totally unfettered access to any kind of gun. So I want to put my own spin in the discussion and dissemble the arguments that I keep hearing circulated.

There’s much I can say about the massacre in Orlando, and will write more about that after some reflection, but this one topic was too clear and obvious to require any reflection. It is time to end the NRA claim about how a “good-guy-with-a-gun” will rush in and save the day, if only there’s one around. This NRA meme needs to come off the table. It doesn’t work. If more guns and less gun control make us safer, this America should be the safest place on earth, and we all know it ain’t.

We supposedly have a representative form of government, carrying out the will of the people. Nearly 90% of Americans are in favor of increased background checks and prohibiting terrorists from buying guns. But I guess 90% isn’t representative enough for Republicans. This being the result of votes on 4 gun control measures in the U.S. Senate last night.

I’ve previously written about the debunking of the “Good Guy with a Gun” idea that ammosexuals are constantly advancing. In this article, I’d like to write about the other idea they lean on for their justification, the violent overthrow of the federal government. I hear this often accompanying the Facebook memes about gun control. There’s this idea that bubbles around with these folks that if they just have enough people with enough guns they can “take back our government.”

Today, I was contemplating the story of the shooting at the Congressional Baseball practice session (and later in the day after another workplace shooting at a UPS facility in San Francisco), and something occurred to me about our priorities. Reports from the scene of the Congressional Baseball practice say something like 50 shots were fired, meaning the gunman had a relatively high capacity magazine in what has been described as an AR-15 semi-automatic weapon.

I want to address a specific argument I keep hearing in gun debates by those opposing any sensible gun regulation. There are many and frankly most are nonsensical, but maybe two of the ones that make the least sense and I hear most often are about how we just need to enforce the laws already on the books, and any additional regulations will just “harm” “law-abiding gun owners.”

One of the most common arguments I have seen thrown around to do nothing about gun violence is “Well cars kill people too, let’s ban cars.” I suppose one can dismiss this argument out-of-hand for its stupidity, but I want to play along with them. I’m not sure they understand what they’re doing when they compare guns with cars. I’d actually very much like to treat guns and gun-safety much as we do with cars.

The big news yesterday was yet another possible school shooting. This time a 17-year-old brought a Glock handgun to Great Mills High school in Maryland. Fortunately, he only wounded two people. The ammosexuals have been fetishizing the incident because supposedly a “good guy with a gun” stopped a shooting. Except, that is not what happened.

And here’s one of the latest anti-gun control arguments I was presented with today. Apparently, my opinion on the steps I thought might help reduce the gun carnage in America doesn’t count unless I’m willing to certify that I am against abortion. Are those people fucking serious? I mean did the guy who tried that not have a clue about how easy that would be to stand on its head?