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Fifth Column
Kaul: Nation needs a new agenda on guns
2012-12-31
The thing missing from the debate so far is anger -- anger that we live in a society where something like the Sandy Hook Elementary massacre can happen and our main concern is not offending the NRA's sensibilities.

That's obscene. Here, then, is my "madder-than-hell-and-I'm-not-going-to-take-it-anymore" program for ending gun violence in America:
  • Repeal the Second Amendment, the part about guns anyway. It's badly written, confusing and more trouble than it's worth. It offers an absolute right to gun ownership, but it puts it in the context of the need for a "well-regulated militia." We don't make our militia bring their own guns to battles. And surely the Founders couldn't have envisioned weapons like those used in the Newtown shooting when they guaranteed gun rights. Owning a gun should be a privilege, not a right.
    The men at Breed's Hill and at Valley Forge, the ones who fought against the Redcoats, were militiamen. The brought their own guns. There's nothing at all badly written in the second amendment. The Founders were thinking in terms of what happens if government starts imposing Stamp Acts or something.
  • Declare the NRA a terrorist organization and make membership illegal. Hey! We did it to the Communist Party, and the NRA has led to the deaths of more of us than American Commies ever did. (I would also raze the organization's headquarters, clear the rubble and salt the earth, but that's optional.) Make ownership of unlicensed assault rifles a felony. If some people refused to give up their guns, that "prying the guns from their cold, dead hands" thing works for me.
    We never did declare the CPUSA a terrorist organization. As a matter of fact, it wasn't and isn't illegal to join the CPUSA. Both they and the NRA is a good example of the first amendment right to peacefully assemble and associate. But those of a dictatorial preference will be in favor of repealing the first amendment, too.
  • Then I would tie Mitch McConnell and John Boehner, our esteemed Republican leaders, to the back of a Chevy pickup truck and drag them around a parking lot until they saw the light on gun control.
    The writer documents himself as being a vicious brute who shouldn't be allowed close to any position of power or even influence. He should seek therapy. And the fifth amendment guarantees against anyone being tied to the back of a Chevy pickup truck and dragged, or in fact any other cruel and unusual punishment. But the writer probably wants to repeal that, too, it being so badly written and such.
And if that didn't work, I'd adopt radical measures. None of that is going to happen, of course. But I'll bet gun sales will rise.
The writer's bitch is about the Sandy Hook school shootings. He's in favor of banning guns despite the empirical evidence that shows that crime rates go down in concealed carry states.

That massacre of babies was a horror. I still don't like to contemplate it and when I saw those little faces on the cover of a magazine I almost bawled. Despite the fact that that guy killed himself I consider it to be a strong argument in favor of the death penalty.

Even more, I'd call it a strong argument in favor of public mental health institutions -- what we used to call "crazy houses" back in the heady days of my youth. Those were emptied in response to another really neat liberal idea, that of "mainstreaming." I don't think they permanently institutionalize anyone but the catatonic and the guy who shot President Reagan, and every once in a while they talk about letting him out. Instead we have crazy old ladies walking the streets shouting at invisible beings, lots and lots of homeless people, and potential baby killers living their self-centered lives among us, just waiting.
Posted by:Beavis

#4  No, gun sales rise because of rhetoric this this, Kaul. This article of badly written, and Kaul's lack of understanding on the 2nd is a symptom of a lack of education, especially in History. Also there were some pretty nasty weapons around back in the day, and men hardened to the realities of life, without the option of picking up nicely pressed and packaged candied tofu from the Des Moines alternative grocery store.

If a heeler would get rid of the 2nd, getting rid of the 1st is easy and then you could start banning NRA, and Bingo Night (competes with the lotto doncyaknow), not the right kind of Unions, VA centers, you know whatever it is peeving you at the moment Kaul.

I guess after you get everyone disarmed and, just going to take a wild guess that you personally will not be able to apprehend either member you mentioned, mob tie them to a truck and drag them, you will miss the point that loose mobs and people will find a way to harm others they do not like, and will fail to denounce yourself and file papers to ban trucks.

We could as an exercise use the same language is different for the 3rd. Sure it says soldiers, but does that not also include other federal agents? It should, should it not Kaul? Perhaps next time the olde river floods and a cadre of federal agents and employees decend upon Iowa will they be billeted in private homes? Any children at home Kaus? Any interest in hosting a FEMA Youth fresh out of boot who has nothing but contempt for his post, for midwesterners, for people who do not think the Fed is the supreme. One agent per bedroom, you get the couch, make sure that frige is full, hope they don't notice the heirloom trinketbox. Or your green legislation error or dangerous weapons. Or your daughter.
Posted by: swksvolFF   2012-12-31 16:57  

#3  Kaul is a scary individual with what he advocates. He cares little for freedoms or for law.
Posted by: JohnQC   2012-12-31 16:53  

#2  For those who haven't seen the Demand a Plan pushback.
Posted by: KBK   2012-12-31 16:53  

#1  I posted a few retorts to the various commenters there via Facebook. I won't bore you with reproducing them, they are the sorts of things you've heard from me before.
Posted by: Steve White   2012-12-31 14:50  

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