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| -Land of the Free |
| The Second Amendment must go |
| 2015-07-27 |
| This is what you get when you type 'alt-F5' on a computer at Salon... There was another mass shooting in America last night – this time in my home state of Louisiana. John Houser, a drifter from Alabama, walked into a crowded theatre in Lafayette, Louisiana, and unloaded 13 rounds. We don’t yet know why this theatre and this man, but we know this: two innocent people are dead because they were shot in the dark by a stranger. A sickness has swept over our country: angry men with guns are discharging their nihilism on our children, our neighbors, our churches, and our communities. And we won’t do a damn thing about it. We know this because what happened in Lafayette last night has already happened in Chattanooga, in Charleston, in Aurora, in Washington D.C., in Connecticut, in Texas, in Virginia, and on and on and on. Nothing changes. Some bodies are filled with holes, politicians and the media descend, the news cycle passes, and we carry on. Our streets are studded with guns and no one is willing to do anything about it. We’re told in the aftermath of these events that politics is in bad taste; that we ought simply to offer prayers to the victims. Such was the reaction of our absentee governor, Bobby Jindal, who reminded us that “Now is the time for prayer, now is the time for healing. As far as the political spectrum, this isn’t the time.” Now is precisely the time for action – as it always is when mass shootings occur. You guys are worse than grave robbers. Digging up the dead for your personal pleasure. People don’t need prayers, governor; they need to live without fear of being shot. They need sane gun laws. But we can’t have an honest conversation about guns because the NRA and cowards like Jindal (who opposes restrictions on gun purchases and whose state leads the nation in gun deaths) won’t let us. As Bob Mann noted in the Times-Picayune this morning, after the massacre in Charleston, Jindal attacked Obama for suggesting that a national discussion about guns is needed: “I think it was completely shameful,” Jindal said, “Within 24 hours we’ve got the president trying to score cheap political points.” There’s nothing “cheap” about addressing gun laws after nine people were gunned down in a church. The same is true in the wake of the Lafayette shooting. But reflexive posturing of this kind occurs every time something like this happens. Look in the mirror for an example of "reflexive posturing", Sean. Sean fails to mention that the NRA endorsed the tightening of gun laws last fall that was s'posed to prevent the shooter from getting a gun. The shooter did it anyway. He also fails to mention the many thousands of gun laws that very few people willingly obey, nor does he mention that pesky "consent of the governed" admonition with respect to legislation, including gun legislation. More gun laws are an abject marker of a failing republic to rein it its own worst excesses, including the steady diminishing of civil and personal liberties attendant with "sane gun laws". The Second Amendment fanatics will surely remind us that guns are quintessentially American. That’s true, of course: the Second Amendment exists. But that’s not the end of the conversation. That something is written in the constitution doesn’t mean it’s sacrosanct. The document, after all, enshrined slavery and denied full personhood to black people. You knew that was coming... At any rate, contrary to the disastrous Supreme Court ruling in 2008, the Second Amendment protects militias, not the individual’s right to carry a pistol in a supermarket or a theatre. So we should just disobey the Supreme Court unless it's enshrining a right like abortion or same-sex marriage... It wasn’t until the NRA bought the Republican Party (Jindal included) and began pushing for a reinterpretation of the amendment that it came to mean something other than it does. Liberals such as Sean use the former plight of black folks like a gay man uses a condom in a glory hole. I respect the rights of hunters to hunt ...another trope by which he dismisses us... and the need for self-defense is very real, but we’ve got to be honest about the costs of allowing so many guns on the street. How about letting minorities defend themselves? How about letting a woman defend herself? The NRA says the “only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” and that’s not as stupid as some suggest, but perhaps more laws and fewer guns is even better. Because if we have more laws then criminals will put down their guns. Happens everywhere it's been tried... And the people who say we can’t get rid of guns are lying or ignorant or both. In Australia, a country governed by adults, radical new gun laws were imposed after a mass shooting, which included a mandatory buy-back program. The laws, by any measure, were a tremendous success. It’s possible to do something about guns, in other words – difficult, but possible. In case you haven't noticed, America isn't, nor will it ever be Australia. Mandatory anything by any government, federal state or local is a gross violation of civil liberties. A good example is Obamacare. Another are the series of federal gun control acts starting in 1933, each successively adding more and more gun laws, which, as I have pointed out, only points to the fact that this former republic will not continue on until civil liberties are gone, starting with guns. The fervor with which Americans defend guns feels pathological at this point. So if you disagree with the writer you're sick. I suppose that's better than being insane or evil... In what other developed country are people so obsessed with guns? In what other developed country do you need a pistol in your pocket to feel safe? South Africa? What is it about America that we can’t get on without being awash with guns? There’s this notion that somehow freedom will be extinguished if we can’t get our hands on a gun. Do the idiots in the Michigan Militia really believe they’re going to beat back the U.S. military should it decide to invade Detroit? This is the stuff of deranged fantasies, believed by culturally isolated Guns & Ammo readers. I would be willing to bet that a massive percentage of Guns & Ammo readers are willing for others -- not them -- to part with their guns. They are Sean's ideological allies in that they are willing to sell their souls, as well as the souls of their children for just an addition measure of security, courtesy of that state, and that includes guns. And as to the "pathological fervor" for guns? Not for nothing this nation is called the arsenal of democracy. And for the Michigan Militia engaging trained US troops, which you would gladly send against your own citizens? You're right. They probably can't win in a standup fight, but they can sure as hell gun down every political fascist who sent them. You can bank on that. Google "Hundred Heads Insurance" for a hint of what could happen. Much will be said of the Lafayette shooter’s background in the coming days. It’s already been reported, for instance, that he was a member of the Tea Party. I’ll leave it to others to speculate about that. Whatever the ideology of the shooter turns out to be, the fact remains: There will always be terrible people willing to do terrible things in defense of terrible ideas. Why not make it more difficult for them to access a gun? Why not do everything possible to reduce the number of guns on the street? Explain how you get the gang-bangers, drug dealers and general low-lifes to surrender their weapons without turning our country into a police state. If you can come up with something I'd listen politely... How many people have to die before we decide blind allegiance to a misinterpreted amendment isn’t worth the cost? |
| Posted by:badanov |
| #15 I've read a number of times that shooters were on some kind of meds. Perhaps we should be looking closer at that sort of thing when they do gun checks. I've also read in a number of places that shooters are looking for a bit of fame on the cable news when they decide to suicide by shooting spree. Perhaps the cable news could do us all a favor and tone down some of the coverage. Add the words worthless-piece-of-crap to the coverage as well and suggest that pissing on the corpse of a mass-shooter should be enshrined in law. That sort of thing. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2015-07-27 15:03 |
| #14 ed, that comes AFTER they repeal the 2A |
| Posted by: Hellfish 2015-07-27 13:33 |
| #13 "Get your paws off me, you dammed dirty ape"? |
| Posted by: Rob Crawford 2015-07-27 12:26 |
| #12 What Charlton Heston said. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2015-07-27 11:28 |
| #11 Yep. Keep the First Amendment going and keep letting idiots out themselves. When shit goes hot I know who to go after even when they say they never had anything to do with it. You have their own confessions forever. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2015-07-27 10:19 |
| #10 Remember regular joe's dictim: While not all gun grabbers are Fascists, all Fascists are gun grabbers. |
| Posted by: regular joe 2015-07-27 10:07 |
| #9 Just be thankful when the time comes. The commies have made the lists all by themselves, you didn't have to make one of them. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2015-07-27 09:11 |
| #8 So, when do we discuss getting rid of the First Amendment? (Just askin'...) |
| Posted by: ed in texas 2015-07-27 08:11 |
| #7 Salon, Sale con, Mais Sean, Méchant. |
| Posted by: Shuting Gurly-Brown7975 2015-07-27 05:14 |
| #6 Let the enemy rant on. Quite revealing actually. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2015-07-27 05:01 |
| #5 Sean Illing Abominated killing But pulling his gun Was barrels of fun. |
| Posted by: Shuting Gurly-Brown7975 2015-07-27 04:59 |
| #4 Never mind the bollocks. |
| Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 2015-07-27 04:45 |
| #3 Making yourself harmless will not keep you from being harmed. |
| Posted by: BrerRabbit 2015-07-27 02:19 |
| #2 Damn, you are pieces of sh!t, Salon"" |
| Posted by: newc 2015-07-27 01:54 |
| #1 Then I officially write this Republic off as DEAD. Swing open the borders, import Islamic Jihadis from the 8th century in the middle of two wars you lost while nationalizing the Police to make them not respond? No Inspectors Generals, no accountability, arming up POS un-elected Bureaucrats to collar opposition? Why don't you look at yourselves in the mirror, and imagine yourselves fucking yourselves in front of that mirror. FOAD |
| Posted by: newc 2015-07-27 01:52 |