Some random thoughts on gun violence/safety/legislation/
Can we get past the Stalin/Hitler/Pol Pot/etc. talk? The country will not be disarmed — this country is not heading in that direction. To me that conversation is just noise.
Can we get past the hammer/chainsaw/baseball bat/etc. talk? Guns are meant to shoot living or inanimate targets, period. They serve no other purpose. People will kill with whatever tool they have if they are determined enough. However, guns kill much faster; they require much less intimate association/contact with the victim. They are a much more effective tool than a hammer, bat, knife, chainsaw, icepick, etc., if a sick soul wants to cause carnage. The “if he had used a baseball bat they would outlaw baseball bats” argument is facetious.
When people died because they were not wearing seatbelts, laws were put in place to ensure seatbelts were required, and lives have been saved. Same for DUI laws (albeit they could still be tougher.) In this country we often don’t act on improving safety on something until someone dies. Then, we scramble to regulate and fix things so that less people die from that defect/oversight, etc.
The NRA (primarily) have been the loudest voice in deflecting any real conversation — let alone any real progress — in addressing rampant gun violence (in cities and in massacres).
If the NRA had not convinced weak-kneed congresspeople to stop funding CDC studies on gun violence or weakened interstate communication on gun/ballistics tracking, who is to say how many innercity (e.g., Chicago, Richmond CA …) youth and gangsters would still be alive. If the government (Dems and Reps) would just enforce gun trafficking laws already on the books, perhaps there would not be as many guns in our cities.
Lastly, the whole “more restrictive gun laws are going to keep guns out of the hands of law-abiding citizens” argument is also specious, in my view. This is fear-mongering rubbish propagated by the NRA and others. I don’t want to deny others the right to purchase guns for hunting, sport or protection. However, where does Joe Public’s right to own a gun and Jane Doe’s right to not be shot by a gun, meet? Who’s rights are more important? There must be a middle-ground. There are just far too many people dying by guns in our country; it is an outrageous number and to deny that fact and to cling to guns as a means of patriotism is myopic and selfish.