Just because it isn't broadcast currently, as it is a political third rail, doesn't mean outright bans aren't on gun control advocates list. You had Senator Feinstein advocate it 20 years ago if theyd just had the votes. You'll hear higher ups in the groups against guns talk about it, though not advocate it publicly as official stances, and there are plenty of eft leaning commentators who aren't afraid to state it. The only real difference in my comparison is that Anti Abortion supporters are more up front because they aren't punished at the polls the same way anti gunners are. They still both use incrementalism as a main tactic in their end game.
But it's a whole lot more than just mass shootings. This article does a nice job of summing up some facts in graphical form.
I don't have time to comment, but wanted to share a rare article that seems fairly even handed: Gun Rhetoric vs. Gun Facts
I'm 14 time zones away and not up to speed on MSM news. Is this the narrative that is being framed? Last time it was Johnny Reb's fault, so we outlawed the stars and bars. This time it is young men. How are we going to outlaw young men? Mandatory medication for young men, infringement of entire subsection of the populations constitutional rights, mandatory supervision? Don't get me wrong, I don't know the answer to the problem but look at some of the correlations out there: -Crime is down overall, way down. -Incarceration is up, way up. We have the highest percent of population incarcerated in the developed world. They enter a system most never fully make it out of after a felony arrest. -A high percentage of violence is perpetrated by young men who come from broken homes. Homes broken up by an incarcerated parent? -Drug activity is highest in low income areas, inherently higher rates of violent crime are associated with high drug activity areas. Drug use, violence and poverty all lead to broken homes. -Mental illness has been discussed in depth as well, I'm sure you could find many ways to link that in here as well. There is the lack of treatment and the stigmatization of it. -This could go on and on I guess the point I am making is that gun restrictions aren't going to solve this problem. I don't think enacting new laws is going to solve this problem. To me, this looks like a confluence of several different public policy issues we have as a nation that have created this cycle and need to be addressed.
Because no other country breeds a sense of entitlement the way the US does. People are raised with nobody reinforcing any values other than gimme gimme. The lack of any values being instilled includes the disregard for how precious a human life is. Imo
The guy that wrote the great anti-recycling article in the NYT in 1996, Recycling is Garbage, is out with another one. Read it and understand that most recycling in the US is counterproductive and stupid. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/04/opinion/sunday/the-reign-of-recycling.html?_r=0
Here's one of the Catch 22's of the whole situation: People screamed for tougher drug laws, and they got them. People screamed for tougher gun laws, they got them. Use a gun, go to prison. Period. Tougher laws don't make crime go down, they just make punishment more harsh. And with that, I have a proposal that flies in the face of my last statement and unfortunately, targets people that are already a victim of a crime. I heard a horrifying number on the news the other day. 1700. That's the number of guns that have been reported stolen in Las Vegas so far this year. 1700 guns now in the hands of criminals. That's bad. Gun owners need to be a bit more responsible with their guns. Obviously locking them in your car is not responsible. Even locking the door to your house is not enough. Locks keep honest people honest, that's about it. So...what to do about it? How about if your gun wasn't in a gun safe that's bolted to the floor and your gun is used in a crime, you could be prosecuted to a degree for the crime? I realize this puts a bit of inconvenience on gun owners who keep a gun in their nightstand for protection because they now have to take it out of the nightstand and lock it in the safe every time they leave the house. Quite honestly, it sucks that it's come to thinking up ideas like this. But 1700 stolen guns in 9 months shows many gun owners don't fully acknowledge the responsibility that comes with owning a firearm. This idea wouldn't have stopped last weeks school shooting and it would take quite a while to actually start to show up in other shootings, but it would be a start. Gun buy backs don't work. All the other silly laws haven't worked. How about we actually require gun owners to be a little bit more responsible and acknowledge the fact that many of their guns are ending up part of the problem by their carelessness? And full disclosure: Yes I've had my own guns stolen. Before I left Mississippi I took them over to my aunt's house so I didn't leave them in my house unsecured. My aunt passed away. I immediately got a hold of a friend who was a LEO and asked her to secure and hold them for me. She then lost her damned mind and her job. And pawned my guns. In my defense, I did do what I could to make sure my guns were secured beyond just locking my doors and hoping for the best.
How much are those safes going to cost the owner, Toytoy? What happens if the owner doesn't have the money? Will his gun (property) be seized? Yeah, because if there's one thing that mass murderers respect, it's the law. Trakiel, I was locked up with shitloads of guys who were back in prison for gun charges. They knew the law, and they willfully ignored it. EDIT: Also, did any of those mass murderers have previous criminal convictions for anything?
What if it saves someone's life? How much is that worth? I don't make enough money to afford the insurance on a Ferrari. Does that mean if I get a sudden windfall that allows me to purchase one, should I be allowed to buy one and drive it irresponsibly without insurance? You know, because I can't afford insurance. With ownership comes responsibility.
If you own guns, it's your responsibility to keep them secured. Period. And I fully agree with ToyToy... if you are careless about your guns, and they get stolen and then used in a crime, you should get punished harshly for it. As long as you take reasonable precautions, then that's fine. You don't need a fancy gun safe to do that.
That's what I'm getting at, but apparently just locking your doors when you leave your house or car isn't enough. Criminals know where folks hide their guns. That creates a problem and sadly it requires the gun owner to be more diligent because the world is filled with assholes. It's not fair in any way, shape, or form. The bolted down gun safe is the first thing that came to mind, so that's what I suggested. I don't know, maybe build hidden gun holders in your house? Hollowed out books? I think that would probably be more reasonable response other then requiring an expensive gun safe. Like you said, reasonable precautions, beyond locking the door. In Tennessee a couple days ago an 11 year old boy killed an 8 year old girl with his father's shotgun. The 11 year old had a history of bullying the little girl and grabbed his father's gun and shot her in the chest.With a fucking .12 gauge. As far as I'm concerned, the father is just as culpable in the murder by leaving the gun available to his son. http://www.newsweek.com/11-year-old-faces-murder-charge-after-shooting-8-year-old-380159 Secure your damn guns. EDIT: That article didn't mention the bullying. http://wkrn.com/2015/10/04/8-year-o...enn-shooting-police-arrest-11-yr-old-suspect/
SJW's caused a guy in Atlanta to lose his job after he posted a picture of himself and an African-American boy. He wasn't fired for the picture, he was fired because of the comments his FRIENDS posted about the picture. Cute. http://www.fox5vegas.com/story/30195436/social-media-post-lands-metro-atlanta-man-in-hot-water
Multiple people lost their jobs over that, actually. Their employers were tracked down, alerted by an anonymous person as to their involvement, and they were terminated. It's chicken shit both by the companies involved and by the people getting those involved fired. It's sickening to think that you can lose your livelihood just because someone else doesn't find your joke funny. The same people acting all offended over that FB post would crack up if it came from Louis CK. If you don't find something funny on the internet, just move on. You don't have to take action. Just shut the fuck up. And just because it offends you, doesn't mean it isn't funny as hell to someone else. This is why we can't have nice things.
If you read the posts, he contributed offensive remarks as well. He wasn't fired for the picture and others people's comments, he was fired for his own posts.
Supposedly this is the full post: I don't see where he said anything. Some people are saying he called the kid "Feral." How the hell that's racist, I have no idea. And of course, Twitter users are bashing the hell out of him: https://twitter.com/hashtag/GerodRoth?src=hash
It was his coworker's kid. The whole exchange was tacky. His comment wasn't as bad as some other others, but he was part of the piling on process. If that had happened to me, I would have immediately deleted the pic and reassessed the people I consider friends. One article says that he was fired for something unrelated before the kid's mother informed their boss, who knows if that is true.
That's what this article says: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nat...ng-racist-pic-co-worker-son-article-1.2386530
I wonder if he'd be fired if he hadn't made the feral comment. People are freaking out over him taking a picture of the kid, but I can't help but think that's overkill related to everything else. I once posted a picture to Instagram of an African-American toddler on the bus with me one morning who had pulled his hat over his eyes and passed out in his stroller. It was hilarious and representative of my feelings on a Monday. Thankfully I don't associate with a bunch of racist jackasses so there were no slavery-fueled comments, but based on half the logic here, I was a disgusting human being for taking a picture of someone else's child.
It's generally not a good idea to post other people's kids without permission, because you don't know what their philosophy is re social media. But setting that aside, apparently the kid was around the workplace a lot and so the selfie in and of itself is not alarming. It was a cute kid.