The FAST Approaching Gun Ban

[buttslinger]

Machines guns aren't completely banned. They are heavily regulated.

You're absolutely right. Shut my mouth.

[irvin66]

I live in a country where the police are unarmed. Do I feel safer? You can bet your life on it.

Yuuup me too! But I do not know if I feel safer for that reason?
but there is one thing I do not understand, what should a private person have machine guns for? common semi-automatic rifle manages more than enough one would think.....

[fivekatz]

The US is a strange place to figure out. You can go to a typical Red State and find the following:

Against any form of Gun Control

Pro Life

Against Government spending on social services

...and those states get more money from the Federal government than they pay in.


Strange contradictions.

[Ben]

[Ben]

[trish]

Two more reasons to do something about firearms in this country.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/11/justic...ing/index.html

[robertlouis]

Two more reasons to do something about firearms in this country.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/11/justic...ing/index.html

Hmmm. "Not an act of terrorism" Any other way to define a nutter who goes into a courthouse and shoots people at random? FFS.

You have terrorism on your streets, every day in every town, and until some kind of sanity prevails and gun ownership is more tightly controlled, it's a war you can never win.

[Ben]

Hmmm. "Not an act of terrorism" Any other way to define a nutter who goes into a courthouse and shoots people at random? FFS.

You have terrorism on your streets, every day in every town, and until some kind of sanity prevails and gun ownership is more tightly controlled, it's a war you can never win.

The gun culture, in part, is based on a lot of men [it's mostly men] being terrified of their government.
And, too, racism. As both Chris Hedges and Michael Moore pointed out: it's white people [again, mostly males] being terrified of blacks....
Now, you can agree or disagree with both Hedges and Moore.
Again, I'm not opposed to people owning guns. I don't see the problem with someone owning a shotgun and hunting.
Or even, say, target shooting.
I'm not a gun owner. Never have been.... I don't feel I need it for protection. That's what the police are for....

[robertlouis]

The gun culture, in part, is based on a lot of men [it's mostly men] being terrified of their government.
And, too, racism. As both Chris Hedges and Michael Moore pointed out: it's white people [again, mostly males] being terrified of blacks....
Now, you can agree or disagree with both Hedges and Moore.
Again, I'm not opposed to people owning guns. I don't see the problem with someone owning a shotgun and hunting.
Or even, say, target shooting.
I'm not a gun owner. Never have been.... I don't feel I need it for protection. That's what the police are for....

Men terrified of their government??? Delusional paranoid morons.

And as the point has often been made here, even some idiot with a massive personal arsenal could do nothing against the might of the entire US army. Too many survivalist handbooks and dumb movies. Sheesh.

[fivekatz]

Men terrified of their government??? Delusional paranoid morons.

And as the point has often been made here, even some idiot with a massive personal arsenal could do nothing against the might of the entire US army. Too many survivalist handbooks and dumb movies. Sheesh.

The very foundation of the United States is that its citizens were skeptics of government, opposed to paying taxes for the common good and deeply believed that "all men" meant white, land holding men.

The line of reason that citizens must be armed against the government is insane, but it is one that is used to sell Joe Six Pack on why major gun producers should continue to do business without regulation.

For those that don't live day-to-day in the US we might be quite a puzzle. Working class Americans without insurance are sold on the idea that Obamacare is an attack on their freedom, though that attack is their freedom to be denied insurance if they become unemployed and have pre-existing conditions. That unions are an attack on their freedom, though the attack would be their right to collectively negotiate with powerful business owners for better working conditions.

Guns have become one of the great wedge issues is US politics. In 1970's the GOP discovered that the majority of Americans were homophobic, scared of socialism, against abortion, equal rights for women and did not want the government to tell them they can't own guns even if they did not own them.

The wedge issues haven't changed since 1970 but the demographics have. Lot's of the folks polled in the 70's have died and a new generation does not give a shit if about sexual preference, has grown up with a working mom and thinks she should be paid like a man, believe that government should make people's lives better and aren't quite as scared that the government is coming to take all the guns away.

But there is an almost irrational belief among many in this my country that the right to own arms is the 11th commandment. It makes what should be an easy problem to tackle one that will take up great political capital and time. And that just makes people like the Koch Brothers and Karl Rove happy as hell, because it reduces the shelf space left to work on corporate excess, climate change and other issues which are equal dangers to the republic. Because for all the disciples of Ayn Rand don't get it, the Republic won't last long with great income and justice inequity as it exists today.