A Well Regulated Militia . . .

[ursus arctos]

A Well Regulated Militia . . .

I'm also less optimistic.

It isn't just middle aged or old white guys; there are a lot of young ones, and seemingly more all the time.

Look at the muppets who shot up the Black Lives Matter rally in Minneapolis.

[Amor de Cosmos]

A Well Regulated Militia . . .

At bottom gun ownership — actually acquisition — is about fear. Masculinity, "Otherness," lack of power, and a whole lot of other things — especially The Unknown — just feed into the toxic stew.

Al Quaeda, and ISIL have done a brilliant job of stoking that fear. They don't have to actually kill many people — far fewer than are being slaughtered in Syria right now — to create a hugely disproportionate effect, after that we do the the job for them.

I have the impression that every time one of these incidents happens a sizeable minority of US citizens goes out and buys more guns. Most have already have a few, but they get more. They're mainly a kind of totem, or talisman. The more you have the safer you'll be. It doesn't work like that, of course, but plenty believe it does.

This will not end well. It's potentially more destructive than war — or at least how war use to be. War provides an enemy to rally against. This is internal, a virus, we'll destroy ourselves. Those who want that to happen just need to stir the embers now and then.

[ursus arctos]

A Well Regulated Militia . . .

This is a Nevada Assemblywoman's Christmas Card

[ursus arctos]

A Well Regulated Militia . . .

Then there's this one, from a South Carolina State Representative

[Renart]

A Well Regulated Militia . . .

I'm not sure there really are more all the time, though. I can't find it now, but I did read an article that said that even though gun sales keep going up, the number of gun-owners is either static or shrinking in most places. Most of the people who own guns own lots of guns, and keep buying more.

[ursus arctos]

A Well Regulated Militia . . .

Renart, that's right, and you are right that it provides some modicum of hope for the future



Though the left side of that is seriously terrifying.

[Amor de Cosmos]

A Well Regulated Militia . . .

Renart wrote: I'm not sure there really are more all the time, though. I can't find it now, but I did read an article that said that even though gun sales keep going up, the number of gun-owners is either static or shrinking in most places. Most of the people who own guns own lots of guns, and keep buying more.

That's what I meant, the number of gun owners is sizeable but stable, as you say. However sales are increasing, so clearly the same people are buying more guns. Sorry if that wasn't clear.

That's why I think ownership is totemic. No one could actually use multiple firearms in a defensive situation — unless their house was under siege or something. They'd, at best, be able to pack one or two. The intent is to quell fear, which plainly doesn't work, so they buy another gun to appease the evil spirits.

[Amor de Cosmos]

A Well Regulated Militia . . .

Sure. There have been gun collectors for centuries, but why would there be a sudden increase in their avidity over the past decade?

[ursus arctos]

A Well Regulated Militia . . .

This is all so completely alien to me, but I really hope you are right.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

A Well Regulated Militia . . .

It does paint a slightly disturbing picture of a society where an increasing majority of people want to have nothing to do with guns, but a substantial proportion of the population are buying enough firearms to have a ruby ridge style stand off with the guvmint

[Incandenza]

A Well Regulated Militia . . .

The NY Times has an editorial calling for meaningful gun control, including outlawing high powered automatic weapons, running on tomorrow's front page. It's their first front page editorial since 1920.

http://nyti.ms/1OE51J8

It is a moral outrage and a national disgrace that civilians can legally purchase weapons designed specifically to kill people with brutal speed and efficiency. These are weapons of war, barely modified and deliberately marketed as tools of macho vigilantism and even insurrection. America’s elected leaders offer prayers for gun victims and then, callously and without fear of consequence, reject the most basic restrictions on weapons of mass killing, as they did on Thursday. They distract us with arguments about the word terrorism. Let’s be clear: These spree killings are all, in their own ways, acts of terrorism.

Opponents of gun control are saying, as they do after every killing, that no law can unfailingly forestall a specific criminal. That is true. They are talking, many with sincerity, about the constitutional challenges to effective gun regulation. Those challenges exist. They point out that determined killers obtained weapons illegally in places like France, England and Norway that have strict gun laws. Yes, they did.

But at least those countries are trying. The United States is not. Worse, politicians abet would-be killers by creating gun markets for them, and voters allow those politicians to keep their jobs. It is past time to stop talking about halting the spread of firearms, and instead to reduce their number drastically — eliminating some large categories of weapons and ammunition.

It is not necessary to debate the peculiar wording of the Second Amendment. No right is unlimited and immune from reasonable regulation.

[caja-dglh]

A Well Regulated Militia . . .

Incandenza wrote: The NY Times has an editorial calling for meaningful gun control, including outlawing high powered automatic weapons, running on tomorrow's front page. It's their first front page editorial since 1920.

It is beautifully written as well. As you might expect for the painstaking process that writing it must have taken.

I have a little bit of a tear in my eye that the NYT has used such a rare vehicle of expression to try and tackle this problem. We can only hope it helps.

[Femme Folle]

A Well Regulated Militia . . .

I loved that NY Times piece. I'm sad that it's going to fall mostly on deaf ears.

I almost just waded into a FB argument about how more gun laws won't solve the problem, started by my cousin (who is five minutes from becoming one of those survivalists with an underground bunker). One of his friends said that we should arm 99.9% of the US population.

The only bright spot in the situation is that my cousin appears to have at one friend who isn't batshit crazy (not that guy--another one who tried to explain why my cousin and that guy are wrong). I was going to offer my support, but decided not to get involved. I have things to do today.

[Incandenza]

A Well Regulated Militia . . .

My mom got banned from the NRA's Facebook page because of her anti-NRA comments on there. Proud of her!

[WOM]

A Well Regulated Militia . . .

So much for all 'the freedoms' they're fighting to protect.

[Incandenza]

A Well Regulated Militia . . .

WOM wrote: So much for all 'the freedoms' they're fighting to protect.

One of her friends commented "You should shoot someone, they'll let you back in then."

[Incandenza]

A Well Regulated Militia . . .

Brunho wrote: Are corporate (in the loose sense) Facebook pages supposed/expected to behave like media comments sections?

You mean the people running the pages, or the people commenting?

I don't really engage with people/groups I dislike on FB. I save that for Twitter. Still hoping to get Richard Dawkins to block me.

[matt j]

A Well Regulated Militia . . .

Incandenza wrote: My mom got banned from the NRA's Facebook page because of her anti-NRA comments on there. Proud of her!

Bravo.

[Incandenza]

A Well Regulated Militia . . .

Are they going to fight over who gets to be in the Tower?

[Sam]

A Well Regulated Militia . . .

Oh, I was about to cross-post just that story with the WTF? thread. Too late.

[matt j]

A Well Regulated Militia . . .

This being Austin, and with the recent "open dildo carry" protest, I'm pleased to see that there will apparently be a mass farting and dildo waving response.

Edit: Also, unlikely the mock shooting will be permitted by the UT administration.

[Renart]

A Well Regulated Militia . . .

Incandenza wrote: Are they going to fight over who gets to be in the Tower?

One tidbit of the Whitman shootings that never gets mentioned by the gun nuts is that the "good guys with guns", mostly UT frat guys with deer rifles, significantly delayed the police's ability to get to the top of the tower and endangered the lives of the people inside it (including one of my aunts, who was working in the library there) by exercising their [strike]First[/strike] Second Amendment rights and shooting willy-nilly at the tower.

[Renart]

A Well Regulated Militia . . .

Ha ha, long day. SECOND Amendment rights, I meant, of course.

[ursus arctos]

A Well Regulated Militia . . .

Almost certainly doing both simultaneously.

I can only imagine what kind of arsenals the yahoos would bring today of allowed.

[Tubby Isaacs]

A Well Regulated Militia . . .

American gun nuts don't like Britain much, do they?

I've learned today the shocking news that England and Wales have a worse homicide level than "some American states"- or four of them, by the blogger's own graph. And apparently we only count homicides if the perpetrator is convicted.