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A Well Regulated Militia . . .
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Originally posted by Toby Gymshorts View PostWhat will it take, America?
The wording of the second amendment is so damned ambiguous. For now it easily favors the "guns everywhere" groups.
It will have to be a slow process; city by city, state by state, lots of lawsuits and court action. Got to have some help w/ SCOTUS, and w/ a conservative majority that will take awhile. I am optimistic that today's youth see through the lies and bullshit of the NRA's desperate arguments - they will show more cajones than the generation currently in power.
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There is a desperately infuriating line that's been repeated at least since Parkland about basically turning schools into prison camps.
This is because the problem is being presented as being "in our schools" - "Why do we let so many massacres happen in our schools?" "We have to do something to prevented tragedies like Parkland and Santa Fe and Newtown." "How can we let children die?" And so on...
This allows the gun lobby to claim to be offering to "do something" and Republican legislators to claim to be "making schools safer" and have bipartisan support for school safety bills, and so on.
And what they all propose are versions of removing all the doors from schools (and, hey, who cares if nobody can get out in a fire?). More metal detectors. More armed guards. More lockdown drills. Better security on the outside of the school.
Because it's presented as a schools problem and not a gun problem, the NRA legislators get to pass totally useless or counterproductive legislation that spends a fortune on making students more scared and less used to normal environments, and claim to be helping with the problem, while the guns remain untouched.
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A lot of suggestions have been made as to how this seemingly intractable problem can be addressed. There are too many guns out there and they are not going to go away. The best that we can hope for is to keep them out of the hands of people who shouldn't have them. Background checks are an obvious step but that isn't perfect as anyone who has worked in criminal law will testify. As it is, depending on where you are, the possession of a photo ID will usually allow you to purchase a gun. Some states require a day or to to conduct the check before collecting the gun but a lot of dealers ignore that and, anyway, it doesn't happen at gun shows.
Keeping the guns away from people with mental health issues is another important step but you will need a good working definition of mental illness. Kleptomania, homosexuality and severe menstrual stress have all, in the last few years, been categorized as mental illnesses. Also, most people are not obviously mentally ill so how is the dealer to know? Ask? ("Are you crazy?" "No." "Alright then.") HIPPA precludes the releasing of any medical information to a third party without the consent of the individual concerned and I don't see anyone agreeing to their private medical information being released to a retailer,no matter what.
Most perpetrators of these outrages do not survive. They either kill themselves or are shot by law enforcement. That makes it difficult to find any commonality with which to build a profile of a person more likely to go on such a rampage. Many are described as 'loners'. I was a loner at school and I still like my own company. I don't think I am a risk.
Another problem is the stigma which attaches to mental illness in America. I had a client who declined a plea based on a temporary, and treatable, mental illness because "People will say I'm crazy".
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Absolutely untouchable. A little while ago they held one here right next door to a school. There were protests and requests to move it somewhere else but to no avail. The noise was deafening. They are lax and all but impossible to regulate.
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People of good faith have tried, but it has been largely buried in more mainstream media, and of course completely ignored/denied by the right wing media complex (while the NRA can always be counted on to describe anyone in favour of gun control as a Nazi).
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Originally posted by adams house cat View PostKeeping the guns away from people with mental health issues is another important step but you will need a good working definition of mental illness.
I am aware this is a facetious response, but ...
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Originally posted by Tactical Genius View PostHas anything been made of many of these shooters and links to Neo Nazi ideology?
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Originally posted by adams house cat View PostAbsolutely untouchable. A little while ago they held one here right next door to a school. There were protests and requests to move it somewhere else but to no avail. The noise was deafening. They are lax and all but impossible to regulate.
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