Response to E. Rose of Manhassat.
As you must know, being such a constitutional expert, the chances of removing the 2nd Amendment are very remote.
If that day ever happens it might well be indicative of America rejoining other developed countries and the U.S. Constitution evolving, (rather than remaining moribund) as the Founding Father had always intended.
You are wrong to suggest that the 2nd Amendment, like the constitution, is unambiguous. A. The 2nd amendment is not unambiguous, plus there remains controversy over the precise grammar that impacts its intentions, b. the Constitution by definition changes every time the Supreme Court makes a ruling, and there have been such rulings and most importantly c. if any action taken by the government is unconstitutional — then that is why we have the Supreme Court, rather than idiots with opinions, in the first place — so what the hell are you worried about.
Like all things GOP/Stupidparty — it is simplistic sloganeering to rile up an uninformed fearful base.
The tyranny that small-minded people fret about inevitably comes from the right.
You can argue that China and Russia were supposedly communist and the initial inspiration, in Russia at least, was communism.
But ultimately Stalin, Hitler and Mao, were not remotely interested in anything but power for themselves and their small cliques of oligarchs.
Today, Russia is the most right-wing country in the world, a Trumpian dream, with the USA desperately trying to match them.
You mention your “deep state” fears (code for Trump is not a colluding law breaking traitor) indicative of a fearful conspiracy mindset, happy to overlook bigotry, lies and disinformation at awe-inspiring levels — which has likely turned you into a fake patriot, a “what is wrong with being friends with Russia any way” type of idiot.
Trumps actions? That is Mueller’s job, with juries and due process — let him do it.
If Conservatives like you ever had anything to offer, such as supposed strong national defense, fiscal discipline and free trade –well you dropped all that without a second thought.
You harp on about your ability to resist a Hitler, Stalin, Mao or Obama? with your guns.
I suspect you think that if Jews had just had guns in 1938, all would have been copacetic. That simply does not happen. Your gun will get you shot, the moment your best buddy and or your own brainwashed kid reports you to the authorities, to protect their damn stupid “great again fatherland.”
The moment anyone uses their guns against the government, and if that person does not get dealt with — that is the moment that the rule of law is over, that is the moment when fascism will fill the void.
You talk nonsense about the UK.
Guns and bullets are not banned. Discussing its hate speech laws should not be for the feeble minded.
I could not find a practical instance of actual jail for passive speech, and the UK is party to international human right laws, and European laws, providing many more layers of protection compared to America’s very suspect system, where minorities are regularly shot dead or incarcerated for crimes they did not commit, or for fake crimes voter suppression inspired such as marijuana usage.
Also, some context is important — if America had suffered as many terror attacks as the UK — American society would have unraveled as all Muslims would not simply be barred from entering the country but rounded up, roughed up and interred by Trumpian appointed fascist thugs with their great again armbands and lapel pins.
You quote Scalia and Thomas, as people who should be respected.
Scalia is highly questionable god before country and common sense, literal constitutionalist and Thomas is unfit to serve.
The one thing that you say that might have some merit is the notion that gun law tweaks can solve the problem of “you” and your ilk—it won’t.
The fact of the matter is that the USA has the most infantile gun culture in the world by a massive distance.
The fact that 5,600 kids get seriously injured or killed a year is because of people like you. You really seem to believe that more guns will make people safer — this is a deadly stupid opinion. There may be pockets where guns for safety is not absurd—but it is societies job, not the NRA’s job, to address those exceptions.
You quote a study about guns making owners safer –and by doing so you endanger anyone who breathes in your toxic oxygen— “there have been several dozen peer-reviewed studies—punctures the idea that guns stop violence.
In a 2015 study using data from the FBI and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for example, researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard University reported that firearm assaults were 6.8 times more common in the states with the most guns versus those with the least.
Also in 2015, a combined analysis of 15 different studies found that people who had access to firearms at home were nearly twice as likely to be murdered as people who did not.”
The NRA leadership is an odious collection of fanatics who actually have zero interest in representing the views of their members. 80 percent of NRA members are actually quite pragmatic.
But people who accept money from the NRA should be hounded from office by 24/7 noisy protests. It is also likely, though not yet proven, that the NRA has been used as conduit by overseas agents in their ongoing and successful campaign to weaken America’s standing in the world – with America’s only remaining ally being Netanyahu.
How the prime minister of Israel thinks it is a good idea to have as its one and only ally, a bunch of White Supremacists in the USA, is beyond me.
Like anyone with an impaired ability to think you take an incident in a country to create a false narrative.
Next, you will saying that Norway, that usually has zero mass shootings, has a gun problem. They do not.
Nobody has America’s problem. Norway has a small slither of white nationalists, remnant Nazis, from World War II that hit pay dirt one day. That is not a pattern.
But what is a pattern in America, is domestic terrorism, usually by white male gun toting idiots with a confederate outlook believing in Alex Jones type conspiracy theories and an infantile fear of the erosion of the second amendment.
People who feel the need to carry a gun are cowards. Most people are brave enough to go outdoors and out of their caves, equipped with nothing much more than a pencil.
Carrying a gun puts everyone at risk, especially the gun owner and his family. The logical extension of this mental midget NRA mindset, suggests everyone should carry a gun. Oh, except bad guys. There is no such thing as a civilian good guy with a gun, in a populated area.
You argue that schools can easily be protected by having every child, parent, teacher, visitor—line up, strip off, and walk through a metal detector. That is just one of many confused ideas that people who are comfortable with America’s gun culture come up with. School buildings have countless windows and multiple entrances, covering acres of land—anyone motivated enough, could either smuggle a gun into the building or simply shoot the sitting ducks standing in line, or the kids playing soccer—the shooter is not picky.
But let’s take a closer look at your mental acuity shall we?
Arming teachers, or having more armed security guards is a new level of brain-dead, promoting more guns in schools is just sick. Have you considered just some of the potential problems? Accidental shootings?
A “bad” teacher with a gun, (because they are just so easy to spot! But any teacher that wants to have a gun in a classroom, is either a moron or a bad person — either way they should not be a teacher); that teacher has kids who now have access to more guns (bad person = bad parent); the teachers kids have friends too, all these kids have more interest in, tolerance and awareness of, and access to—more guns.
What kid cannot run rings around their parents to gain access? Who does not understand chaos theory?
A good teacher off their meds, or on too many meds, an alcoholic, or a soon to be unmasked pedophile — suddenly becoming a bad teacher — or is it the security guard with similar issues, or a careless teacher leaves the gun unattended, a weak teacher gets disarmed by a manic kid, a security guard entering a room—is the teacher the shooter?
Is the security guard the shooter? The heavily armed police arrive at the scene. They see two people in the room with a gun, may be three or more—which one is the shooter? Which one is the bad guy? The black kid; that must be it, bang! Just shoot at anyone with a gun.
And since when does the shooter give a damn anyway?
More guns in the school — this does not create a hurdle, rather an opportunity, a motivation — they mostly kill themselves regardless, either that or they know their capture is inevitable.
The more guns the merrier, it will be just like that final scene out of Butch Cassidy—now how cool would that be? Stupidparty land, your land—how it is meant to be.
In any normal country if you dislike your teacher you might be disgruntled in class or write something nasty about the teacher on social media, play a prank—but in America, it so much easier, why be creative? Just shoot the person, guns are easy come easy go, shootings are a dime a dozen — so why not; any other solution shows weakness or a lack of commitment.
Hate your teacher? Well bait that teacher into pulling out their gun, even better if they shoot you — you just won that debate. Perhaps there is a nasty fight in class—simple fix, whip out that gun. But who’s the bad guy now?
Now what about the scenario that aging white male Trump loving gun nuts dream about —it might actually happen, but only because of the massive number of shootings; a real live bad guy shooter, (he’s wearing KKK fashion statements to make life black and white — a good guy teacher armed with a cross and a make America Great again baseball cap and a gun — now what are the odds that the good guy will not freeze, miss, sing out the national anthem first, hit a bystander, get shot by another teacher with a gun—or that disoriented security guard who just has no clue who to shoot.
Perhaps the KKK guy is the good guy, wearing a Halloween outfit, perhaps the teacher is a Trump voter — suddenly the tables are turned.
Kids dead, so many, because of so many idiot parents—virtually any civilian parent that actually believes that more guns at school, at home, at the mall, at a poker game equals enhanced safety. Yes, because of those idiots 5,800 children under the age of 18 get seriously injured by gunshots every year.
How do I put this in perspective, how do I show how massively stupid such people are compared to the rest of mankind? Try this one — America has 5 percent of the world’s population—so if Americans were to claim to be worthy of peer group status—then they should see 5 percent of the gun deaths.
But you already know that that is not the case.
“Ninety percent of women, 91 percent of children aged 0 to 14 years, 92 percent of youth aged 15 to 24 years, and 82 percent of all people killed by firearms were from the United States.”
Bad right? But I am being nice, which seems rather pointless when dealing with the deadly stupid.
So just imagine if I compared America with developed nations (a rapidly receding notion). You are 25 times more likely to be shot to death in America than any other developed nation.
But I am still being far too nice—because not all of America is truly Stupidparty land.
Take Mississippi the least smart state in the country (yet Alaska, Alabama and Louisiana did have more gun deaths per 100,000), has four times more gun deaths per 100,000 than say Massachusetts.
Thus it would be more than reasonable to state that Stupidparty land is 5,000 percent more stupid (regarding gun culture at least) than Europe.
Finally, you go on about progressive authoritarian.
You fret because you have a conservative brain, a fearful brain that has lost the ability to think critically.
You mention a dystopian future—well chew on this: Approximately 0.00001 percent control about 50 percent of the money that goes into politics, now check on the income discrepancy trends over the last 25 years.
Having considered that, now ask yourself this one simple question — if such trends continue how can the country possibly escape a fascist state. As to you –we all know how you would have voted if you were living in Germany in 1933.
Kids die in school because people like you, who not only promote the most infantile gun culture in the world, but who also now want to double down on that stupidity.
David Beall
Port Washington
