I live in Australia. After one mass shooting at Port Arthur, Tasmania, the government banned such weapons. Guess what.... no mass shootings again. Yes there are "shoot outs" between criminal gangs with illegal guns, but not people going into a school and shooting people up. More fool Americans!
I live in Scotland and exactly the same happened after the 1996 Dunblane school shootings. What I find totally impossible to understand is that so many of those that insist on their right to bear arms, including assault weapons, also claim to be devout Christians. But they don't seem to follow the teachings. What ever happened to 'Thou salt not kill"? But again, it would appear that tiny bundles of cells that may or may not become an actual person are considered far more important than an actual child or adult. There just are no words.....
The "Christian" religion in America has been stolen, and corrupted, by those who believe "their way is the only way". I asked a once-friend his definition of "woke", and he couldn't answer, after I offered mine. It was "awakened to the needs of others. To be well-informed, thoughtful, compasionate, humble, and kind. Eager to make the world a better place for all people." Kind of a paraphrase of the words of Jesus, yet the "Christian Right" in this country won't accept THE WORDS OF THEIR SAVIOUR!! as words to live by. It is a sad time to be an American.
It would seem Christian Nationals are on the defensive stating that Christianity is under attack. Not sure by whom as I dont see it. The propaganda machine is in overdrive to convince them that somehow their faith is being threatened. I heard it last week and over the weekend. How can someone who doesnt walk the path of Jesus (Trump) be considered doing gods work? Thats a real stretch, unless of course the news they are watching doesnt mention or minimizes his discretions and maximizes his fight for White Christian Nationals. To quote the NY Times on Trumps Waco rally. "Trump gets back to grass roots campaigning" Not Trump endorses the Jan 6th insurection, endorses violence and discrimination against AG Bragg and commemorates Branch Dividian David Koresh a known child sex offender and cult leader. Christian Nationalists for Violence, Discrimination and Child abuse. That pretty much sums it up. The ends do not justify the means.
At his height Jim Jones had 3000 followers. 900 of which committed or were forced to commit suicide. The last election saw 74,000,000 people vote for him. If you take the same Jim Jones numbers that means Trump has 22 million people ready to die for him. Yippee.
Oh yes, I think you might have hit the nail on the head with that one. So many people are gullible and easily led by someone who can put on a good spiel. Trump is a greedy charlatan who craves the limelight. He got heady of the trappings of being President and wants to hang on to the feelings he gets from having such devoted followers. Like he once said he could shoot and kill someone in the middle of 5th Ave and his people would still support him. People in general are loathe to admit they might be wrong.
The Evangelical and conservative christians faiths are feeding these lies to their congregation. The followers are brainwashed or a cult. We are in a religious war.
So many of them think in absolutes, so they see the issue of their way of believing as vs other ways of believing, in a zero sum manner. So their logic is - if you don't believe as I do, you diminish my beliefs. If people who don't believe as I do are given the same rights as I have, then I lose my rights. Not logical, pretty childish, but there it is.
Ive heard before "I will do what I want". When it comes to laws they never apply to the selfish person only to everyone else around them when it benefits them. Dare to apply those same laws to them and you are infringing on their rights. In reality telling them they can't do something. Then the adult tantrum comes out. I'm on board with your thinking. One time I had an abortion discussion with a MAGA friend. His opinion was sacrosanct I couldnt budge him in anyway to see it slightly differently or sympathically. It was like he was arguing a position that was already established law and everyone followed it. Perhaps I was arguing with his echo chamber more than with him.
@Daniel. Thank you. It's a service to define this term above its origins in black communities. My take on it, building on what you already said: Woke... Awakened to the needs of others, compassionate, humble, thoughtful and kind. To be well informed and seek to make the world a better place for all people. To practice the tenets of the world's major religions.
Exactly. "Woke" is the opposite of love/compassion/kindness. It's all about control, rage, judgment. It's inherently anti-Democratic. I'm not saying Republicans are the answer. But neither is Wokeism.
There are as many definitions of 'woke' as there are people trying to define it, but mostly it's an us vs them term in actual use. You say it's anti-Democratic, with capital D. Other guy speaks as if it were Jesus compassion... Thinking in terms of woke meaning 'awake' it means to be alert and honest in seeing each new how the world operates. One side uses it to bash people for their opinions; the other side uses it seek to get people to have informed opinions. As for me I'd rather be awake than have my head stuck in the sand of whatever the latest conspiracy theory might be. If that means I am woke then woke is a good thing.
The MAGAt/GOP use of "woke" is all that, but its original use has nothing to do with that. Take some time to understand what it is and where it comes from. For myself, I'm staying woke--and liberal, and progressive, and dedicated to objectivity, facts, and democracy.
This is a perfect explanation of Hypocrisy and hubris of the self-righteous extremist whom we are constantly confronted with. Well said. Well written. Eyes Open!
Omg, Daniel thanks for sending that. Utterly terrifying but it really is where the country is right now, and may remain, under the dominance of Christian Nationalism...we're totally screwed.
As a gun owner...as if those words have more power than as a non gun owner. Those whos lives have been destroyed by gun violence have as much right as gun owners in determing gun laws. Gun companies should have zero say. Citizens united decision be damned.
One way of caring for children is to BAN ASSAULT WEAPONS. Needless to say, the ridiculously named "pro-life" army is in FULL support of keeping these weapons legal, these same weapons which are so often in mass murders of little, born children.
There's difficulty in defining an 'assault weapon' such that a clever designer cannot get around the regulation. Consider a ban on any weapon/ammunition combination that can produce more than a certain level of kinetic energy at the muzzle. It may seem too technical but should reduce fatalities and the severity of wounds.
Its such a sin. Caring for that which isnt yet (cells the fetus) over that which is (the deformed, the drug addicted baby, the malnutritioned child). Its a type of future faking. Look see I care about this nebulous concept of a child to be, so I dont have to care about actual children. Cause once you have them, its pull yourself up by your bootstraps timr again. You aint getting any help from them. They are too busy "saving the future".
Believe me, they don’t even know what “ fetus “ means! They know what power and control mean! That is all... no accountability. One hundred year prison sentence for anyone hurting another human or otherwise animal should send a a notice that we will not give up our freedom to be safe and to have private choice to their maniacal need to be tyrants over us. Jesus !
Neither will work in 'Murica though. 'Muricans cling DESPERATELY to their THOUGHT that The Second Amendment, which exists SOLELY for Militias, ACTUALLY gives us 'Muricans the OBLIGATION to have a gun to kill . . . those different than us??? I really cannot fathom their reasoning, as I DID go to a New York college.
I know I'll probably get flak for my stance on gun control. To those who might object. If your doctor says to you, "I have some bad news about your tests." The patient is then told he has cancer of the femur and the leg has to come off. The guy objects but the doctor reaffirms his earlier statement, you lose your leg or you lose your life. What does the guy do? Sometimes the pill that does us the most good is the hardest to swallow. Ban assault rifles.
I hate to be called foolish and you are totally right. We knew how to fix this before and our politicians play dumb and stunned as the death toll mounts and mounts. Foolish? I would go so far as to say we as Americans are Criminally Negligent.
The love of money and addiction to violence as entertainment in the US has helped fuel this. The issue around guns in the US makes me so ill that I can’t even think about it. To value guns over children. I remember what happened in Australia and the action taken was so inspired. Thanks for writing your comment.
The biggest part I see besides open murder laws is stagnant wages, good jobs being replaced with minimum wage jobs leading to broken homes. Gun laws (or the lack there of) is the symptom. Being poor is the problem. How many rich kids shoot up schools lately? Maybe shoot up Heroine or Cocaine but schools never.
Bill Reitz: Totally disagree! Take a look at the mass murderers in schools! Adam Lanza's father was a bigwig with GM. Dylan Klebold's father was an Engineer. Audrey Hale was a graphic designer and illustrator. The vast majority of school shooters are from middle class homes.
One family is not a majority and the majority of these kids went to public school. If your are really wealthy you dont go to public school. This is the bottom 222 million of us killing each other whether it be from white supremist rhetoric or crappy living conditions and no health care. The goal is to keep all of us fighting each other. Metaphorically and literally. So the rich just keep getting richer. Ie the top 1%.
I've begun to believe this is more than just a money grab by the Gun lobby. for one, It is another issue to divide the majority with. But why are Republican politicians trying to create the wild wild west where it's 'kill or be killed'... unlimited access to weapons, without any prerequisites or requirements, along with legislation that protects you for killing someone, even when you are the aggressor (Trayvon Martin). Is this an effort to give cult members with mental issues the tools and leeway they need to "stand up and stand by" until you send them dog whistles to 'storm the capital' to keep you in office, or instruct them to kill a prosecutor or judge to prevent them from charging you with a crime??? Is this some form of population control or a way for the wealthy/powerful to 'get off' while they watch the blood and carnage from 'on high'?
I've heard about this. It's amazing, for sure, but that's a very different and much less diverse culture than the States. False equivalency. It's like people who argue that because "socialism" works in Finland it should work in the United States.
As with most Americans, you obviously know very little about Australia. It is a very multi-cultural and multi-ethnic and multi-racial society, that prides itself in its diversity. The colonial period was just as bad on the native peoples as it was in the USA. It is a robust democracy with all the same problems of inflation, poverty, disadvantage etc. that the USA has. Actually it is a LOT like the USA as I realised when I immigrated here. Your sweeping generality is incorrect and does not make your point AT ALL.
The party of “pro life” only cares until the child is born, then they couldn’t care less. Hence all the “thoughts and prayers” but no action to stop the atrocities.
It seems in our Capitalistic society collateral damage is to be expected. If we don't put certain measures in place to control big business we are all subject to the pit falls found in our culture. Gun production is just a part of the problem but at present it holds the moist relevance because our people are dying on a daily basis from the bullets fired from the weapons these companies produce. Republicans, for a number of reasons, will fight controls placed upon these companies because they'll site Second Amendments rights. When will they consider the innocent lives lost and the rights they never had a chance to enjoy. Ban all military style weapons, yesterday.
Nor will they bother to actually read the 2nd Amendment. In this day and age, we have a standing army, and a national guard! The purpose of the 2nd was that, at that time, there was no army or national guard. But, like Christianity in this country, it too, has been corrupted.
Anyone that has an inclining as to who Sky King was must have a good grip on the past. In the first episodes a Cessna T-50 rules the skies and later a Cessna 310B took over. The "Sky" guy sure got around.
If you are referring to the article I attached, in order to actually have been in a militia, had to muster, be sworn. Before that we had at common law the theory of posse comitatus, the high sheriff could deputize a citizen to enforce the law.
Hamilton laid it out in the Federalist papers. " It requires no skill in the science of war to discern that uniformity in the organization and discipline of the militia would be attended with the most beneficial effects, whenever they were called into service for the public defense. It would enable them to discharge the duties of the camp and of the field with mutual intelligence and concert an advantage of peculiar moment in the operations of an army; and it would fit them much sooner to acquire the degree of proficiency in military functions which would be essential to their usefulness. This desirable uniformity can only be accomplished by confiding the regulation of the militia to the direction of the national authority."
"In times of insurrection, or invasion, it would be natural and proper that the militia of a neighboring State should be marched into another, to resist a common enemy, or to guard the republic against the violence of faction or sedition. This was frequently the case, in respect to the first object, in the course of the late war; and this mutual succor is, indeed, a principal end of our political association. If the power of affording it be placed under the direction of the Union, there will be no danger of a supine and listless inattention to the dangers of a neighbor, till its near approach had superadded the incitements of self preservation to the too feeble impulses of duty and sympathy."
The "militia" referred to by Thomas Jefferson were slave patrols.
What about "well regulated?" Doesn't mean individuals have a right to own any weapon. Some people say that in 1791 meant "well trained."
Despite what you say, it was discussed by Hamilton in No 29 Federalist Papers. Was not included in the Constitution per se, added by Jefferson, who had been the governor of Virginia. Hamilton envisioned a national reserve.
To me the whole 2nd ammendment argument is BS. That was meant for single shot muzzle loaded rifles. Now we have semi/full auto assault rifles machine guns rocket launchers and atomic bombs. There is no argument about most of those higher damage items. I dont see why semi/full auto assualt rifles arent banned in the same way as rocket and grenade launchers. Thats not a 2nd amendment argument. Being able to kill a ton of people is not a right.
A gun doesn't care if it operates by the gas expelled from the previous round or if a finger pulls the trigger. The out come when pointing the weapon at another human being is death. Odd, Republicans are so against abortion why is it they find no objection to taking a life with a bullet.
I know I'll probably get flak for my stance on gun control. To those who might object. If your doctor says to you, "I have some bad news about your tests." The patient is then told he has cancer of the femur and the leg has to come off. The guy objects but the doctor reaffirms his earlier statement, you lose your leg or you lose your life. What does the guy do? Sometimes the pill that does us the most good is the hardest to swallow. Ban assault rifles.
Yes all Military style weapons, ie semi auto (post full auto) assault rifles need to be FFL license only and not purchaseable by the general population. Laws were changed to stop the proliferation of Tommy Guns. The same should be done for their more powerful cousins. (Semi auto is only a few parts away from full auto, the argument that a semi auto assualt rifle is so much different from a full auto one is semantics to those kids lying dead in the hallway).
A gun doesn't care if it operates by the gas expelled from the previous round or if a finger pulls the trigger. The out come when pointing the weapon at another human being is death. Odd, Republicans are so against abortion why is it they find no objection to taking a life with a bullet.
Gun reform! How about starting with any individual that attempts to purchase more than one gun in a 6 month period? If there was a restriction in place people might buy guns that have a purpose, hunting, self-defense, or sports shooting like trap and skeet where clay pigeons are shot not people. Target shooting is a great sport, I taught all of my kids the ins and outs of safe gun handling. I have two rules that I live by when dealing with firearms. #1-there is no such thing as an unloaded gun. You treat every weapon as if it was loaded and ready to fire. #2-When presented with a firearm you personally inspect the weapon to make sure the chamber is empty and all magazines are set aside. This rule would have saved the set of "Rust" a terrible ending. Never give an unloaded gun the chance to take a life. When someone tries to purchase multiple weapons in a short period of time red flags should go up and questions should be asked. Tom Cruise would say we live in a "Danger Zone" and how we deal with the realities of that situation will determine whether or not we as a society make it through this time. We need gun control and background checks.
i thought "collateral damage" was ritual sacrifice? y'know, to keep the gods of war happy. or the gods of profit, or whatever. sacrifice is an age old expression of fear of the unknown. so they must be sacrificing children because they fear an unknown reality where equality, justice, diversity, equal rights under the law, etc. prevail, 'cause , y'know people of color and antifa.
Paul--When you see a child playing with matches, what do you do? You take away the problem. Make it illegal to take an assault rifle to a gun range. Make it illegal to have an assault rifle in public. You can own one but you can't use the thing, anywhere.
Derek, heck, Republicans don't even really care about the fetus. If they did, pregnant women would have accommodations at work, paid sick leave, their prenatal care covered, etc. Republicans only care about white power and as much money as they can accumulate. Women in public life are just one of the problems they want to get rid of or use to get themselves more money and more power. Force women to be pregnant, don't provide for health care or child care, think rape and incest are OK(as long as it's not done to someone they love), etc. works well for those supposed family loving Republican men, and their women go along so they can bathe in their men's glory. Republicans are so used to lying, dismissing, pretending they are not the problem, and the rest that they are programming themselves and those in their spheres to vote for a letter "R" rather than examine the person with that letter next to their name. Guns are a powerful issue because many Republican men are afflicted with toxic masculinity for which they see AR-15s and other assault weapons as an enhancement, an extra member.
Ruth-- Be nice, women couldn't get pregnant in the first place without that special member. But you are so right. Pregnancy isn't given the level of basic consideration it needs so badly. The death rate surrounding women under going this special event is exceptionally high in this country, maybe "men" in positions of power should reassess their positions on the subject. After all it's their children the women are giving birth to.
Off-topic usage note: Dismayingly, the android smartphone Substack ui recently removed the "collapse" option labeled under every comment that let you reduce screen clutter. What Substack didn't tell you: You still CAN collapse report cards and other banality—tap on the vertical to the comment's left. Try it. You'll like it.
They are "pro birth" not pro life. They need to replenish the supply of targets. Their thoughts are evil, and as for their prayers, Ambrose Bierce said it best in his "Devil's Dictionary." To pray: To ask that the laws of the universe be violated for the selfish purposes of a person who is in the same breath admitting that he's not worthy of it.
Agree wholeheartedly with you Mr. Green. The bulk of the Republican party, or what is left of it, are 'pro birth' because if I may be somewhat frank, are only pro birth because they want more white babies to be born regardless of the circumstances of the mother. After birth, they could care less what happens to that child because they don't support SNAP or food assistance program or support their education by paying the educators who teach them. So why on earth would they care about them being shot and killed almost monthly. Not with the crazies in Congress like Lauren Boehart , who actually took and posted a picture of her and her children holding guns and seemed proud to do so. Those folk don't really give a hoot about other folks and their children being killed and traumatized as they are paid very handsomely by the NRA. It's very sad to say that I don't see the restrictions on the AR-15's ever coming back. Not unless enough residents in those states really decide to stop sending those people back to Congress and vote to send representatives to Congress who really care about them. Or perhaps I'm living in a la la land and hoping for too much.
They are calling for more white folks to have babies so the whites are not outnumbered. The flip side of the bonkers "Great Replacement" theory. Personally I can think of a few white people that deserve to be replaced.
DLM--The idea of control doesn't include cruelty or death. It's a passive means directed toward just understanding one another. My comment was meant in gest. Sorry if it hit a nerve. I have the deepest respect for the sanctity of women.
After the shooting in Uvalde Texas, some of the victims were unrecognizable because of the gunshot wounds to their faces.
So what did the Texas state legislature do? They did nothing to ban assault weapons, instead they offered free DNA tests so the next time (and they certainly seemed to think there would be a next time) the parents wouldn’t be traumatized by having to identify their unrecognizable children’s bodies.
At the Michigan State shooting, there were at least two students that had survived school shootings in another school. One was from Sandy Hook, and the other from a local high school. Imagine surviving one school shooting only to go through that trauma again. What are the odds of that? Apparently it’s becoming more likely for our younger generations.
I would like to see a nationwide strike where students from grade school through college refuse to go to school until at the very least assault weapons are banned. It might take some time but I think it’s the only way to send the message to lawmakers that our schools are unsafe. Students have every right to go to school without the possibility of being shot and killed. It’s time to make lawmakers see the obvious.
David, I did have vision at one time and never thought guns looked cool, only evil, even when used in war. It is clear the reason for guns is killing, whether animals for hunting or people just because hate is allowed to become so powerful, and an excuse. How do we change the perception of guns as cool, a male enhancement (that women sometimes crave too)? How do we protect our precious children when our representatives are so in love with the idea of guns and the money they will receive from gun manufacturers for loving guns or being willing to claim our Constitution permits anyone at any time to carry around loaded weapons while it supposedly denies women bodily autonomy? They make it up as they go along so the money will continue to roll in and they will have a job for life.
Gerrymandering will make sure the people in their district are set to only see a letter "R" while they are supplied with the right people to hate and blame and have guns to protect themselves from. That is not the way democracy should work
high velocity, low mass and inertia projectile, which equals high mutilation due to tumble of projectile. Such a weapon is also known as a "varmint" rifle since the edibility of the flesh is of no interest.
Hence the frequent need for parents to bring DNA records to identify what is left of their children.
My family has owned firearms in this country since the 17th century, and never needed a rapid-fire weapon to defend its homes or livestock from assailants, although some of them have fought in nearly every war fought here since the mid-1600s. Obsession with assault-style rifles is a symptom of genital insecurity.
BS. During the ban numbers dropped. After the ban, rose.
"We identified five qualifying studies that estimated the effects of state assault weapon bans on different aspects of mass shootings. Gius (2015c) found that these bans significantly reduce mass shooting deaths but have uncertain effects on injuries resulting from mass shootings. Using similar models, however, Gius (2018) found that assault weapon bans resulted in significantly fewer casualties (deaths and nonfatal injuries) from school shootings. Using a data set similar to that used in Gius (2015c), Luca, Malhotra, and Poliquin (2016) found uncertain effects of state assault weapon bans on the annual incidence of mass shootings. Blau, Gorry, and Wade (2016) found that the bans significantly reduced the annual incidence of mass shootings. Webster et al. (2020) found uncertain evidence of state assault weapon bans on mass shooting incidents and fatalities. Considering our assessment of these findings and the relative strengths of these studies, we find inconclusive evidence for the effect of assault weapon bans on mass shootings.
We also identified two studies that examined the effects of high-capacity magazine bans on mass shootings. Webster et al. (2020) found significant or suggestive associations between these state bans and lower rates of mass shooting incidents. Klarevas, Conner, and Hemenway (2019) also found that state-level high-capacity magazine bans were associated with fewer mass shootings and deaths in incidents in which a high-capacity magazine was used, as well as suggestive reductions in all mass shooting incidents and deaths (including those that did not involve a high-capacity magazine). Considering our assessment of these findings and the relative strengths of these studies, we find limited evidence that high-capacity magazine bans reduce mass shootings."
Bill, I like the idea of a strike, but alas, college students are vulnerable since they have to pay for their education, often with loans, and their loans keep accumulating interest whether they are in class or on the picket line. It would be a great thing to see, though!
I thought the same thing this morning,every parent in America should jump up and down and SCREAM,perhaps at least100 million petitions would be effective.
I agree Ruth, and that’s another thing we need to take on, the cost of further education. But first we need to make getting an education safe.
I had a student loan that took me over twenty years to pay off. The same money would have bought a house back then. So I do understand.
College students went on strike all the time to protest the war in the sixties. This is a war. It’s a war on unarmed children. It’s a matter of solidarity, strength in numbers.
This is all a big ask and will take major planning. It’s in the germination stage but please everyone, be thinking on it.
sorry I’m using my phone and cut myself off. This article is a must read.I’m hoping there isn’t a paywall. I’m seriously starting to work out the strike plans. There’s much to be done, anyone have any thoughts? Please if you possibly can check out the WaPo link.
Also, last night I watched "The Movement and the Madman" on "American Experience" on PBS... about the organizing of the 1969 Vietnam Moratorium and how it prevented Nixon from carrying out his plan to nuke Vietnam. It's a graduate class in grassroots organizing. Makes me proud I was there. (Saw a few old comrades in the video!)
A major take-home from the experience was said to be that even though it seemed like nothing was changing in Nixon's policies, but the impact of the movement - even that early - was enormous. The participants never knew that until years later when the full history was revealed.
I highly recommend it, Keep your eye out for it, or look for it on PBS Passport.
Another technique that was crucial to building the early anti-war movement among students (which I was at the time) were the Teach-Ins that proliferated across hundreds of campuses in the late '60s.
Of course, the murders at Kent State and Jackson State did more to galvanize the student movement than anything else. Nowadays, sadly, it seems like it takes a lot more bodies to get politicians' attention.
Nationwide strike- yes. But it needs to be adults and not the kids. If kids strike, the Republican state governments would just use that as an excuse to end all public education. Besides, it shouldn't be the kids responsibility- it is adults who conceived them into a world that uses them as a shooting gallery.
Project: I am sure kids, especially Black kids, will feel perfectly safe and ready to learn while surrounded by armed cops, like Uvalde’s finest, who were afraid to respond when they found out the shooter had an AR-15… just like them.
The United States lost its collective soul after Sandy Hook. If we can accept the daily grisly slaughter, young bodies ripped and shredded apart by a weapon “with exceptional lethality,” there is no moral ground to stand on. The gun lobby and gun manufacturers wealthy stockholders are literally calling the shots and they get deadlier and deadlier. America is no longer a safe place to live.
For a low tax loving country, the US seems to be very willing to pay the NRA tax, 30-50.000 lives, mass shootings and massive investments in SWAT teams, armoured vehicles, body armour for police and dozens of extra police officers as they need to be ready for assault rifle war on every street corner.
Bram, maybe the cost of allowing assault weapons should be a democratic platform plank support. I had thought about the deaths before and the sacrifice of our children to the gun gods, but had forgotten to include the costs of all those police, vehicles, and military gear we supply police with, which they then can use against the people of color they go after on the side. That is too great a price and we need to stop affording and spending it.
"The Assault Weapons Ban must be reinstated — the greed of gun manufacturers be damned." I totally agree with the last sentence in Dr. Reich's posting. I taught in a high poverty Middle School for the last 23 years of my working life - retiring in 2014. My wife is still teaching and I volunteer two days a week in her first grade classroom. I remember during the final years before I retired always thinking "well, it could happen here, and what would I do if a gun toting person showed up in our school?" Every day as you're driving to work you realize you don't think it will happen here, but it COULD. My wife's classroom is in another high poverty school and the school district has made if more difficult for someone with a gun to get in, but, in reality, it wouldn't be that hard for someone like the person in today's MASSACRE of three little children (and 3 adults) who had mapped out the school - which, every time it happens, it just seems so incredibly senseless. I continue to go to the school, but at 75 I'm physically compromised to the point I wonder if I would be much help in the case of the unthinkable - that little first graders have to practice against - in lockdown drills they have no idea why we're doing them. The failure to continue the assault weapons ban back in 2004 (along with the illegal invasion of Iraq and the "stupid war" in Afghanistan) is what caused me, originally, as an independent voter, to vote AGAINST republicans. It's only gotten worse since then. The republican party IS controlled by the gun lobby and its a pall on "we the people" that we keep voting these people into office. It seems like now the republican House conference is largely controlled by MTG - I can't bring myself to write the name. I'm thankful Joe Biden is president and is calling for the re-authorization of the assault weapons ban. Sadly, it appears to me the forces of the darkest "side" of American History continues to thrive, making this a "pipe dream," and, in fact, it's only getting worse. If the legal authorities in this nation continue to seem AFRAID of, for example, holding Trump accountable for his CRIMINAL conduct "we the people" are facing "more of the same." People protesting while carrying AR-15's. It's time to put a stop to all this. The threats being bantied about regarding more violence shoould Trump face indictment are shameful. However, I say "bring it on." It really is time for "we the people" to take a stand. (Look at what is happening in places like Israel and Georgia - the country brodering Russia) where the people have clearly said "enough already!" Too many in America take our "democracy" for granted and the power of the gun lobby is one of the main reasons this nation seems to be on a precipice.
Hey fellow teacher, David! I understand the fear when working in school. I too volunteer in one of my former schools after retirement. I love doing it, in fact am about to leave for the school. I also work in a disadvantaged district with a lot of poverty and all the challenges that entails. The students don't think much of shootings in school because they have so many challenges in the rest of their lives. A school shooting does not impact them as it might other students. However, they are always on edge, ready to punch back if someone touches them, even bumps them. It is a badge of honor to get suspended. Cutting class is just a matter of routine. I tutor 8th grade math and have students who function mathematically at about a 4th grade level, if that much. I have lost 2 students to gun violence, another to murder by beating, 2 to health problems that were caused by the life lived near toxic industry, and another to a house fire because the family couldn't afford more than little space heaters in bedrooms. I admit I worry more about my students beyond the school than in school. It is clear our society cares as little for children as possible while mouthing the words about our precious children. Our Republican friends care nothing for children but, maybe their own. The rest are just future low-paid workers for their rich corporations.
We must unite and stand up to this by showing up to vote and getting everyone we know who agrees to show up to vote-for President, Senator, House Member, Governor, State legislators, council and commission, mayor, school board up and down the ballot. The politicians who refuse to heed our voices about assault and other guns are the same ones who vote the way all the other oligarchs tell them to vote. It’s time to get off our butts-stand up and speak up and vote up. If it takes rewriting the 2nd, so be it or all the way down to the gun safety laws, the most anemic for the safety of our childrens and others lives. And while I write, my own DeSantis and his lapdog legislators are passing permitless open and concealed carry of any type of gun, assault rifles notwithstanding. It has passed the FL House and its companion Bill awaits FL Senste approval which is assured and on to the even-more assured DeSantis signature into Law. Are we too lazy to have not fought harder to keep these nut cakes out of office?
I really feel that FL should test out the open carry and all the other horrible gun laws they want to pass in Congress. If none of them get shot at then they can see if it is safe outside of Congress. But moRon deathSatan wants it the other way. He doesn't want guns near him.
Richard, you are so right about getting people out to vote. I have no idea what happened in Florida in the past couple of elections. You all got a legislature that is full of "yes people" who will go along with whatever Little Ronnie tells them to do no matter who is harmed. They are practiced in just not caring. Why they were elected is a mystery, perhaps. Florida also chose a governor who is crazy with and for power, but hates everyone but people who are like him, but I am not sure who they are since he is Italian-American, once a pariah group that became white when the white population was shrinking. I can't help but wonder if the fraud Republicans are whining about is actually being perpetrated in their own red states to make sure those states stay red. No one checked since those were not "swing states" that could be challenged with some possible success to get Baby Donnie elected. Several of those red states dropped out of the program that helps limit election fraud. I am guessing they are planning to make their power permanent in those states and want to send the infection elsewhere. We need to start vaccinating people against Republican hate, lying, disinformation, fraud, fearmongering, and the rest of the anti-American, anti-democratic germs they are trying to spread.
It seems to me like Florida is a practice state for Republican mass media fakery and gerrymandering. There are too many Democrats in that state for me to explain the votes that Desantis gets, unless of course the media stream is misinformstion central. Its a model for what Republicans would like to bring to the rest of the country. It seemed to me Texas had a good Democrat fighting the governor their and he still lost. I dont see this as not good enough Democrats. Its voter intimidation (see Biden bus attack in Teaxs) and Voter suppression in Florida (see DeSantis willy nilly "voter fraud" arrests and fear mongering. Coming to a nation near you.
I just can't understand how Republicans get away with their bullying, intimidation, fraud, naming things exactly opposite of the intent, constant lying, blaming, working to take away people's rights, and so much more. I honestly don't know how we stop it and keep the disease from spreading to other states. Republicans clearly have the money for the spread, and alas, the common folks who are swamped with work, kids, family responsibilities, and so much more will go with the lies if packaged neatly with just the right amount of their ingredients: fear, hatred of certain folks, blaming, cheating, pretending, conspiracy theorizing, insulting, pseudo-Christianity and picked over scriptures,along with other ingredients as needed. Truth, information, facts, caring, kindness, concern, human rights, don't seem to be strong enough to stand against the Republican brew and they have the money to sell their garbage far more effectively than we the people who actually care do. Because of that, we will all suffer, the rich white ones somewhat later and perhaps less, but the suffering will come to their children and grandchildren too. How is it they don't know it?
And then will spend two years defending the outcome of the vote as a campaign for the next election, and nothing will get done. Look at our climate. The oceans are becoming too warm to support life, we are literally committing ego side, but the Republicans are so upset over hunters laptop. Crush the Republicans.
Since so many of you seem to like my comment, allow me to engage in some shameless self-promotion and say that my book "The Socialist Christian" eviscerates the nonsense of NRA arguments more thoroughly than I've ever seen anywhere else (if I say so myself). You can also push its readership into double digits.
The time for voting ended decades ago. Expecting this to have a political solution would be like expecting the southern states to voluntarily abandon slavery during the Compromise of 1850.
I don't understand why Americans need a assault weapon, they are not good for hunting, they vare made for killing of people and that is what these nut jobs are doing, killing humans
Assault Weapons are being used as a "Freedom bludgeon" so that the angry stampede of voters is neutralized by all the "patriots" who think giving up their assault rifle or their right to get an assault rifle somehow helps this country.
I saw Michael armoire on TV yesterday and he pointed out that only 30% of people own guns. 70% do not. Our fundamental rights and freedoms are being stolen by the corrupt fascist Republican Party. It is time for a true revolution. Our democracy is hanging by a thread. The corrupt illegitimate Supreme Court selected by the Federalist Society must be fixed. This can not stand.
Am deeply saddened by this latest mass shooting, because it comes on the heels of so many before -- yes, Robert, it makes me weep, as well. We must push for an assault weapons ban, but I think we also must push for repeal of the second amendment-- it has no legitimate purpose in today's society and I don't see the US ever getting a handle on gun violence unless and until it repeals that amendment. I am a former gun owner -- primarily for hunting. Do I see the end of the second amendment as threatening this pursuit. No more than I see requiring a license to drive a car as threatening my desire to drive. But such licensing will never happen with the second amendment in place.
The Republican Party, in it’s fervor to preserve the NRA as a continual donor, has shown through shooting down reasonable gun reform legislation that they don’t value families more than those campaign dollars.
The “family values” party is #ProSTRIFE. If a child is not in the womb, it means far less, even when it can suffer pain and a lifetime of PTSD fear.
It would seem the AR-15, in its list of selling points, should include giving killers more confidence that the havoc they cause will make them more famous.
Todd: You speak as if Repooplickins are the only ones who get bribes, aka contributions, from the NRA or gun makers. I haven’t checked, but I’ll bet $1 that that isn’t the case.
Humans will be a lot safer when DINOs are extinct.
I think Americans should begin to use the strategy often used by the French: national strikes. We know that the majority of Americans support certain things (bans on assault weapons, background checks, etc.; reproductive rights; voting rights; health care reform, etc.) but their wishes are ignored and overriden by, primarily, Republicans who do NOT represent us, often not literally and almost always not figuratively.
If American citizens organized national strikes - i.e. work stoppages - to DEMAND genuine representation, things might change since clearly nothing is going to change under the status quo. When assault weapons are used to murder children in schools and nothing is done by our "representatives" - not about guns and not about the mentally ill - and this goes on for YEARS, we must use different strategies. When an elected member to the United States Congress from Georgia actually chases and harasses a young man who, as a high school student in Florida, survived a horrific school shooting and she was so proud of her bullying him that she arranged for it to be on film so she could parade her ugly cruelty in the name of gun-worship to her fans and HE is "the enemy" in her eyes, we have to use different strategies. When the majority of Americans support very basic, common sense changes to gun laws, to reproductive rights laws, to voting rights laws and our wishes and support are ignored, we must use different strategies. When the primary instigator and chief seditionist and his mob are still free and roaming the country and the media with their un-American/anti-American traitorous lies and fraud, we must demand that the rule of law actually be honored by our law enforcement and judicial systems!
When elections don't seem to yield honest representation, and we repeatedly see too many of those who are getting and being elected using their elected position as a path to self-enrichment with corruption and fraud as an m.o., then we must use other strategies to force them to REPRESENT us!
National strikes, bringing everything to a screeching halt, might get their attention and our demands might result in change. When these bullying cowards find life made difficult and inconvenient for themselves, maybe they will stop with the "thoughts and prayers" and actually MAKE THINGS BETTER, SAFER, SANER for all of us and most especially for little kids simply going to school!
Annie Cross, I love the idea of a national protest. You're absolutely correct about the effects of a national strike to save our rights: "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness".
But how do we go about it? We know there are enough like minds in this group of "Reich substack lovers" myself included, that are truly appalled by what has transpired since the assault weapons ban had expired.
Start with Gym Jordan. “Democrats are going to turn this tragic event into a political thing.”
So said GOP Rep. Jim Jordan when he canceled a hearing to de-regulate “pistol straps,” devices that enhance the killing efficiency of pistols. The hearing was scheduled for Monday—the day that the latest mass shooting claimed the lives of seven people in Tennessee. As is almost universally true, the killer used assault weapons to kill their victims. The cowardly Jim Jordan did not want Democrats to use the hearing to highlight that Republicans care more about blood money from lobbyists than they care about the lives of schoolchildren.
It is difficult for me to even "think" of him as I find him one of the most contemptible, repulsive ones among his entire cohort of contemptible, repulsive psychopaths. He has repeatedly shown himself to be nothing but a loud bully and like all bullies is an utter coward, a fearful little, little man without any evidence of morality or conscience. That entire club of insane power-mongers who hold sway over all our lives with their vile, sadistic, craven and profoundly deranged personalities must be brought up short by a populace that is finally reaching the breaking point of tolerance for the monstrous power America has given to very disturbed psychopaths - those who buy guns and kill people as well as those who sit in their elevated seats in Congress and bully those in seats placed lower than the bullies' so the bullies can badger and yell and interrupt and do all but pummel witnesses, all for lunatic games and agendas; the bullies tacitly cheer their fellow psychopaths in the streets, schools, churches of America, carrying their big war-guns around, pretending to be real men, "patriotic" women. They are neither. They are profoundly deranged, dangerous, cowardly lunatics - and America has given them power. They have power to endorse the killing of America's children, of America's citizens, and they continue to use that power to continue the killing. Has America really lost all touch with any sense of morality, decency, SANITY?!
Trump stands in Waco, Texas and tells - again - endless outright lies, lies about EVERYTHING - and that crowd cheers and laughs and buys his merchandise and sends him money - and he, and they, continue to destroy OUR country.
If there were a "crowd-fund" for the Ohio State student-athletes who were victims of sexual assaults and abuse and who have asserted that Gym Jordan knew all about it and did nothing - coward and bully that he is - who would be willing to accuse him of complicity or whatever other legal charge might pertain, I would support it in a heartbeat. To get the likes of Gym Jordan, Rand Paul, Marjorie Taylor Green, Lauren Boebert, Paul Goshar, Louis Gohmert, fake folksy/good old boys the Kennedys from Louisiana and the Deep South by way of the Ivy League and Oxford, Josh (fists-up, run-run-run) Hawley, Kevin- "I'd Do Anything for That Woman" (the Jewish laser Q-Anon Queen Green) McCarthy..... and that too long list out of casting for "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" except they're real,, not fiction, and they hold power and "we" pay them to exercise their lunatic power over us all and they are destroying OUR country!
My effort is to keep raising the issue everywhere I can, whether in public forums or general conversations. Maybe if enough "like minds" take up the idea, it can develop wings and take off. It is something that obviously needs widespread collective effort and support. I am absolutely opposed to violent actions and worry that any collective action would generate violence - because, well, America - but if enough non-violent but profoundly angry and disgusted real Americans (those who still believe in democracy, the rule of law, accountability, honest government, for example) join forces and take to the streets all across America, "they" might at long last stop their insane goose-stepping to the abyss that is the end of this beautiful experiment of government and its people. Who else can stop them and why are we not doing it? It boggles the mind what "they" keep getting away with - "they" being those who are elected to represent US, the American citizens!
What kind of entity allows, even encourages, the slaughter of CHILDREN in school?! What kind of human beings ignore the cries for rational, simple, sane restrictions of even some weapons, not even ALL weapons, just some weapons. Those gun-worshippers don't take their war-guns out to shoot deer or squirrels; they are taking them out to shoot CHILDREN and people in church or in a grocery store!!
America is electing psychopaths and allowing them to make psychopathic decisions that govern and control our lives, our VERY lives and the lives of those we love and care about - old, young, all races and religions, ALL of us in the control of amoral psychopaths! How long are we going to tolerate it?!
I speak subject to correction, but I think the French have a national pension/retirement system, so the government has the ability to fuck with their pensions and retirement laws all at once. Plus the French seem to have more powerful and militant unions and are thus more readily able to take organized collective action.
Thanks, many of us agree. Unfortunately still to many in US would not attend and many would be fearing repercussions if they protested and a camera caught them in the right place doing the right thing and mass or social media published the images, sad really we cannot be like the French on protests when the situation warrants it and protect them by law for doing it
Unfortunately, I think there is truth in your assessment, but that very fact is itself an example of what has happened to our country. There are countries whose populations face REAL danger when they take to the streets to protest - think back to not so long ago when the streets of Hong Kong were filled night after night/day after day with protesters out trying to preserve their vestiges of a free nation; the dangers to them, their lives, their freedom,, their families was/is real and they did it anyway. Russians protesting Russia's invasion and war crimes in Ukraine - facing real dangers. The former Soviet state of Georgia - protesters facing real dangers. What is going on in Israel now where a Trump-like corrupt oligarchic-dictator trying to take over the country's judiciary (Trump-like and horrifically German Reich-like in an unimaginable irony!) is met with huge crowds protesting day after day. And France in what likely seems to Americans an absurd objection of raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 but where citizens are protesting the way that decision was made - an edict perceived as dictatorial, and furious protesters took to the streets because they refuse to be treated like helpless pawns!
What do we stand for, we Americans? What do we believe and believe in? Better and more TV? More drugs? More pornography? A faster return to the Dark Ages? An intensifying decline to corrupt, decaying, contaminated conditions?
What do we stand for? What do we believe in? Why are we not electing people who represent what we stand for and believe in rather than electing those who use the power we LOAN to them in a democratic contract of trust that they will do the right things, only to see them do things that are harmful and destructive.
We are giving our power, our wealth and treasure, our environment, our children and elders, our schools, our hopes and plans over to the control of psychopaths. Why?
Recently in the UK there have been trailers on our cable TV for a programme in which a presenter was visiting 'interesting people' in the USA. The bit that truly horrified me was of a 9 year old girl, holding an assault weapon, boasting that she has 36 guns 'just for her' and saying 'we are going to have so much fun' as she demonstrates firing off her weapon. I have had to turn it off every time as even the tiny clip in the trailer makes my feel physically sick. In what sort of 'civilised country' can this possibly be considered normal or acceptable?
I live in Australia. After one mass shooting at Port Arthur, Tasmania, the government banned such weapons. Guess what.... no mass shootings again. Yes there are "shoot outs" between criminal gangs with illegal guns, but not people going into a school and shooting people up. More fool Americans!
I live in Scotland and exactly the same happened after the 1996 Dunblane school shootings. What I find totally impossible to understand is that so many of those that insist on their right to bear arms, including assault weapons, also claim to be devout Christians. But they don't seem to follow the teachings. What ever happened to 'Thou salt not kill"? But again, it would appear that tiny bundles of cells that may or may not become an actual person are considered far more important than an actual child or adult. There just are no words.....
The "Christian" religion in America has been stolen, and corrupted, by those who believe "their way is the only way". I asked a once-friend his definition of "woke", and he couldn't answer, after I offered mine. It was "awakened to the needs of others. To be well-informed, thoughtful, compasionate, humble, and kind. Eager to make the world a better place for all people." Kind of a paraphrase of the words of Jesus, yet the "Christian Right" in this country won't accept THE WORDS OF THEIR SAVIOUR!! as words to live by. It is a sad time to be an American.
It would seem Christian Nationals are on the defensive stating that Christianity is under attack. Not sure by whom as I dont see it. The propaganda machine is in overdrive to convince them that somehow their faith is being threatened. I heard it last week and over the weekend. How can someone who doesnt walk the path of Jesus (Trump) be considered doing gods work? Thats a real stretch, unless of course the news they are watching doesnt mention or minimizes his discretions and maximizes his fight for White Christian Nationals. To quote the NY Times on Trumps Waco rally. "Trump gets back to grass roots campaigning" Not Trump endorses the Jan 6th insurection, endorses violence and discrimination against AG Bragg and commemorates Branch Dividian David Koresh a known child sex offender and cult leader. Christian Nationalists for Violence, Discrimination and Child abuse. That pretty much sums it up. The ends do not justify the means.
Can't help thinking,'rump is another Jim Jones of Guyana fame.
At his height Jim Jones had 3000 followers. 900 of which committed or were forced to commit suicide. The last election saw 74,000,000 people vote for him. If you take the same Jim Jones numbers that means Trump has 22 million people ready to die for him. Yippee.
Oh yes, I think you might have hit the nail on the head with that one. So many people are gullible and easily led by someone who can put on a good spiel. Trump is a greedy charlatan who craves the limelight. He got heady of the trappings of being President and wants to hang on to the feelings he gets from having such devoted followers. Like he once said he could shoot and kill someone in the middle of 5th Ave and his people would still support him. People in general are loathe to admit they might be wrong.
Hahaha
The Evangelical and conservative christians faiths are feeding these lies to their congregation. The followers are brainwashed or a cult. We are in a religious war.
A relative of mine is an Elder in an born again faith and what I overheard him talking about. Yeap that is exactly how it is going down.
So many of them think in absolutes, so they see the issue of their way of believing as vs other ways of believing, in a zero sum manner. So their logic is - if you don't believe as I do, you diminish my beliefs. If people who don't believe as I do are given the same rights as I have, then I lose my rights. Not logical, pretty childish, but there it is.
Ive heard before "I will do what I want". When it comes to laws they never apply to the selfish person only to everyone else around them when it benefits them. Dare to apply those same laws to them and you are infringing on their rights. In reality telling them they can't do something. Then the adult tantrum comes out. I'm on board with your thinking. One time I had an abortion discussion with a MAGA friend. His opinion was sacrosanct I couldnt budge him in anyway to see it slightly differently or sympathically. It was like he was arguing a position that was already established law and everyone followed it. Perhaps I was arguing with his echo chamber more than with him.
@Daniel. Thank you. It's a service to define this term above its origins in black communities. My take on it, building on what you already said: Woke... Awakened to the needs of others, compassionate, humble, thoughtful and kind. To be well informed and seek to make the world a better place for all people. To practice the tenets of the world's major religions.
Awakened, not Woke. Educated not Indoctrinated.!!
Better Woke than Wack!
Exactly. "Woke" is the opposite of love/compassion/kindness. It's all about control, rage, judgment. It's inherently anti-Democratic. I'm not saying Republicans are the answer. But neither is Wokeism.
Michael Mohr
"Sincere American Writing"
https://michaelmohr.substack.com/
There are as many definitions of 'woke' as there are people trying to define it, but mostly it's an us vs them term in actual use. You say it's anti-Democratic, with capital D. Other guy speaks as if it were Jesus compassion... Thinking in terms of woke meaning 'awake' it means to be alert and honest in seeing each new how the world operates. One side uses it to bash people for their opinions; the other side uses it seek to get people to have informed opinions. As for me I'd rather be awake than have my head stuck in the sand of whatever the latest conspiracy theory might be. If that means I am woke then woke is a good thing.
The MAGAt/GOP use of "woke" is all that, but its original use has nothing to do with that. Take some time to understand what it is and where it comes from. For myself, I'm staying woke--and liberal, and progressive, and dedicated to objectivity, facts, and democracy.
The idea of Wokeness, originated in the African American communities, where it meant recognition of an injustice.
This is a perfect explanation of Hypocrisy and hubris of the self-righteous extremist whom we are constantly confronted with. Well said. Well written. Eyes Open!
Trump as Jesus
https://twitter.com/i/status/1639362806712524818
Omg, Daniel thanks for sending that. Utterly terrifying but it really is where the country is right now, and may remain, under the dominance of Christian Nationalism...we're totally screwed.
NO WE ARE NOT<WE ARE NOT RESIGNED AND DON"T ACCEPT THAT!
A look into a bizarre and terrifying dark world.
Heard that one on the Medias touch yesterday. That is REALLY scary.
I'd be delighted to see Trump crucified. He could be cremated and his ashes flushed down a public toilet.
Very well said! My thoughts exactly.
As the old quip goes, "The Christian right is neither."
As a gun owner...as if those words have more power than as a non gun owner. Those whos lives have been destroyed by gun violence have as much right as gun owners in determing gun laws. Gun companies should have zero say. Citizens united decision be damned.
TheNRA obviously has NO CONSCIENCE,I'm going to the GOOD LORD about this!
The so-called "pro life" coalition only cares for the fetus, not the child, or the adults who bear those children.
One way of caring for children is to BAN ASSAULT WEAPONS. Needless to say, the ridiculously named "pro-life" army is in FULL support of keeping these weapons legal, these same weapons which are so often in mass murders of little, born children.
There's difficulty in defining an 'assault weapon' such that a clever designer cannot get around the regulation. Consider a ban on any weapon/ammunition combination that can produce more than a certain level of kinetic energy at the muzzle. It may seem too technical but should reduce fatalities and the severity of wounds.
Perfect. You might want to take a lookat this article from today's Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/interactive/2023/ar-15-damage-to-human-body/?itid=hp-top-table-main_p001_f001
Saw the article. As an infantry corpsman in the 70s also saw the real thing.
Its such a sin. Caring for that which isnt yet (cells the fetus) over that which is (the deformed, the drug addicted baby, the malnutritioned child). Its a type of future faking. Look see I care about this nebulous concept of a child to be, so I dont have to care about actual children. Cause once you have them, its pull yourself up by your bootstraps timr again. You aint getting any help from them. They are too busy "saving the future".
The difficulty with "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" is that it's hard to do if you can't afford boots!
If you think about it, it's impossible even if you have boots.
Believe me, they don’t even know what “ fetus “ means! They know what power and control mean! That is all... no accountability. One hundred year prison sentence for anyone hurting another human or otherwise animal should send a a notice that we will not give up our freedom to be safe and to have private choice to their maniacal need to be tyrants over us. Jesus !
Seonaid ; Control, control control! Not love, or freedom or anything like that. Power!, and , of course, Greed.
So tragically true Laurie.
What too many don't accept,power is for God!
Neither will work in 'Murica though. 'Muricans cling DESPERATELY to their THOUGHT that The Second Amendment, which exists SOLELY for Militias, ACTUALLY gives us 'Muricans the OBLIGATION to have a gun to kill . . . those different than us??? I really cannot fathom their reasoning, as I DID go to a New York college.
It makes them feel valid,'cos they know they're not!
Seonaid , you couldn’t be more right! They use the title “Christian” as an excuse not a lifestyle.
They talk the talk and don't walk the walk!
Donald Hodgins
Writes Donald’s Substack
2 min ago
I know I'll probably get flak for my stance on gun control. To those who might object. If your doctor says to you, "I have some bad news about your tests." The patient is then told he has cancer of the femur and the leg has to come off. The guy objects but the doctor reaffirms his earlier statement, you lose your leg or you lose your life. What does the guy do? Sometimes the pill that does us the most good is the hardest to swallow. Ban assault rifles.
I hate to be called foolish and you are totally right. We knew how to fix this before and our politicians play dumb and stunned as the death toll mounts and mounts. Foolish? I would go so far as to say we as Americans are Criminally Negligent.
As The Onion headline said a few years ago:
“No Way To Prevent This, says only country where this routinely happens”
Bill Reitz ; Or living under siege ; Fear is a part of it, no doubt, for those in office. Of course, the present 'Congress' wants to open carry!
Some reps even want to carry inside the Nation’s Capitol!
Miss Marjorie and Bimbubbles need a major brain dusting!
If they had brains
Andy Harris was caught doing it.
... and yet no one ever says "Hang Andy Harris!"
= (
Only the thugs in Congress,they're the worst 'perps'.
It's not foolish it's completely Asinine.
Murderous
The love of money and addiction to violence as entertainment in the US has helped fuel this. The issue around guns in the US makes me so ill that I can’t even think about it. To value guns over children. I remember what happened in Australia and the action taken was so inspired. Thanks for writing your comment.
The biggest part I see besides open murder laws is stagnant wages, good jobs being replaced with minimum wage jobs leading to broken homes. Gun laws (or the lack there of) is the symptom. Being poor is the problem. How many rich kids shoot up schools lately? Maybe shoot up Heroine or Cocaine but schools never.
Bill Reitz: Totally disagree! Take a look at the mass murderers in schools! Adam Lanza's father was a bigwig with GM. Dylan Klebold's father was an Engineer. Audrey Hale was a graphic designer and illustrator. The vast majority of school shooters are from middle class homes.
I dont consider middle class. Rich.
These kids were NOT "poor", though! (And apparently Lanza's family was wealthy.)
One family is not a majority and the majority of these kids went to public school. If your are really wealthy you dont go to public school. This is the bottom 222 million of us killing each other whether it be from white supremist rhetoric or crappy living conditions and no health care. The goal is to keep all of us fighting each other. Metaphorically and literally. So the rich just keep getting richer. Ie the top 1%.
I've begun to believe this is more than just a money grab by the Gun lobby. for one, It is another issue to divide the majority with. But why are Republican politicians trying to create the wild wild west where it's 'kill or be killed'... unlimited access to weapons, without any prerequisites or requirements, along with legislation that protects you for killing someone, even when you are the aggressor (Trayvon Martin). Is this an effort to give cult members with mental issues the tools and leeway they need to "stand up and stand by" until you send them dog whistles to 'storm the capital' to keep you in office, or instruct them to kill a prosecutor or judge to prevent them from charging you with a crime??? Is this some form of population control or a way for the wealthy/powerful to 'get off' while they watch the blood and carnage from 'on high'?
Kasich speaks on this topic: https://youtu.be/cdjScH9BLVw
I've heard about this. It's amazing, for sure, but that's a very different and much less diverse culture than the States. False equivalency. It's like people who argue that because "socialism" works in Finland it should work in the United States.
As with most Americans, you obviously know very little about Australia. It is a very multi-cultural and multi-ethnic and multi-racial society, that prides itself in its diversity. The colonial period was just as bad on the native peoples as it was in the USA. It is a robust democracy with all the same problems of inflation, poverty, disadvantage etc. that the USA has. Actually it is a LOT like the USA as I realised when I immigrated here. Your sweeping generality is incorrect and does not make your point AT ALL.
The party of “pro life” only cares until the child is born, then they couldn’t care less. Hence all the “thoughts and prayers” but no action to stop the atrocities.
It seems in our Capitalistic society collateral damage is to be expected. If we don't put certain measures in place to control big business we are all subject to the pit falls found in our culture. Gun production is just a part of the problem but at present it holds the moist relevance because our people are dying on a daily basis from the bullets fired from the weapons these companies produce. Republicans, for a number of reasons, will fight controls placed upon these companies because they'll site Second Amendments rights. When will they consider the innocent lives lost and the rights they never had a chance to enjoy. Ban all military style weapons, yesterday.
Nor will they bother to actually read the 2nd Amendment. In this day and age, we have a standing army, and a national guard! The purpose of the 2nd was that, at that time, there was no army or national guard. But, like Christianity in this country, it too, has been corrupted.
Daniel-- Now, it is our intent to educate our people to your level of understanding. How do we do that?
Indeed!
Anyone that has an inclining as to who Sky King was must have a good grip on the past. In the first episodes a Cessna T-50 rules the skies and later a Cessna 310B took over. The "Sky" guy sure got around.
If you are referring to the article I attached, in order to actually have been in a militia, had to muster, be sworn. Before that we had at common law the theory of posse comitatus, the high sheriff could deputize a citizen to enforce the law.
Hamilton laid it out in the Federalist papers. " It requires no skill in the science of war to discern that uniformity in the organization and discipline of the militia would be attended with the most beneficial effects, whenever they were called into service for the public defense. It would enable them to discharge the duties of the camp and of the field with mutual intelligence and concert an advantage of peculiar moment in the operations of an army; and it would fit them much sooner to acquire the degree of proficiency in military functions which would be essential to their usefulness. This desirable uniformity can only be accomplished by confiding the regulation of the militia to the direction of the national authority."
"In times of insurrection, or invasion, it would be natural and proper that the militia of a neighboring State should be marched into another, to resist a common enemy, or to guard the republic against the violence of faction or sedition. This was frequently the case, in respect to the first object, in the course of the late war; and this mutual succor is, indeed, a principal end of our political association. If the power of affording it be placed under the direction of the Union, there will be no danger of a supine and listless inattention to the dangers of a neighbor, till its near approach had superadded the incitements of self preservation to the too feeble impulses of duty and sympathy."
https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed29.asp
The "militia" referred to by Thomas Jefferson were slave patrols.
What about "well regulated?" Doesn't mean individuals have a right to own any weapon. Some people say that in 1791 meant "well trained."
Despite what you say, it was discussed by Hamilton in No 29 Federalist Papers. Was not included in the Constitution per se, added by Jefferson, who had been the governor of Virginia. Hamilton envisioned a national reserve.
https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/southern-slave-patrols-transitional-police-type#:~:text=The%20slave%20patrols%20consisted%20of,of%20colonial%20and%20State%20laws.
To me the whole 2nd ammendment argument is BS. That was meant for single shot muzzle loaded rifles. Now we have semi/full auto assault rifles machine guns rocket launchers and atomic bombs. There is no argument about most of those higher damage items. I dont see why semi/full auto assualt rifles arent banned in the same way as rocket and grenade launchers. Thats not a 2nd amendment argument. Being able to kill a ton of people is not a right.
Donald Hodgins
Writes Donald’s Substack
just now
A gun doesn't care if it operates by the gas expelled from the previous round or if a finger pulls the trigger. The out come when pointing the weapon at another human being is death. Odd, Republicans are so against abortion why is it they find no objection to taking a life with a bullet.
I know I'll probably get flak for my stance on gun control. To those who might object. If your doctor says to you, "I have some bad news about your tests." The patient is then told he has cancer of the femur and the leg has to come off. The guy objects but the doctor reaffirms his earlier statement, you lose your leg or you lose your life. What does the guy do? Sometimes the pill that does us the most good is the hardest to swallow. Ban assault rifles.
Yes all Military style weapons, ie semi auto (post full auto) assault rifles need to be FFL license only and not purchaseable by the general population. Laws were changed to stop the proliferation of Tommy Guns. The same should be done for their more powerful cousins. (Semi auto is only a few parts away from full auto, the argument that a semi auto assualt rifle is so much different from a full auto one is semantics to those kids lying dead in the hallway).
A gun doesn't care if it operates by the gas expelled from the previous round or if a finger pulls the trigger. The out come when pointing the weapon at another human being is death. Odd, Republicans are so against abortion why is it they find no objection to taking a life with a bullet.
Nashville.
Donald Hodgins <silencenotbad@gmail.com>
3:58 PM (2 minutes ago)
Gun reform! How about starting with any individual that attempts to purchase more than one gun in a 6 month period? If there was a restriction in place people might buy guns that have a purpose, hunting, self-defense, or sports shooting like trap and skeet where clay pigeons are shot not people. Target shooting is a great sport, I taught all of my kids the ins and outs of safe gun handling. I have two rules that I live by when dealing with firearms. #1-there is no such thing as an unloaded gun. You treat every weapon as if it was loaded and ready to fire. #2-When presented with a firearm you personally inspect the weapon to make sure the chamber is empty and all magazines are set aside. This rule would have saved the set of "Rust" a terrible ending. Never give an unloaded gun the chance to take a life. When someone tries to purchase multiple weapons in a short period of time red flags should go up and questions should be asked. Tom Cruise would say we live in a "Danger Zone" and how we deal with the realities of that situation will determine whether or not we as a society make it through this time. We need gun control and background checks.
i thought "collateral damage" was ritual sacrifice? y'know, to keep the gods of war happy. or the gods of profit, or whatever. sacrifice is an age old expression of fear of the unknown. so they must be sacrificing children because they fear an unknown reality where equality, justice, diversity, equal rights under the law, etc. prevail, 'cause , y'know people of color and antifa.
Paul--When you see a child playing with matches, what do you do? You take away the problem. Make it illegal to take an assault rifle to a gun range. Make it illegal to have an assault rifle in public. You can own one but you can't use the thing, anywhere.
or make the sale of ammunition illegal or tax it at least to the inverse degree that corporations don't pay their fair share.
Donald: Including the ones in the hands of the police.
Derek, heck, Republicans don't even really care about the fetus. If they did, pregnant women would have accommodations at work, paid sick leave, their prenatal care covered, etc. Republicans only care about white power and as much money as they can accumulate. Women in public life are just one of the problems they want to get rid of or use to get themselves more money and more power. Force women to be pregnant, don't provide for health care or child care, think rape and incest are OK(as long as it's not done to someone they love), etc. works well for those supposed family loving Republican men, and their women go along so they can bathe in their men's glory. Republicans are so used to lying, dismissing, pretending they are not the problem, and the rest that they are programming themselves and those in their spheres to vote for a letter "R" rather than examine the person with that letter next to their name. Guns are a powerful issue because many Republican men are afflicted with toxic masculinity for which they see AR-15s and other assault weapons as an enhancement, an extra member.
Ruth-- Be nice, women couldn't get pregnant in the first place without that special member. But you are so right. Pregnancy isn't given the level of basic consideration it needs so badly. The death rate surrounding women under going this special event is exceptionally high in this country, maybe "men" in positions of power should reassess their positions on the subject. After all it's their children the women are giving birth to.
Some excellent points!!!
Off-topic usage note: Dismayingly, the android smartphone Substack ui recently removed the "collapse" option labeled under every comment that let you reduce screen clutter. What Substack didn't tell you: You still CAN collapse report cards and other banality—tap on the vertical to the comment's left. Try it. You'll like it.
They are "pro birth" not pro life. They need to replenish the supply of targets. Their thoughts are evil, and as for their prayers, Ambrose Bierce said it best in his "Devil's Dictionary." To pray: To ask that the laws of the universe be violated for the selfish purposes of a person who is in the same breath admitting that he's not worthy of it.
Agree wholeheartedly with you Mr. Green. The bulk of the Republican party, or what is left of it, are 'pro birth' because if I may be somewhat frank, are only pro birth because they want more white babies to be born regardless of the circumstances of the mother. After birth, they could care less what happens to that child because they don't support SNAP or food assistance program or support their education by paying the educators who teach them. So why on earth would they care about them being shot and killed almost monthly. Not with the crazies in Congress like Lauren Boehart , who actually took and posted a picture of her and her children holding guns and seemed proud to do so. Those folk don't really give a hoot about other folks and their children being killed and traumatized as they are paid very handsomely by the NRA. It's very sad to say that I don't see the restrictions on the AR-15's ever coming back. Not unless enough residents in those states really decide to stop sending those people back to Congress and vote to send representatives to Congress who really care about them. Or perhaps I'm living in a la la land and hoping for too much.
They are calling for more white folks to have babies so the whites are not outnumbered. The flip side of the bonkers "Great Replacement" theory. Personally I can think of a few white people that deserve to be replaced.
Greg, I remember Paul Ryan talking about this exact thing when he was Speaker.
Dennis, they are not pro birth. They are forced birthers.
They don't really care about that either. It's just a way to control women.
William--Every man knows controlling women is a dream not a reality.
Donald, do they? Is this why so many women end up beaten or dead?
DLM--The idea of control doesn't include cruelty or death. It's a passive means directed toward just understanding one another. My comment was meant in gest. Sorry if it hit a nerve. I have the deepest respect for the sanctity of women.
I think this really saids it all about the now Republic party!
After the shooting in Uvalde Texas, some of the victims were unrecognizable because of the gunshot wounds to their faces.
So what did the Texas state legislature do? They did nothing to ban assault weapons, instead they offered free DNA tests so the next time (and they certainly seemed to think there would be a next time) the parents wouldn’t be traumatized by having to identify their unrecognizable children’s bodies.
At the Michigan State shooting, there were at least two students that had survived school shootings in another school. One was from Sandy Hook, and the other from a local high school. Imagine surviving one school shooting only to go through that trauma again. What are the odds of that? Apparently it’s becoming more likely for our younger generations.
I would like to see a nationwide strike where students from grade school through college refuse to go to school until at the very least assault weapons are banned. It might take some time but I think it’s the only way to send the message to lawmakers that our schools are unsafe. Students have every right to go to school without the possibility of being shot and killed. It’s time to make lawmakers see the obvious.
These "assault" weapons were manufactured to maim, NOT for self-defense...
Oh, pardon me, but marketed to "look cool!"
David, I did have vision at one time and never thought guns looked cool, only evil, even when used in war. It is clear the reason for guns is killing, whether animals for hunting or people just because hate is allowed to become so powerful, and an excuse. How do we change the perception of guns as cool, a male enhancement (that women sometimes crave too)? How do we protect our precious children when our representatives are so in love with the idea of guns and the money they will receive from gun manufacturers for loving guns or being willing to claim our Constitution permits anyone at any time to carry around loaded weapons while it supposedly denies women bodily autonomy? They make it up as they go along so the money will continue to roll in and they will have a job for life.
Gerrymandering will make sure the people in their district are set to only see a letter "R" while they are supplied with the right people to hate and blame and have guns to protect themselves from. That is not the way democracy should work
Yeah, that Rittenhouse punk really looks cool.
high velocity, low mass and inertia projectile, which equals high mutilation due to tumble of projectile. Such a weapon is also known as a "varmint" rifle since the edibility of the flesh is of no interest.
Hence the frequent need for parents to bring DNA records to identify what is left of their children.
The AR-15 and its clones ARE varmint rifles. The .223 cal. round MUST be banned.
My family has owned firearms in this country since the 17th century, and never needed a rapid-fire weapon to defend its homes or livestock from assailants, although some of them have fought in nearly every war fought here since the mid-1600s. Obsession with assault-style rifles is a symptom of genital insecurity.
Anything with a trigger. End of discussion.
high velocity, high capacity
And semi- or full automatic, or capable of being converted to full automatic, including by "bump stocks" and other gadgets.
Project. We had a ban and it was effective. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Assault_Weapons_Ban
" limited and inconclusive."
BS. During the ban numbers dropped. After the ban, rose.
"We identified five qualifying studies that estimated the effects of state assault weapon bans on different aspects of mass shootings. Gius (2015c) found that these bans significantly reduce mass shooting deaths but have uncertain effects on injuries resulting from mass shootings. Using similar models, however, Gius (2018) found that assault weapon bans resulted in significantly fewer casualties (deaths and nonfatal injuries) from school shootings. Using a data set similar to that used in Gius (2015c), Luca, Malhotra, and Poliquin (2016) found uncertain effects of state assault weapon bans on the annual incidence of mass shootings. Blau, Gorry, and Wade (2016) found that the bans significantly reduced the annual incidence of mass shootings. Webster et al. (2020) found uncertain evidence of state assault weapon bans on mass shooting incidents and fatalities. Considering our assessment of these findings and the relative strengths of these studies, we find inconclusive evidence for the effect of assault weapon bans on mass shootings.
We also identified two studies that examined the effects of high-capacity magazine bans on mass shootings. Webster et al. (2020) found significant or suggestive associations between these state bans and lower rates of mass shooting incidents. Klarevas, Conner, and Hemenway (2019) also found that state-level high-capacity magazine bans were associated with fewer mass shootings and deaths in incidents in which a high-capacity magazine was used, as well as suggestive reductions in all mass shooting incidents and deaths (including those that did not involve a high-capacity magazine). Considering our assessment of these findings and the relative strengths of these studies, we find limited evidence that high-capacity magazine bans reduce mass shootings."
https://www.rand.org/research/gun-policy/analysis/ban-assault-weapons/mass-shootings.html
The elephant in the room is too damn many guns- mental illness exists all over the world.
A strike. Yes. With parents showing kids how to make signs, walk picket lines and writing to and calling their politicians.
Bill, I like the idea of a strike, but alas, college students are vulnerable since they have to pay for their education, often with loans, and their loans keep accumulating interest whether they are in class or on the picket line. It would be a great thing to see, though!
Good point. But I was actually thinking of a K -12 strike. Parents and kids. Hand in hand. Signs that shout "Enough!".
"Ban Personal WMDs!"
Israel could inspire us...
I thought the same thing this morning,every parent in America should jump up and down and SCREAM,perhaps at least100 million petitions would be effective.
I agree Ruth, and that’s another thing we need to take on, the cost of further education. But first we need to make getting an education safe.
I had a student loan that took me over twenty years to pay off. The same money would have bought a house back then. So I do understand.
College students went on strike all the time to protest the war in the sixties. This is a war. It’s a war on unarmed children. It’s a matter of solidarity, strength in numbers.
This is all a big ask and will take major planning. It’s in the germination stage but please everyone, be thinking on it.
There is an article in todays Washington Post
(3
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/interactive/2023/ar-15-damage-to-human-body/
sorry I’m using my phone and cut myself off. This article is a must read.I’m hoping there isn’t a paywall. I’m seriously starting to work out the strike plans. There’s much to be done, anyone have any thoughts? Please if you possibly can check out the WaPo link.
Susan: The French left has been a master of this for decades.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_68
I see that Daniel Cohn-Bendit is still alive.
Also, last night I watched "The Movement and the Madman" on "American Experience" on PBS... about the organizing of the 1969 Vietnam Moratorium and how it prevented Nixon from carrying out his plan to nuke Vietnam. It's a graduate class in grassroots organizing. Makes me proud I was there. (Saw a few old comrades in the video!)
A major take-home from the experience was said to be that even though it seemed like nothing was changing in Nixon's policies, but the impact of the movement - even that early - was enormous. The participants never knew that until years later when the full history was revealed.
I highly recommend it, Keep your eye out for it, or look for it on PBS Passport.
Another technique that was crucial to building the early anti-war movement among students (which I was at the time) were the Teach-Ins that proliferated across hundreds of campuses in the late '60s.
Of course, the murders at Kent State and Jackson State did more to galvanize the student movement than anything else. Nowadays, sadly, it seems like it takes a lot more bodies to get politicians' attention.
Nationwide strike- yes. But it needs to be adults and not the kids. If kids strike, the Republican state governments would just use that as an excuse to end all public education. Besides, it shouldn't be the kids responsibility- it is adults who conceived them into a world that uses them as a shooting gallery.
Project: I am sure kids, especially Black kids, will feel perfectly safe and ready to learn while surrounded by armed cops, like Uvalde’s finest, who were afraid to respond when they found out the shooter had an AR-15… just like them.
I think that's an excellent idea.
The United States lost its collective soul after Sandy Hook. If we can accept the daily grisly slaughter, young bodies ripped and shredded apart by a weapon “with exceptional lethality,” there is no moral ground to stand on. The gun lobby and gun manufacturers wealthy stockholders are literally calling the shots and they get deadlier and deadlier. America is no longer a safe place to live.
For a low tax loving country, the US seems to be very willing to pay the NRA tax, 30-50.000 lives, mass shootings and massive investments in SWAT teams, armoured vehicles, body armour for police and dozens of extra police officers as they need to be ready for assault rifle war on every street corner.
Bram, maybe the cost of allowing assault weapons should be a democratic platform plank support. I had thought about the deaths before and the sacrifice of our children to the gun gods, but had forgotten to include the costs of all those police, vehicles, and military gear we supply police with, which they then can use against the people of color they go after on the side. That is too great a price and we need to stop affording and spending it.
The GOP stands for:
Guns Over People
MAGA : Make Attorneys Get Attorneys
We need to disrupt our sociopathic system that does nothing to protect children. There are really no words to adequately describe this horror.
"The Assault Weapons Ban must be reinstated — the greed of gun manufacturers be damned." I totally agree with the last sentence in Dr. Reich's posting. I taught in a high poverty Middle School for the last 23 years of my working life - retiring in 2014. My wife is still teaching and I volunteer two days a week in her first grade classroom. I remember during the final years before I retired always thinking "well, it could happen here, and what would I do if a gun toting person showed up in our school?" Every day as you're driving to work you realize you don't think it will happen here, but it COULD. My wife's classroom is in another high poverty school and the school district has made if more difficult for someone with a gun to get in, but, in reality, it wouldn't be that hard for someone like the person in today's MASSACRE of three little children (and 3 adults) who had mapped out the school - which, every time it happens, it just seems so incredibly senseless. I continue to go to the school, but at 75 I'm physically compromised to the point I wonder if I would be much help in the case of the unthinkable - that little first graders have to practice against - in lockdown drills they have no idea why we're doing them. The failure to continue the assault weapons ban back in 2004 (along with the illegal invasion of Iraq and the "stupid war" in Afghanistan) is what caused me, originally, as an independent voter, to vote AGAINST republicans. It's only gotten worse since then. The republican party IS controlled by the gun lobby and its a pall on "we the people" that we keep voting these people into office. It seems like now the republican House conference is largely controlled by MTG - I can't bring myself to write the name. I'm thankful Joe Biden is president and is calling for the re-authorization of the assault weapons ban. Sadly, it appears to me the forces of the darkest "side" of American History continues to thrive, making this a "pipe dream," and, in fact, it's only getting worse. If the legal authorities in this nation continue to seem AFRAID of, for example, holding Trump accountable for his CRIMINAL conduct "we the people" are facing "more of the same." People protesting while carrying AR-15's. It's time to put a stop to all this. The threats being bantied about regarding more violence shoould Trump face indictment are shameful. However, I say "bring it on." It really is time for "we the people" to take a stand. (Look at what is happening in places like Israel and Georgia - the country brodering Russia) where the people have clearly said "enough already!" Too many in America take our "democracy" for granted and the power of the gun lobby is one of the main reasons this nation seems to be on a precipice.
Hey fellow teacher, David! I understand the fear when working in school. I too volunteer in one of my former schools after retirement. I love doing it, in fact am about to leave for the school. I also work in a disadvantaged district with a lot of poverty and all the challenges that entails. The students don't think much of shootings in school because they have so many challenges in the rest of their lives. A school shooting does not impact them as it might other students. However, they are always on edge, ready to punch back if someone touches them, even bumps them. It is a badge of honor to get suspended. Cutting class is just a matter of routine. I tutor 8th grade math and have students who function mathematically at about a 4th grade level, if that much. I have lost 2 students to gun violence, another to murder by beating, 2 to health problems that were caused by the life lived near toxic industry, and another to a house fire because the family couldn't afford more than little space heaters in bedrooms. I admit I worry more about my students beyond the school than in school. It is clear our society cares as little for children as possible while mouthing the words about our precious children. Our Republican friends care nothing for children but, maybe their own. The rest are just future low-paid workers for their rich corporations.
We must unite and stand up to this by showing up to vote and getting everyone we know who agrees to show up to vote-for President, Senator, House Member, Governor, State legislators, council and commission, mayor, school board up and down the ballot. The politicians who refuse to heed our voices about assault and other guns are the same ones who vote the way all the other oligarchs tell them to vote. It’s time to get off our butts-stand up and speak up and vote up. If it takes rewriting the 2nd, so be it or all the way down to the gun safety laws, the most anemic for the safety of our childrens and others lives. And while I write, my own DeSantis and his lapdog legislators are passing permitless open and concealed carry of any type of gun, assault rifles notwithstanding. It has passed the FL House and its companion Bill awaits FL Senste approval which is assured and on to the even-more assured DeSantis signature into Law. Are we too lazy to have not fought harder to keep these nut cakes out of office?
We get the government we deserve. Simple.
Legislation like Floridas is Pro Death.
I really feel that FL should test out the open carry and all the other horrible gun laws they want to pass in Congress. If none of them get shot at then they can see if it is safe outside of Congress. But moRon deathSatan wants it the other way. He doesn't want guns near him.
Richard, you are so right about getting people out to vote. I have no idea what happened in Florida in the past couple of elections. You all got a legislature that is full of "yes people" who will go along with whatever Little Ronnie tells them to do no matter who is harmed. They are practiced in just not caring. Why they were elected is a mystery, perhaps. Florida also chose a governor who is crazy with and for power, but hates everyone but people who are like him, but I am not sure who they are since he is Italian-American, once a pariah group that became white when the white population was shrinking. I can't help but wonder if the fraud Republicans are whining about is actually being perpetrated in their own red states to make sure those states stay red. No one checked since those were not "swing states" that could be challenged with some possible success to get Baby Donnie elected. Several of those red states dropped out of the program that helps limit election fraud. I am guessing they are planning to make their power permanent in those states and want to send the infection elsewhere. We need to start vaccinating people against Republican hate, lying, disinformation, fraud, fearmongering, and the rest of the anti-American, anti-democratic germs they are trying to spread.
It seems to me like Florida is a practice state for Republican mass media fakery and gerrymandering. There are too many Democrats in that state for me to explain the votes that Desantis gets, unless of course the media stream is misinformstion central. Its a model for what Republicans would like to bring to the rest of the country. It seemed to me Texas had a good Democrat fighting the governor their and he still lost. I dont see this as not good enough Democrats. Its voter intimidation (see Biden bus attack in Teaxs) and Voter suppression in Florida (see DeSantis willy nilly "voter fraud" arrests and fear mongering. Coming to a nation near you.
I just can't understand how Republicans get away with their bullying, intimidation, fraud, naming things exactly opposite of the intent, constant lying, blaming, working to take away people's rights, and so much more. I honestly don't know how we stop it and keep the disease from spreading to other states. Republicans clearly have the money for the spread, and alas, the common folks who are swamped with work, kids, family responsibilities, and so much more will go with the lies if packaged neatly with just the right amount of their ingredients: fear, hatred of certain folks, blaming, cheating, pretending, conspiracy theorizing, insulting, pseudo-Christianity and picked over scriptures,along with other ingredients as needed. Truth, information, facts, caring, kindness, concern, human rights, don't seem to be strong enough to stand against the Republican brew and they have the money to sell their garbage far more effectively than we the people who actually care do. Because of that, we will all suffer, the rich white ones somewhat later and perhaps less, but the suffering will come to their children and grandchildren too. How is it they don't know it?
DeStinkis cheated and got away with it.
Ruth: What happened? FL Dems had exceptionally weak candidates, including one who was a retread ex-Repooplickin.
There's a simple solution: don't vote for Republicans. That's really all there is to it.
And then will spend two years defending the outcome of the vote as a campaign for the next election, and nothing will get done. Look at our climate. The oceans are becoming too warm to support life, we are literally committing ego side, but the Republicans are so upset over hunters laptop. Crush the Republicans.
Since so many of you seem to like my comment, allow me to engage in some shameless self-promotion and say that my book "The Socialist Christian" eviscerates the nonsense of NRA arguments more thoroughly than I've ever seen anywhere else (if I say so myself). You can also push its readership into double digits.
Kristof:
Allow me:
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=%22The+Socialist+Christian%22+Haavik&t=ffab&atb=v223-1&ia=web
The time for voting ended decades ago. Expecting this to have a political solution would be like expecting the southern states to voluntarily abandon slavery during the Compromise of 1850.
Michael:
"Even voting for the right is doing nothing for it. It is only expressing to men feebly your desire that it should prevail."
—Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience
I don't understand why Americans need a assault weapon, they are not good for hunting, they vare made for killing of people and that is what these nut jobs are doing, killing humans
Perhaps assault weapons would be useful if a herd of buffalo were stampeding towards your front door. 😜
Assault Weapons are being used as a "Freedom bludgeon" so that the angry stampede of voters is neutralized by all the "patriots" who think giving up their assault rifle or their right to get an assault rifle somehow helps this country.
The same one President Biden is referring too
I saw Michael armoire on TV yesterday and he pointed out that only 30% of people own guns. 70% do not. Our fundamental rights and freedoms are being stolen by the corrupt fascist Republican Party. It is time for a true revolution. Our democracy is hanging by a thread. The corrupt illegitimate Supreme Court selected by the Federalist Society must be fixed. This can not stand.
Am deeply saddened by this latest mass shooting, because it comes on the heels of so many before -- yes, Robert, it makes me weep, as well. We must push for an assault weapons ban, but I think we also must push for repeal of the second amendment-- it has no legitimate purpose in today's society and I don't see the US ever getting a handle on gun violence unless and until it repeals that amendment. I am a former gun owner -- primarily for hunting. Do I see the end of the second amendment as threatening this pursuit. No more than I see requiring a license to drive a car as threatening my desire to drive. But such licensing will never happen with the second amendment in place.
The Republican Party, in it’s fervor to preserve the NRA as a continual donor, has shown through shooting down reasonable gun reform legislation that they don’t value families more than those campaign dollars.
The “family values” party is #ProSTRIFE. If a child is not in the womb, it means far less, even when it can suffer pain and a lifetime of PTSD fear.
It would seem the AR-15, in its list of selling points, should include giving killers more confidence that the havoc they cause will make them more famous.
Todd: You speak as if Repooplickins are the only ones who get bribes, aka contributions, from the NRA or gun makers. I haven’t checked, but I’ll bet $1 that that isn’t the case.
Humans will be a lot safer when DINOs are extinct.
I think Americans should begin to use the strategy often used by the French: national strikes. We know that the majority of Americans support certain things (bans on assault weapons, background checks, etc.; reproductive rights; voting rights; health care reform, etc.) but their wishes are ignored and overriden by, primarily, Republicans who do NOT represent us, often not literally and almost always not figuratively.
If American citizens organized national strikes - i.e. work stoppages - to DEMAND genuine representation, things might change since clearly nothing is going to change under the status quo. When assault weapons are used to murder children in schools and nothing is done by our "representatives" - not about guns and not about the mentally ill - and this goes on for YEARS, we must use different strategies. When an elected member to the United States Congress from Georgia actually chases and harasses a young man who, as a high school student in Florida, survived a horrific school shooting and she was so proud of her bullying him that she arranged for it to be on film so she could parade her ugly cruelty in the name of gun-worship to her fans and HE is "the enemy" in her eyes, we have to use different strategies. When the majority of Americans support very basic, common sense changes to gun laws, to reproductive rights laws, to voting rights laws and our wishes and support are ignored, we must use different strategies. When the primary instigator and chief seditionist and his mob are still free and roaming the country and the media with their un-American/anti-American traitorous lies and fraud, we must demand that the rule of law actually be honored by our law enforcement and judicial systems!
When elections don't seem to yield honest representation, and we repeatedly see too many of those who are getting and being elected using their elected position as a path to self-enrichment with corruption and fraud as an m.o., then we must use other strategies to force them to REPRESENT us!
National strikes, bringing everything to a screeching halt, might get their attention and our demands might result in change. When these bullying cowards find life made difficult and inconvenient for themselves, maybe they will stop with the "thoughts and prayers" and actually MAKE THINGS BETTER, SAFER, SANER for all of us and most especially for little kids simply going to school!
Annie Cross, I love the idea of a national protest. You're absolutely correct about the effects of a national strike to save our rights: "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness".
But how do we go about it? We know there are enough like minds in this group of "Reich substack lovers" myself included, that are truly appalled by what has transpired since the assault weapons ban had expired.
Who among us can get it going? ? ?
Start with Gym Jordan. “Democrats are going to turn this tragic event into a political thing.”
So said GOP Rep. Jim Jordan when he canceled a hearing to de-regulate “pistol straps,” devices that enhance the killing efficiency of pistols. The hearing was scheduled for Monday—the day that the latest mass shooting claimed the lives of seven people in Tennessee. As is almost universally true, the killer used assault weapons to kill their victims. The cowardly Jim Jordan did not want Democrats to use the hearing to highlight that Republicans care more about blood money from lobbyists than they care about the lives of schoolchildren.
From Robert Hubbell.
It is difficult for me to even "think" of him as I find him one of the most contemptible, repulsive ones among his entire cohort of contemptible, repulsive psychopaths. He has repeatedly shown himself to be nothing but a loud bully and like all bullies is an utter coward, a fearful little, little man without any evidence of morality or conscience. That entire club of insane power-mongers who hold sway over all our lives with their vile, sadistic, craven and profoundly deranged personalities must be brought up short by a populace that is finally reaching the breaking point of tolerance for the monstrous power America has given to very disturbed psychopaths - those who buy guns and kill people as well as those who sit in their elevated seats in Congress and bully those in seats placed lower than the bullies' so the bullies can badger and yell and interrupt and do all but pummel witnesses, all for lunatic games and agendas; the bullies tacitly cheer their fellow psychopaths in the streets, schools, churches of America, carrying their big war-guns around, pretending to be real men, "patriotic" women. They are neither. They are profoundly deranged, dangerous, cowardly lunatics - and America has given them power. They have power to endorse the killing of America's children, of America's citizens, and they continue to use that power to continue the killing. Has America really lost all touch with any sense of morality, decency, SANITY?!
Trump stands in Waco, Texas and tells - again - endless outright lies, lies about EVERYTHING - and that crowd cheers and laughs and buys his merchandise and sends him money - and he, and they, continue to destroy OUR country.
If there were a "crowd-fund" for the Ohio State student-athletes who were victims of sexual assaults and abuse and who have asserted that Gym Jordan knew all about it and did nothing - coward and bully that he is - who would be willing to accuse him of complicity or whatever other legal charge might pertain, I would support it in a heartbeat. To get the likes of Gym Jordan, Rand Paul, Marjorie Taylor Green, Lauren Boebert, Paul Goshar, Louis Gohmert, fake folksy/good old boys the Kennedys from Louisiana and the Deep South by way of the Ivy League and Oxford, Josh (fists-up, run-run-run) Hawley, Kevin- "I'd Do Anything for That Woman" (the Jewish laser Q-Anon Queen Green) McCarthy..... and that too long list out of casting for "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" except they're real,, not fiction, and they hold power and "we" pay them to exercise their lunatic power over us all and they are destroying OUR country!
Andy Harris! Don't forget Andy Harris, who worships the neoStalinist Orban and never responds to constituents' mail if you haven't given him $.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/house-congressman-gun-andy-harris_n_600a0874c5b674575ae423ae
Send all the treacherous SOBs to Guantanamo with the rest of the enemy combatants.
My effort is to keep raising the issue everywhere I can, whether in public forums or general conversations. Maybe if enough "like minds" take up the idea, it can develop wings and take off. It is something that obviously needs widespread collective effort and support. I am absolutely opposed to violent actions and worry that any collective action would generate violence - because, well, America - but if enough non-violent but profoundly angry and disgusted real Americans (those who still believe in democracy, the rule of law, accountability, honest government, for example) join forces and take to the streets all across America, "they" might at long last stop their insane goose-stepping to the abyss that is the end of this beautiful experiment of government and its people. Who else can stop them and why are we not doing it? It boggles the mind what "they" keep getting away with - "they" being those who are elected to represent US, the American citizens!
What kind of entity allows, even encourages, the slaughter of CHILDREN in school?! What kind of human beings ignore the cries for rational, simple, sane restrictions of even some weapons, not even ALL weapons, just some weapons. Those gun-worshippers don't take their war-guns out to shoot deer or squirrels; they are taking them out to shoot CHILDREN and people in church or in a grocery store!!
America is electing psychopaths and allowing them to make psychopathic decisions that govern and control our lives, our VERY lives and the lives of those we love and care about - old, young, all races and religions, ALL of us in the control of amoral psychopaths! How long are we going to tolerate it?!
I speak subject to correction, but I think the French have a national pension/retirement system, so the government has the ability to fuck with their pensions and retirement laws all at once. Plus the French seem to have more powerful and militant unions and are thus more readily able to take organized collective action.
One Big Union? Now there's an idea....
Liberté, égalité, fraternité!
Thanks, many of us agree. Unfortunately still to many in US would not attend and many would be fearing repercussions if they protested and a camera caught them in the right place doing the right thing and mass or social media published the images, sad really we cannot be like the French on protests when the situation warrants it and protect them by law for doing it
Unfortunately, I think there is truth in your assessment, but that very fact is itself an example of what has happened to our country. There are countries whose populations face REAL danger when they take to the streets to protest - think back to not so long ago when the streets of Hong Kong were filled night after night/day after day with protesters out trying to preserve their vestiges of a free nation; the dangers to them, their lives, their freedom,, their families was/is real and they did it anyway. Russians protesting Russia's invasion and war crimes in Ukraine - facing real dangers. The former Soviet state of Georgia - protesters facing real dangers. What is going on in Israel now where a Trump-like corrupt oligarchic-dictator trying to take over the country's judiciary (Trump-like and horrifically German Reich-like in an unimaginable irony!) is met with huge crowds protesting day after day. And France in what likely seems to Americans an absurd objection of raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 but where citizens are protesting the way that decision was made - an edict perceived as dictatorial, and furious protesters took to the streets because they refuse to be treated like helpless pawns!
What do we stand for, we Americans? What do we believe and believe in? Better and more TV? More drugs? More pornography? A faster return to the Dark Ages? An intensifying decline to corrupt, decaying, contaminated conditions?
What do we stand for? What do we believe in? Why are we not electing people who represent what we stand for and believe in rather than electing those who use the power we LOAN to them in a democratic contract of trust that they will do the right things, only to see them do things that are harmful and destructive.
We are giving our power, our wealth and treasure, our environment, our children and elders, our schools, our hopes and plans over to the control of psychopaths. Why?
ONLY IN AMERICA
Recently in the UK there have been trailers on our cable TV for a programme in which a presenter was visiting 'interesting people' in the USA. The bit that truly horrified me was of a 9 year old girl, holding an assault weapon, boasting that she has 36 guns 'just for her' and saying 'we are going to have so much fun' as she demonstrates firing off her weapon. I have had to turn it off every time as even the tiny clip in the trailer makes my feel physically sick. In what sort of 'civilised country' can this possibly be considered normal or acceptable?
We here in America used to be civilized!
Keith: Before the Europeans arrived.
In some places the police resell the confiscated guns... so they can buy more deadly ones?