Stephan: Monday we got a true look at who we are, and what our government has become concerning a device whose only function is explicitly causing death, be it fowl, animal, or human. Today we made our societal statement on guns.
On the citizen side there was virtual unanimity on universal background checks. On the other side, the arms industry, and the NRA its public face, and they do not want any restriction on being able to buy and carry a gun. And they don't mind the gun death. Massacres in fact, as Orlando has proven once again, are good for business, sales enjoy a big spike. And as to selling to terrorists, no problem. So who do you think won?
Think about this for a minute. If you are a terrorist from overseas you are spared the difficult problem of smuggling your arms in, as would be the case in many countries. Getting the same stuff you could find in a National Guard Amory is easy, and I am sure every non-American, and all American terrorists, know this very well.
And yet we do nothing and 33,000 people a year die.
Our relationship to guns is a disease state. It has nothing to do with what the Founders intended in the 2nd Amendment, and they would be appalled at this state of affairs.
Democratic Senator from Connecticut Chris Murphy
The Senate voted down four separate gun measures Monday in the aftermath of the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history — showing the partisan paralysis over gun control has barely moved on Capitol Hill despite the stream of continued gun violence across the country.
Lawmakers took up two separate issues involving gun regulations: how to improve the nation’s background check system for those who want to purchase firearms, and how to ensure those with terrorist ties do not obtain a gun. But those questions remained unresolved by lawmakers as of Monday night.
Instead, Democrats made it clear they want to make it as painful for Republicans to oppose their gun amendments, whether through a flood of advocacy calls to their Senate offices or at the ballot box in November.
“Some of this is going to turn into an electoral operation,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), who led the Senate Democrats’ nearly 15-hour gun filibuster last week, said an interview […]
There must be a heck of a lot of money exchanging hands behind the scenes from the NRA
for so many Senators to have “sold out” I wonder just how much they are REALLY PAID
to become so corrupt with payouts. Maybe its more sinister than that: Maybe they
are threatened that their families will be killed? What could hold a group so silent other
than enormous threats of loss. Just wondering. And I wonder how they sleep at night.
More than 30 years ago I was in a destructive and dangerous relationship. I was
locked in financially and threatened physically. That combo of fear kept me relatively
“captive” for about 3 years….this situation smacks of a similar energy. Of course, I kept an
“its all ok” surface face going to hide my anxiety….and sure didn’t tell on the bully until
I was safely out of there.
Either the Republican Senate (for the most part), attracts folks who have no character and only want money at any cost), or it attracts folks who have an undeveloped core…where their
need for power, recognition, authority, prestige, and wealth can potentially be filled in this elite little club….. Finding folks to want that game isn’t difficult, of course.
One more thing: In my view, the average American holds a fantasy view that they,
too, will have a “BIG BREAK” someday….and so become a millionaire, billionaire, whatever….so they are loathe to modify the free wheeling power and abuses that
the top 1% enjoy….and therefore, allow it to continue.
There seems to be love/hate relationship with the uber rich, that at least half of the
voting public adores….hence the rise of Donald Trump……
We need better gun laws and we also need to start doing profiling to identify people who may be dangerous.
Britain has very strict gun laws but the person who killed MP Cox managed to get one. Gun laws alone are not enough.
Gun laws against assault weapons is a first step, assuredly, but getting the lobbyists out of the election process, and the legislative process, is the second step, and the third step is trying to make sure people who should not have any guns is a third, but almost impossible step. You just cannot understand which people have a propensity for violent acts. I have studied psychology and my wife has a degree in psychology, and we know this third step is impossible.