JulesMaximus
No Lifer
You'd think those pressing for gun control could figure out that banning dumb shit they know nothing about isn't the solution, but no. We've had decades of bullshit gun control proposals that have proven worthless even when they did pass.
To this day every major press for gun control high-balls with a nonsensical ban of some sort, only dropping down to lesser restrictions in the face of political opposition. And you're surprised when gun owners, you know, the people these bans actually affect, galvanize? You're shocked and outraged that after decades of hearing the same tired arguments from the same tired people and organizations, we don't believe said people when they suddenly say all they want is "registration"? And offer us pinkie swears that it won't go any further?
Properly applied gun control could very well help things, and we might have had universal mental health checks and mandatory liability insurance by now if the gun control lobby had acted with a little more tact and a little less rabies. It's clear to gun owners now, with a track record decades long, that any reasonable gun control proposed will only be used as a vehicle for further, unreasonable restrictions in the name of nonsensically trying to legislate guns out of society. In the last year New York in particular has proven the pattern.
That political stalemate leaves us with two options: addressing the root causes of gun violence (mental illness, poverty, culture) and enabling citizens to defend themselves should they encounter it (or any other form of violent assault). The NRA has come out in support of both. I fail to see the issue or any better solution. Perhaps Bloomberg should open a nationwide chain of free mental health clinics, would certainly save more lives than his current efforts; unfortunately him and those like him are more interested in ideology than problem solving.
That will never happen. There's no money to be made from it and in a country where corporations wield all the power and greed is the driving factor in our economy it will never be a priority no matter how many people are gunned down by lunatics on a daily basis.