Gun violence is now the leading cause of death among children in the United States.
Every developed nation has people with mental illness, video games, disgruntled ex-employees, alienated people, homicidal and suicidal persons, etc. Why does the U.S. have the problem it does?
It’s the same things it always is- the number of firearms, access to them, fetishism surrounding the 2nd Amendment, and the immense political power of the firearms industry.
Not a Republican has the courage to step up.
@TonyStark this is the America Republicans want.
at some point the left must decide if it has the power to confiscate weapons from the right
can the left pass the laws?
can the left persuade law enforcement to confiscate weapons and arrest violators?
if so, let's get it done!
if not, then the left better hurry up and get armed and trained
because unilaterally disarming while allowing proto-fascists to keep their stockpiles isn't going to end well
@TonyStark @ares confiscation will set them off. Try gun buybacks or trade ins for non-automatic weapons. There’s a lot that needs to happen to reduce gun violence. Restoring the assault weapons ban would be a good first start, making gun manufacturers liable for their products, and requiring liability insurance, background checks, and gun safety classes. The NRA has made sure America is awash in AR-15s. So it’ll take time to remove them.
@clmerle @TonyStark @ares 5 or 10 years ago, I would have been in whole-hearted agreement with everything you just said, but now things seem a little different. Voter suppression, Gerrymandering, activist judges with lifetime appointments; we are losing the battle.They won't go for buy-backs or trade-ins. They want their guns in case they get a chance to kill one of us, and that's worth more to them than any buy-back. We've always had a backround level of gun violence, but it has spiked dramatically lately. The only thing that's changed is the far-right went further right, and Fox and other hate-media are egging them on and inciting violence. They promote Stochastic Terrorism that targets school children and defenseless civilians so that you become so disgusted by the violence that you willingly give up your guns, but they won't give up their guns. Then they will have guns and we won't, and that's not a position that I feel comfortable with. The way I see it playing out is, either we stop the hate-media from brainwashing our friends and family, or we will need guns to fight back against a genocide. I think the "good first start" we need is taking down Fox and the Murdoch empire of hate. Then restoring the Assault Weapons Ban will be a lot easier to achieve.
@ambulocetus @TonyStark @ares no liberals will not give up guns. They’ll unfortunately have to get them to protect themselves from the stochastic terrorists. And if that’s the case, they need to learn how to shoot and store their guns safely, they’ll have to learn to know when to retreat. They don’t need an AR-15 to defend themselves, a reliable pistol or carbine should be sufficient. There’s a lot of things one can do before needing to fire a gun
@clmerle @ambulocetus @TonyStark
we need to figure out what world we're living in
if we're living in a world where we have the legislative, judicial and law enforcement capability to disarm militias and stochastic terrorists, and model the uk and australia, then we should do that
but it's looking more and more like that's not the world we're living in
maybe we're in a world where right-wing terror looks like daily shootings and vehicle attacks against migrants, unsheltered people, black grocery store customers, latino shoppers at outlet malls and walmart, lgbtq people, library patrons, black lives matter protesters, university students, judges and governors, school board members, election officials, fourth graders in their classrooms
if we don't have the legislative capacity to confiscate weapons, if courts will strike down any half-measures we do manage to pass, if law enforcement will refuse to enforce the law, then we need a different approach
we need to be realistic about what world we're actually living in
if we're headed toward an irregular civil war with multiple daily armed attacks against us and our democratic institutions, unilateral disarmament is the worst possible policy at the worst possible time
@ares @clmerle @TonyStark
The world we live in is one in which police tear gas peaceful protestors and poor people go to jail for decades for minor crimes while the wealthy get away with corruption and even insurrection. I don't think we will have recourse to the law when the shit hits the fan.
To me, it looks like it's going to turn into Rwanda but with more guns and cars.
