Our turn.
I am still recovering from the flu-that-would-not-end, and I would prefer that that, along with the Fiscpocalypse, was all that was on America’s collective mind. Obviously it isn’t.
I don’t know what I can say about Connecticut that would be more to the point than what I said a few months back when a similar tragedy broke in Aurora , CO. Apparently I don’t need to, either. For the first time in a long while the NRA and its obsessive need to keep every lunatic in the nation armed for World War Z is under scrutiny. And while one can never predict Washington and her fickle moods, its possible that at least some modification of our gun laws may emerge from this horror.
The real takeaway from this obscenity has to be that it will not be the  NRA, Washington or our nation’s fruitcakes that will set the course from this point forward. It is us. If the butchery of all those children, wives, mothers and friends is not enough to change all of our attitudes, to say once and for all that we are on the wrong course civilly when it comes to our permissive attitude towards weapons of war, that the bad obviously outweighs the good, then we simply are a nation of  voluntary inmates in a concentration camp.
It does not matter that we still don’t know the “right” answer. I am not going to pretend that I have heard of any sort of magic wand policy that will assure an end to this rolling holocaust of murder, but it is time at last to put the weapon mongers on the defensive.
My starting point? “One man, one gun”. If you absolutely must be armed, a single weapon is all you may own. This fits the criterion of the 2nd Amendment, and leaves the vulnerable in possession of everything they could possibly need in the way of self defense. Let the other side argue as best they can against the sensibility of that position in the teeth of the obvious diminishing returns of our over-powered weapons fetishism. The “conversation” has to begin with a position for sane gun laws that is  as immovable as that of the NRA’s, before a sensible midle ground can emerge.
One man, one gun. If you need more than one gun, then you are probably on your way to butcher an elementary school.
One man, one gun is a good start. Also, licensing, testing, and yearly exams. I just spent two hours getting my late model car inspected; they found a crack in one of the tires the size of a mouse penis and my car was held hostage until I forked over $100 for a new tire. I don’t recall too many schools being attacked by cars. And I don’t want to hear about annual highway death statistics. If everybody who insists upon cutting me off in traffic on a daily basis had a gun, the entire nation would look like Tombstone, AZ after the OK Corral dustup.
Step 2: abolish concealed carry and/or ‘stand your ground’ type laws. Probably both.
Step 3: fire the NRA and the Fox News pundits / decision makers into the sun.
I think Insane Asylums need to be reinstated, not a ban on guns.
Does a car enthusiast stick with only one car?
Does a person in Compton have only one way to protect themselves?
I think a pursuit against the cause of the massacre should be eliminated, not the tools used (Or we turn into China or Japan where ~20 people get stabbed to death in a slashing spree)
Considering we already have the highest per capita inmate ratio of any nation on the planet, I think more incarceration is probably not the way to go. It wouldn’t help, anyway. Pinning all these shootings on the mentally ill does a disservice to mentally ill people and glosses over how easy it is to kill someone with the pull of a trigger.
One man, one gun wouldn’t work either. It’d be fine for personal defense, but I come from a family of hunters and one gun doesn’t do every job there. Deer hunting isn’t rabbit hunting and both require different tools.
If I had my druthers, I’d see a ban on all magazine weapons, and a restriction on total number of guns owned. You don’t need a magazine clip to defend your house or to hunt something. Fat chance of that happening tho.
Oh yeah. And none of the kids in the China attack died.
Gun advocates are aware of that tho, and don’t bring it up. For some reason.
Well, none of the gun people will agree to to the one gun, one person policy.
But I would like to see all guns registered. Everyone would be entitled to own
one gun of each caliber if they so desire, but you can’t own more then one.
If you want a different one you must sell it and then buy the next one.
Now that all guns are registered. And you want to own more then one in the same
caliber, you would have to buy a license for that gun. But the first one would be free for
that caliber. Then if you are caught hunting,plinking, whatever and the gun is not
registered to you and the license is not paid, the gun can and will be confiscated.
Also ban all civilian assault weapons, we all have enough regular weapons already.
And if you have one now, that’s all you can have. And put moratorium on ownership,
and put a date on it. That no more assault weapons can be traded or sold to another
owner. You have one now, you can own it. Otherwise it is a illegal weapon.
These are just some ideas, yes I know when guns are illegal only crooks will have them.
Bull crap we have to start somewhere.
We DO have to start somewhere, and be conscious of the fact that if this tragedy is indeed the straw that broke the NRA’s back, that by no means does this mean that the politicians will have the will to do much about it, or soon.
My “one man, one gun” stance constitutes MY extremist position, one that robs the NRA-types of their number one talking point, that hippies like me (I’m an anarchist, actually) just want to take all our guns away and leave the FBI in charge (“When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will own guns”, etc.) and draws a line in the sand that is no less “reasonable” than that of the NRA, which believes in unlimited gun ownership and unlimited ammunition types.
There is only one way to force a sensible compromise, which will be YEARS in arriving: A) Accept the 2nd Ammendment as a clear right and
B) Know your own bright-line limits that you, as a citizen, think should come with that right. Clearly our “anything goes” attitude has started to yield diminishing returns. Every mass shooting from now on should be politicized unapologetically.
To paraphrase Rick Deckard: Guns are either a benefit or a hazard. If they’re a benefit, its not my problem.
Makes sense to me.