It isn't as if gun owners don't have any rights, it's just that a great many of them have convinced themselves their rights trump everyone else's. Their precious gun rights come far ahead of the rights of the general public to expect a reasonable level of public safety. When Sandy Hook failed to move this country, I knew nothing was going to happen any time soon. It will take a generation of young people who grew up with active shooter drills because the people representing them in Congress were too spineless to take on the gun lobby, to change things.
The ironic thing is that, when that younger generation finally gets their chance, with all of that legacy of mass trauma shaping their perspective, they might just consider a total gun ban rather than any of the smaller steps that have been proposed over the years. The more the right resists any reasonable change, the more they make the most extreme outcome- the very one they're so afraid of- inevitable.
I've said for a long time, the NRA will win all their battles but the last one. As you say, their total resistance to every common sense gun control measure pretty well guarantees draconian gun laws at some point in the future.
It is inevitable. The younger generations that live in fear by just going to school will stop all of this and we will become more like Sweden, hunting rifles only and only after a thorough background check, classes and testing, registration and licensing; and we will be better for it.
Norway too. All weapons has to be stored safe when not in use for practice or hunting. Every year you have to show that you still can handle a weapon and, when hunting, that you are capable to kill and not only wound, the animal.
They will stack the courts with judges and justices that will stop the lie about the Second Amendment. Chief Justice Burger new the misinterpretation was the big lie.
They aren't alone, either. I'm Gen X, and if I ever see a viable candidate here in AZ running on a gun ban platform, odds are I'm voting for 'em. Kids should be safe at school, not in fear of their lives because the adult can't protect them.
But no one else except gun owners SHOULD have ANY rights. Consider that the gun owners also claim to be Christians, the one group who constantly claims they are persecuted. Anyone so persecuted SHOULD be allowed as many guns as desired to protect themselves and their terrorist activities. No one is more important than gun owners and christian gun owners are the most entitled people on planet Earth. None of us “others” even have the right to question anything they do cuz that would automatically be persecution. Notice how few other amendments are protected like the 2nd? And never mind how many times the 2nd has been bastardized when quoted to further protect & push their rights above all others. Who the hell is anyone else to challenge owners armed to the teeth wandering all over the streets of America? The gall of America to think that our safety should come first esp the safety of children? After all, christian gun owners are the only group acting to protect our children. Who else would even think to use their weapons to save the children from the dangers of drag queens, books and the lies of our history?
The one group that MIGHT be able to FORCE effective legislation and I again I say MIGHT, is educators. Maybe a nationwide educator strike would force legislators positions and an end to legislators constant hypocrisy. (Such dreaming?)
A nationwide strike would embarrass legislatures, expose their constant lie about protecting the children plus disrupt parents need for readily available babysitters. In exchange for effective gun laws/guidelines that would actually protect children and our places of education, educators would agree to end the strike. As the educators are the only REAL protectors of children they should be allowed input & action towards everyone’s safety. Why should one very entitled group be allowed to threaten an entire country?
You wrote: "No one is more important than gun owners and christian gun owners are the most entitled people on planet Earth.". May I tell you that USA is not the whole of planet Earth. Civilized countries have serious rules at least for ownership, storing weapon and ammo separately and for capability.
Exactly, Thank you for noticing. Exaggeration is part of my sarcasm. Who would think after 8 yrs of RW, MAGAts and Donnie, that sarcasm still needs to be explained to some people.
Straw and me aren't native English speakers. It's not always easy for us to understand what is sarcasm and what is trolling. Especially with the specimens Hemant seem to lure here.
R E L A X! Amazingly, I do know the U.S.A. DOES NOT represent the whole of planet Earth. Thanks tho for explaining everything. Whew! I get it now. The U.S. just isn’t civilized. Save yourself the heart attack & learn about sarcasm. /s
Okay Ty, I get it. What you don't seem to get is that we heathen foreigners often, very often, have seen and heard USAians talking and writing like their tiny part of the globe is the only world that exist.
Stationed in Germany in the 80s, I had German friends and while my vocabulary was limited I did have the pronunciation and local accent down pat. Riding the train to work one morning, the obvious American due to my uniform, I noticed a couple of locals opposite me talking shit about Americans and me and such. Look, talk shit, giggle, repeat. Mind you, they were all smiles and such, trying to obfuscate their words behind their mannerisms. Approaching my stop, I got up and as I passed them I said in pretty darned good German something to the effect of "Thank you, your conversation helped me learn more about your beautiful country. You have a nice day!" and enjoyed the look on their faces for almost fourty years now.
I have lots of language/culture stories from a few different continents. Far too often I've seen the Ugly American, but we don't hold a monopoly. I've also experienced reaching past barriers to find a way to engage positively.
Weird world we live in. No supernatural magic necessary, really.
I realize that the US citizens are guilty of believing we are the only country on the planet and do not recognize the rest of the world therefore I must be automatically guilty too because I didn’t post my writings in every other foreign language. It would be difficult to decide which alternative language would be most helpful to all anyway. Please enlighten me as to which language would best satisfy this requirement.
I do admit it did not occur to me that anyone outside the states would have any interest or knowledge of our ridiculous gun argument, other than how dumb the entire argument is for a civilized society but then as you alluded-- the U.S.A.is no longer civilized. What civilized society would elect Trump once and be dumb enough to possibly do it twice? And then expect to ever have gun control after HITLER2 is installed?
I must have said it a dozen times or more: this is what happens when lawmakers elevate a THING above the people they are supposed to represent. Ultimately, though, that really isn't what's happening. It's more like the lawmakers have prioritized the money they get from the NRA over the wishes of their constituents. Either way you slice it, the kids get shot and the members of the state government refuse to do anything about it.
Perhaps the lesson of the Covenant school shooting will finally be to vote those representatives out. Nice dream. Be nicer if I actually believed it.
Leaders of the Leopards Eating Faces Party surprised when Leopards eat *their* faces, too.
"But, but, but but, but....", said one pearl-clutching society matron. "This isn't supposed to happen to, to...We Wealthy Whites! We bought those electeds fair and square, they're supposed to do what we tell them to do!", exclaimed a local business owner and church deacon whose children attend the school. Jesus could not be reached for comment.
"If we want people to change their minds on any issue, we can’t be angry if that change only occurs after it affects them personally."
As a counselor, I was in the business of helping people change. When they came into my office, they didn't want to change, they just wanted to feel better. I didn't get angry at them, but I did have to patiently and lovingly stay with them as they hurt worse and worse. The human brain is fairly good at finding truth, but it's excellent at finding comfort. Change, even for the better, is not comfortable. With very rare exception, people change only when the pain of staying the same hurts much worse than the pain of changing. Not just a little worse; it has to be a lot worse.
People don't change their retrogressive or bigoted views until they or one of their loved ones is seriously harmed or even killed because of those views. Even then, they will often make as minimal a change as they think they must in order to feel better. The brain's feel-better imperative remains in place.
Of course I can empathize with those parents who appealed to their elected lawmakers, but apparently their pain of staying the same is just beginning. They're going to have to change their politics and change their voting habits, or it will all stay at the same not-quite-painful-enough level.
Oh, but several prominent conservatives 𝘥𝘪𝘥 start calling for gun control after this shooting. I distinctly remember that perpetually-constipated asshole Tucker Carlson running segments in the aftermath calling for people to be banned from owning guns at all... 𝘪𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴. Hundreds of shootings in a row, thousands of victims, nearly all perpetrated by cis/het conservative white men? How dare anyone even talk about gun control at a time like this! One shooting by someone who might be trans? All trans people are clearly dangerous, take their guns away!
Hypocrisy- it's the Republican way. If they didn't have double standards, they'd have no standards at all.
I'm going to be honest here because I think that's what's needed - less sugarcoating and more bald truth.
'“When is it going to be the right group of people that gets affected for someone to listen?” Ms. Joyce asked...' Allow me to clarify here, Ms. Joyce, 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒃𝒍𝒆𝒎. I say that because you've seen the issue here, and after encountering difficulties, you haven't done the one thing you can personally do to push meaningful change by your own admission: stop voting for these people. Blaming lawmakers for doing what you elected them to do is nonsensical, they're just following instructions at this point. Unless you want to make some ill-advised and unwise attempt to replicate the same violence on these lawmakers that occurred when your children were injured, they have no intention of ever listening to you on the subject.
Stop expecting someone else deal with the problem and start working on it yourself. The easiest start is to change your vote, then get better acquainted with unbiased material on the subject. Good luck.
If they can afford the school they’re already not paying taxes, so really the taxpayers already are covering the tuition. But I’m sure they’re all for the vouchers system that makes it more direct and twice as bad.
Oh no! It's in the OT; It doesn't apply to THEM! It was a metaphor! You're taking it out of context! Jesus was joking!! He never meant THEIR Churches, of course!
The same Rethuglikkkan lawmakers who, you should pardon the expression, consistently shoot down sensible gun legislation, work in a building where firearms aren't allowed. They feel no threat. No sense of personal danger. What were to happen if someone were to be able to smuggle a weapon inside and gun down one or more of these ammosexuals? With their illusion of safety/immunity gone, would they finally act when it was THEIR lives that were on the line?
I honestly have to wonder if any of their attitudes would have changed had gunfire erupted inside the Capitol building on January 6th. I am doubtful that even THAT would have moved their individual or collective needles.
With the daily idiot circus of MTG and Boobert, Ted's gotta do something to get attention. The gun-totin', Jesus-lovin' people of Texass don't care, as long as there's an "R" next to his name, he's their man.
He abandoned his state during an emergency to sip mojitos by the pool in Cancun while Texas froze. When he came back, he tried to deliver water for a photo op to do damage control. Texans saw right through it.
Republicans have been preaching the Father, Son and the Holy Handgun for decades. They are surrounded by thousands of angry people whose entire identity is tied to the Holy Handgun. They'd be risking their lives supporting any restrictions at all.
I feel for all children (minors and adults) who died because of their or other parents stupidity. For theses conservative christians, until you take your head of your ass you don't deserve compassion. It's what you did to other families.
I was glad to see the statement about the kind of politicians people are electing being a large part of the problem. If voters in the various states keep sending irresponsible, right-wing pols to state houses, nothing will ever change. And let's not forget how Scalia and the SC misinterpreted the 2nd amendment to give almost unlimited scope for gun owners. They ignored the historical context, enabling the crazies to say the Founders wanted us to own guns to protect ourselves from the govt. when in fact they wanted a "well-regulated militia." Not the camo-clad loonies we have today, but communities wanting to protect themselves if the Brits came back for seconds or Indians on the frontier attacked them. So now we have a right mess and no good way to get out of it.
The US Second Amendment was, like some other fundamental US rights, lifted from English and British law: in this case from the Bill of Rights. The intended use was different, as will be seen, and there are significant saving clauses.
That the Subjects which are Protestants may have Arms for their Defence suitable to their Conditions and as allowed by Law.
The perceived threat was a Catholic insurrection and, needless to say, there has been a lot of law, nearly all of it (I cannot think of any other) aimed at restricting the right.
"If the Brits came back for seconds..." I assume you mean the US attack on York, now Toronto, Ontario in 1813 as part of the US imperial expansion while the British forces were busy with the Napoleonic Wars. Perhaps sacking Washington in retaliation was to be expected but I think burning the Library of Congress was going too far. We're all friends now.
"If we want people to change their minds on any issue, we can’t be angry if that change only occurs after it affects them personally."
Well, obviously, here's the problem. We know that hyper conservatives and hyper conservative Republicans don't seem to care about anything until the leopards have eaten their faces. Then they care about it. Unfortunately, they went to fellow hyper conservatives whose faces have not yet been eaten-- In short, to people who already couldn't possibly not care any less than they already don't.
I feel very sorry for the kids, of course. As an atheist, I think we have only one life to live and it is the greatest tragedy not to be able to live it. But I don't feel too much for the parents.
It is the opposite of what is on the lips of most of these grieving people - not woke, but asleep. They've been sung a lullaby filled with magical phrases, given warm pablum, tucked in, and their fingers placed on the lever marked R. Even while they spend time shouting about their favorite zombie, they miss the most important message it supposedly uttered while they dream of heaven. It was radical, it was unexpected, it was selfless - sacrifice everything for others.
And if they want to turn their frowns upside down, they'll have to exactly that: turn against their party, be shunned in their communities, maybe even become destitute because of the positions. They probably won't have to spend their life's blood, but to somebody waking up, it'll feel like it.
AL those dead kids are children of sinners, and deserving death. It says so in their big book of biblical delusions. Of course their rich kids are as pure as the driven snow.
It’s the typical “I never thought the leopard would eat my face, but I’ll continue to vote for the leopard”mentality. No one should ever lose a child to a mass shooter. No one should ever have to face a mass shooter. “Guns over people” shouldn’t be any state’s motto.
It's morbidly amusing, in that 𝘰𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘺 𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘰 𝘧𝘶𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘥 kind of way, to watch "the leopards would never eat 𝘮𝘺 face!" turn into "the leopards promised not to take 𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 bite!"
Again with the religiosity thinking and worshipping their God, Money. They’ll never get anywhere with elected leaders like they elect. Even when one of their own, Steve Scalise, got shot that wasn’t enough to move their needle toward sanity. Republicans are soul-less sell-outs as these parents found out.
It isn't as if gun owners don't have any rights, it's just that a great many of them have convinced themselves their rights trump everyone else's. Their precious gun rights come far ahead of the rights of the general public to expect a reasonable level of public safety. When Sandy Hook failed to move this country, I knew nothing was going to happen any time soon. It will take a generation of young people who grew up with active shooter drills because the people representing them in Congress were too spineless to take on the gun lobby, to change things.
The ironic thing is that, when that younger generation finally gets their chance, with all of that legacy of mass trauma shaping their perspective, they might just consider a total gun ban rather than any of the smaller steps that have been proposed over the years. The more the right resists any reasonable change, the more they make the most extreme outcome- the very one they're so afraid of- inevitable.
I've said for a long time, the NRA will win all their battles but the last one. As you say, their total resistance to every common sense gun control measure pretty well guarantees draconian gun laws at some point in the future.
It is inevitable. The younger generations that live in fear by just going to school will stop all of this and we will become more like Sweden, hunting rifles only and only after a thorough background check, classes and testing, registration and licensing; and we will be better for it.
Norway too. All weapons has to be stored safe when not in use for practice or hunting. Every year you have to show that you still can handle a weapon and, when hunting, that you are capable to kill and not only wound, the animal.
They will stack the courts with judges and justices that will stop the lie about the Second Amendment. Chief Justice Burger new the misinterpretation was the big lie.
They aren't alone, either. I'm Gen X, and if I ever see a viable candidate here in AZ running on a gun ban platform, odds are I'm voting for 'em. Kids should be safe at school, not in fear of their lives because the adult can't protect them.
But no one else except gun owners SHOULD have ANY rights. Consider that the gun owners also claim to be Christians, the one group who constantly claims they are persecuted. Anyone so persecuted SHOULD be allowed as many guns as desired to protect themselves and their terrorist activities. No one is more important than gun owners and christian gun owners are the most entitled people on planet Earth. None of us “others” even have the right to question anything they do cuz that would automatically be persecution. Notice how few other amendments are protected like the 2nd? And never mind how many times the 2nd has been bastardized when quoted to further protect & push their rights above all others. Who the hell is anyone else to challenge owners armed to the teeth wandering all over the streets of America? The gall of America to think that our safety should come first esp the safety of children? After all, christian gun owners are the only group acting to protect our children. Who else would even think to use their weapons to save the children from the dangers of drag queens, books and the lies of our history?
The one group that MIGHT be able to FORCE effective legislation and I again I say MIGHT, is educators. Maybe a nationwide educator strike would force legislators positions and an end to legislators constant hypocrisy. (Such dreaming?)
A nationwide strike would embarrass legislatures, expose their constant lie about protecting the children plus disrupt parents need for readily available babysitters. In exchange for effective gun laws/guidelines that would actually protect children and our places of education, educators would agree to end the strike. As the educators are the only REAL protectors of children they should be allowed input & action towards everyone’s safety. Why should one very entitled group be allowed to threaten an entire country?
You wrote: "No one is more important than gun owners and christian gun owners are the most entitled people on planet Earth.". May I tell you that USA is not the whole of planet Earth. Civilized countries have serious rules at least for ownership, storing weapon and ammo separately and for capability.
Exactly, Thank you for noticing. Exaggeration is part of my sarcasm. Who would think after 8 yrs of RW, MAGAts and Donnie, that sarcasm still needs to be explained to some people.
Straw and me aren't native English speakers. It's not always easy for us to understand what is sarcasm and what is trolling. Especially with the specimens Hemant seem to lure here.
Case in point: Straw and 𝐈 aren't native English speakers. 😝
Corrrecte règle de grammaire Straw et moi, et non Straw et je 😝
R E L A X! Amazingly, I do know the U.S.A. DOES NOT represent the whole of planet Earth. Thanks tho for explaining everything. Whew! I get it now. The U.S. just isn’t civilized. Save yourself the heart attack & learn about sarcasm. /s
Okay Ty, I get it. What you don't seem to get is that we heathen foreigners often, very often, have seen and heard USAians talking and writing like their tiny part of the globe is the only world that exist.
Stationed in Germany in the 80s, I had German friends and while my vocabulary was limited I did have the pronunciation and local accent down pat. Riding the train to work one morning, the obvious American due to my uniform, I noticed a couple of locals opposite me talking shit about Americans and me and such. Look, talk shit, giggle, repeat. Mind you, they were all smiles and such, trying to obfuscate their words behind their mannerisms. Approaching my stop, I got up and as I passed them I said in pretty darned good German something to the effect of "Thank you, your conversation helped me learn more about your beautiful country. You have a nice day!" and enjoyed the look on their faces for almost fourty years now.
I have lots of language/culture stories from a few different continents. Far too often I've seen the Ugly American, but we don't hold a monopoly. I've also experienced reaching past barriers to find a way to engage positively.
Weird world we live in. No supernatural magic necessary, really.
I have not met many "Ugly American (aka USAians)", but a lot of USAians forgetting USA is only one of (too?) many countries on this globe.
I realize that the US citizens are guilty of believing we are the only country on the planet and do not recognize the rest of the world therefore I must be automatically guilty too because I didn’t post my writings in every other foreign language. It would be difficult to decide which alternative language would be most helpful to all anyway. Please enlighten me as to which language would best satisfy this requirement.
I do admit it did not occur to me that anyone outside the states would have any interest or knowledge of our ridiculous gun argument, other than how dumb the entire argument is for a civilized society but then as you alluded-- the U.S.A.is no longer civilized. What civilized society would elect Trump once and be dumb enough to possibly do it twice? And then expect to ever have gun control after HITLER2 is installed?
Not everyone here speaks English as their primary language. Just a heads-up. 🙂
For me it was sarcasm, not what they really think.
You are probably correct. I just reread the comment I responded to.
Well, if it comes down to honest introspection by conservative Christians, we’re all fucked.
"...honest introspection by conservative Christians." You've a great future in standup. BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
I must have said it a dozen times or more: this is what happens when lawmakers elevate a THING above the people they are supposed to represent. Ultimately, though, that really isn't what's happening. It's more like the lawmakers have prioritized the money they get from the NRA over the wishes of their constituents. Either way you slice it, the kids get shot and the members of the state government refuse to do anything about it.
Perhaps the lesson of the Covenant school shooting will finally be to vote those representatives out. Nice dream. Be nicer if I actually believed it.
Maybe with a bit less gerrymandering that might be possible.
Leaders of the Leopards Eating Faces Party surprised when Leopards eat *their* faces, too.
"But, but, but but, but....", said one pearl-clutching society matron. "This isn't supposed to happen to, to...We Wealthy Whites! We bought those electeds fair and square, they're supposed to do what we tell them to do!", exclaimed a local business owner and church deacon whose children attend the school. Jesus could not be reached for comment.
But when Mammon was contacted, in between the giggling there was a lot of heavy, contented sighing.
"If we want people to change their minds on any issue, we can’t be angry if that change only occurs after it affects them personally."
As a counselor, I was in the business of helping people change. When they came into my office, they didn't want to change, they just wanted to feel better. I didn't get angry at them, but I did have to patiently and lovingly stay with them as they hurt worse and worse. The human brain is fairly good at finding truth, but it's excellent at finding comfort. Change, even for the better, is not comfortable. With very rare exception, people change only when the pain of staying the same hurts much worse than the pain of changing. Not just a little worse; it has to be a lot worse.
People don't change their retrogressive or bigoted views until they or one of their loved ones is seriously harmed or even killed because of those views. Even then, they will often make as minimal a change as they think they must in order to feel better. The brain's feel-better imperative remains in place.
Of course I can empathize with those parents who appealed to their elected lawmakers, but apparently their pain of staying the same is just beginning. They're going to have to change their politics and change their voting habits, or it will all stay at the same not-quite-painful-enough level.
Oh, but several prominent conservatives 𝘥𝘪𝘥 start calling for gun control after this shooting. I distinctly remember that perpetually-constipated asshole Tucker Carlson running segments in the aftermath calling for people to be banned from owning guns at all... 𝘪𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴. Hundreds of shootings in a row, thousands of victims, nearly all perpetrated by cis/het conservative white men? How dare anyone even talk about gun control at a time like this! One shooting by someone who might be trans? All trans people are clearly dangerous, take their guns away!
Hypocrisy- it's the Republican way. If they didn't have double standards, they'd have no standards at all.
For what I remember he was as trans as you are a man.
I'm going to be honest here because I think that's what's needed - less sugarcoating and more bald truth.
'“When is it going to be the right group of people that gets affected for someone to listen?” Ms. Joyce asked...' Allow me to clarify here, Ms. Joyce, 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒃𝒍𝒆𝒎. I say that because you've seen the issue here, and after encountering difficulties, you haven't done the one thing you can personally do to push meaningful change by your own admission: stop voting for these people. Blaming lawmakers for doing what you elected them to do is nonsensical, they're just following instructions at this point. Unless you want to make some ill-advised and unwise attempt to replicate the same violence on these lawmakers that occurred when your children were injured, they have no intention of ever listening to you on the subject.
Stop expecting someone else deal with the problem and start working on it yourself. The easiest start is to change your vote, then get better acquainted with unbiased material on the subject. Good luck.
KKKristers are taught to wait for some god to fix things.
"The Covenant School, where tuition can run up to $16,500 a year. "
I bet they're also wondering how they can get taxpayers to cover their tuition.
If they can afford the school they’re already not paying taxes, so really the taxpayers already are covering the tuition. But I’m sure they’re all for the vouchers system that makes it more direct and twice as bad.
Too bad the bible doesn't tell the church to pay their taxes.
Oopsie! Looks like it does. Romans 13:6-7.
Oh no! It's in the OT; It doesn't apply to THEM! It was a metaphor! You're taking it out of context! Jesus was joking!! He never meant THEIR Churches, of course!
That mean ot only pertains to them nasty kweers.
The same Rethuglikkkan lawmakers who, you should pardon the expression, consistently shoot down sensible gun legislation, work in a building where firearms aren't allowed. They feel no threat. No sense of personal danger. What were to happen if someone were to be able to smuggle a weapon inside and gun down one or more of these ammosexuals? With their illusion of safety/immunity gone, would they finally act when it was THEIR lives that were on the line?
My mistake. Turns out the Tennessee legislature has allowed guns in their building since 2017. Wonder if that will ever come back to bite them?
"With their illusion of safety/immunity gone, would they finally act when it was THEIR lives that were on the line?"
Fuck no! Case in point: Steve Scalise.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congressional_baseball_shooting).
He still doesn't care:
https://scalise.house.gov/media/press-releases/scalise-we-must-protect-second-amendment-due-process-and-rights-law-abiding-gun
Eat shit and die, Steve.
I honestly have to wonder if any of their attitudes would have changed had gunfire erupted inside the Capitol building on January 6th. I am doubtful that even THAT would have moved their individual or collective needles.
If only Ted Cruz could have taken a bullet for Jesus...
I wanted his dog to literally tear him a new one for leaving the poor animal alone in a house with the power off and snow outside.
With the daily idiot circus of MTG and Boobert, Ted's gotta do something to get attention. The gun-totin', Jesus-lovin' people of Texass don't care, as long as there's an "R" next to his name, he's their man.
He abandoned his state during an emergency to sip mojitos by the pool in Cancun while Texas froze. When he came back, he tried to deliver water for a photo op to do damage control. Texans saw right through it.
No doubt it would have, since many of them were part of the coup in one way or another.
Republicans have been preaching the Father, Son and the Holy Handgun for decades. They are surrounded by thousands of angry people whose entire identity is tied to the Holy Handgun. They'd be risking their lives supporting any restrictions at all.
I feel for all children (minors and adults) who died because of their or other parents stupidity. For theses conservative christians, until you take your head of your ass you don't deserve compassion. It's what you did to other families.
I was glad to see the statement about the kind of politicians people are electing being a large part of the problem. If voters in the various states keep sending irresponsible, right-wing pols to state houses, nothing will ever change. And let's not forget how Scalia and the SC misinterpreted the 2nd amendment to give almost unlimited scope for gun owners. They ignored the historical context, enabling the crazies to say the Founders wanted us to own guns to protect ourselves from the govt. when in fact they wanted a "well-regulated militia." Not the camo-clad loonies we have today, but communities wanting to protect themselves if the Brits came back for seconds or Indians on the frontier attacked them. So now we have a right mess and no good way to get out of it.
Let me FTFY. ...or Native Americans defended their homeland...
The US Second Amendment was, like some other fundamental US rights, lifted from English and British law: in this case from the Bill of Rights. The intended use was different, as will be seen, and there are significant saving clauses.
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/aep/WillandMarSess2/1/2/introduction
The Subject’s Rights
……
Subjects’ Arms.
That the Subjects which are Protestants may have Arms for their Defence suitable to their Conditions and as allowed by Law.
The perceived threat was a Catholic insurrection and, needless to say, there has been a lot of law, nearly all of it (I cannot think of any other) aimed at restricting the right.
"If the Brits came back for seconds..." I assume you mean the US attack on York, now Toronto, Ontario in 1813 as part of the US imperial expansion while the British forces were busy with the Napoleonic Wars. Perhaps sacking Washington in retaliation was to be expected but I think burning the Library of Congress was going too far. We're all friends now.
"If we want people to change their minds on any issue, we can’t be angry if that change only occurs after it affects them personally."
Well, obviously, here's the problem. We know that hyper conservatives and hyper conservative Republicans don't seem to care about anything until the leopards have eaten their faces. Then they care about it. Unfortunately, they went to fellow hyper conservatives whose faces have not yet been eaten-- In short, to people who already couldn't possibly not care any less than they already don't.
I feel very sorry for the kids, of course. As an atheist, I think we have only one life to live and it is the greatest tragedy not to be able to live it. But I don't feel too much for the parents.
It is the opposite of what is on the lips of most of these grieving people - not woke, but asleep. They've been sung a lullaby filled with magical phrases, given warm pablum, tucked in, and their fingers placed on the lever marked R. Even while they spend time shouting about their favorite zombie, they miss the most important message it supposedly uttered while they dream of heaven. It was radical, it was unexpected, it was selfless - sacrifice everything for others.
And if they want to turn their frowns upside down, they'll have to exactly that: turn against their party, be shunned in their communities, maybe even become destitute because of the positions. They probably won't have to spend their life's blood, but to somebody waking up, it'll feel like it.
AL those dead kids are children of sinners, and deserving death. It says so in their big book of biblical delusions. Of course their rich kids are as pure as the driven snow.
It’s the typical “I never thought the leopard would eat my face, but I’ll continue to vote for the leopard”mentality. No one should ever lose a child to a mass shooter. No one should ever have to face a mass shooter. “Guns over people” shouldn’t be any state’s motto.
It's morbidly amusing, in that 𝘰𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘺 𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘰 𝘧𝘶𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘥 kind of way, to watch "the leopards would never eat 𝘮𝘺 face!" turn into "the leopards promised not to take 𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 bite!"
Being "one of the good ones" and $10 will get you a drink at Starbucks.
But only a small one.
Again with the religiosity thinking and worshipping their God, Money. They’ll never get anywhere with elected leaders like they elect. Even when one of their own, Steve Scalise, got shot that wasn’t enough to move their needle toward sanity. Republicans are soul-less sell-outs as these parents found out.