Gimme Shelter

Don’t argue about the difficulties. The difficulties will argue for themselves. ~ Winston Churchill

         

http://mojoe.msnbc.msn.com/michael-bloomberg

1)      An untreated clincally mentally ill graduate young male student despondent about his future (and he's right), Of course it has something to do with economic and social decline in our society ===>

2)      and since most of our mass murderers have a level of depressive symptoms, notice how nearly that compares to the profile for a terrorist domestic or foreign, and voila ! ===>

3)      Freely available materiel online, at gun shops, gun shows, etc for massacres. If not economic, then moral decline, with the same profile. Pick your poision. And while there obviously must be some pathological process here, remember there is still a fine line between mental illness and criminal behavior.

  This may be complex, but it is not rocket science; many of the gun owning public are responding with selfish defensive statements about their cherished collections during a time of mourning which makes it morally repugmant. I find myself arguing with gun owners who put up both simplistic and elaborate justifications, but it all boils down to me, me, me.

  Let’s frame the argument over the necessity for regulation, which is reserved to the government by the Second Amendment, to describe the gun as simply a tool usually employed for a specific job. It should follow then that for a task such as attaching two pieces of paper together, you only need a stapler, not a nail gun. This makes the use of a nail gun inversely proportional to the task at hand. This is the argument against “assault” wepaons.

  Put another way, if you need to attach some drywall to a beam, you may find that using a hammer is the correct tool to drive in the nails. However, if you are installing a hinge or working with glass, you will prefer to use screws and bolts and different implements. The NRA will have you believing that if everyone had a hammer, then all projects might be successful. But using simple reasoning it follows that by having various tools in your toolbox, and ensuring that you have been shown how to manipulate them correctly, that you will have a greater certainty of completing your project successfully and safely.

  Unfortunately the gun enthusiasts seem unable to see past their selfishness to extend the protection that their activity and ownership afford them to others in society who may need safety from weapons inappropriately acquired and used. How many more children need to die senselessly at mass shootings,  from accidental discharges, from misplaced rounds into residences, parks, and the like ? 

Links:
The Numbers

Wayne LaPierre and the NRA

The Last Word

  This time I appreciate Mayor Bloomberg's advocacy to try and set a fire under the calculating politicians either afraid of their controlling base (and corresponding base emotions) or of sparking a backlash, pushback, or whatever you worry about igniting. It's time for leadership and implementation and it's long past time to set this right. Close the loopholes about so-called "private gun sales" which are anything but private, enforce the laws already on the books and eliminate those "nod and a wink" procedures (or change them to facilitate enforcement), and reinstate the expired assault weapons ban. Anything less is simply more obstructionism or avoidance, take your pick.