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Friday, July 20, 2012

Gun Violence Is A Problem, But Gun Nuts Have Succeeded In Making Talking About The Problem A Problem

That's a problem.

2 comments:

Barkeron said...

If you were president, what would you do against the gun nut lobby (which apparently comprises the entire right wing) and US arms fetishism culture?

Dale Carrico said...

I would not be afraid of the NRA. I would know that gun nuts lose their lunch over Democrats taking their guns away even when they don't, so they should go ahead and do what they think is right in the way of common sense gun regulation anyway if they are sensible enough to know they should -- which they probably are, since they are sensible enough to be Democrats.

I would know that majorities of even those Americans who say they are against gun control already believe that certain sensible gun control measures ARE ALREADY IN PLACE that are not, and I would know that this means there is a consensus for sensible gun control, and I would act like somebody who knows majorities are on the side of correct policies I actually believe in.

I would also act like somebody who knows there is an obvious case to be made that guns are more dangerous than cars and that nobody thinks their freedom is undermined because we make people take tests to demonstrate they are competent to drive cars, that assault rifles and military ammunition clips are of no use to hunters or people worried about home invasion and that they can be banned without interfering with legitimate private gun ownership, that instituting background checks to screen violent felons and people with records of psychiatric problems or domestic abuse from ready possession of weapons is obviously warranted, even when such people want to get their arsenals from gun shows or online.

Knowing this, I would make the case for it. I would know I would have the support of law enforcement officials across the land.

By the way, I did not mean to imply in any of my criticisms that I think the executive branch of the federal government is the proper locus for effective education, agitation, organization in the service of common sense gun regulation. I just think the President is in a leadership position to circulate wholesome narratives and that when he does not -- as happened yesterday when Obama pretended "prayer and reflection" rather than political engagement with an already and always politicized phenomenon like gun violence -- he was not being a leader at all, but relinquishing the political field to the ignorant irrational reactionary politics that currently prevail so catastrophically.