Guns, guns, and more guns and now more guns than people now
in the country. Below is my snippet from this truly thought-provoking LA TIMES article by Erika D. Smith
with this headline: – (a must read piece formatted for the blog):
“Column: Trump
and the NRA might be right about guns — and we mostly have ourselves to blame”
Eye-opener: Indiana’s GOP Governor, Eric Holcomb (who took over after Mike
Pence ran with Trump in 2016), signed a bill last year that eliminated the licensing requirement for a handgun, meaning most Hoosiers 18 and older now can carry a gun in
public without ever having received a background check or having a permit to
openly carry. That horrifying idea, is called “constitutional right to carry,” is
now the law in about 25 states, thanks in large part to the NRA and
GOP-run legislatures.
More from the article:
INDIANAPOLIS, IN — The first sign that he was coming was the squeal from a middle-aged woman sitting across the aisle in skintight red, white, and blue pants and “U.S.A.” earrings. Like thousands of others who had waited hours in line for a seat at this annual NRA Leadership Forum (April 14), she was craning her neck toward the stage as the syrupy lyrics of Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.” blared through speakers. Then he appeared on stage and told them exactly what they wanted to hear.
Donald J. Trump blathered to rapturous applause: “With me at 1600
Pennsylvania Avenue, no one will lay a finger on your firearms. They (of
course he means DEMS) want to take away your guns while throwing open
the jailhouse doors and releasing bloodthirsty criminals into your
communities.”
Key parts from the
article:
To listen to Trump is to listen to a man who seems wholly
detached from reality. Polls consistently show that a majority of Americans,
particularly those of us who reserve our patriotic outfits for the Fourth of July,
and who support some form of additional gun control.
A recent Gallup poll found that dissatisfaction with
the lax status quo is the highest it’s been in more than 20 years — and that
was before a recent pair of mass shootings in KY and TN.
One would think supporting policies that let Americans carry
any type of gun, anywhere, at any time would be a losing proposition for any
politician, much less one who wants to be president.
The article writer says: “As I listened to Trump — and the parade of equally craven Oval Office hopefuls who preceded him onstage — I began to realize that he just might be right in his political calculation. Because, far from losing, the NRA seems to be winning. In fact, it might already have won, polls be damned.”
The article writer continued: “Charles Harrison, a pastor at Barnes United Methodist Church, has been doing crime intervention work for almost 25 years as president of the Indianapolis Ten Point Coalition. When I lived here, I used to travel with him as he went from neighborhood to neighborhood, trying to prevent teenagers from carrying out retaliatory gang shootings.”
These days, most of the 10-year-olds he encounters have guns, not just the teens.
Adults are so scared
that some in his congregation have started carrying guns in their purses and
under their suit jackets to church on Sundays.
Harrison said: “They say, ‘Pastor, we know that you are for this
non-violence and that you are out there in the streets, trying to keep the
peace,’ but Pastor, I gotta protect myself.”
Not that the ability to carry a gun has resulted in less
fear of being the victim of gun violence. It’s as real here as anywhere in the
country, even if the data, again, don’t always justify people’s feelings.
The full detailed and extensive article continues here.
My 2 Cents: Right up front as I have always said and now still say as a retired 30-year Infantry and combat Marine (two tours in VN) is that I support the 2nd Amendment, but.
Always a but, right, but, with common sense gun control that is now lost in America, perhaps forever, with this we see on our streets today:
FYI: “Open carry laws,” and now for about for any age as cited above in the article and other national news, can have a gun under 18 years old and without a background check or weapons training, or even a permit, etc. That is in my view and I hope others, too, is shear and utter madness.
Then the case of a 6-year old taking a hand gun from his home to his first grade class then shooting his first grade teacher in Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, VA. He shot his 25-year-old teacher Abby Zwerner in the chest and hand. She was immediately hospitalized with life-threatening injuries and has since recovered.
Insanity surely has no limit it seems when it comes to guns in America.
The sad part one political party propped up by the NRA will never allow any common sense gun legislation to pass – none at all.
The assault rifle ban was in effect for 10 years then expired and not renewed and now AR-15 are the weapon of choice not for military sort of purposes. Now just sling one over your shoulder, go out to get a Big Mac, and shoot anyone along the way there or on the way back home in what “stand your ground” and if they look at you funny, you or both, what, just open fire?
This shooting today in AL a birthday party happened blocks from the local police station (at least four killed).
So, it continues – thanks to the NRA, mostly RED states, crazy laws that courts support. I say again: Utter madness.
Thanks for stopping by.
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