The gun issue
We continue to deal with the topic of gun "control" here in the US, and I think it's a national embarrassment. It's certainly a complicated issue, but at the same time there is a real lack of logic in the arguments offered up on both sides of the issue.
The key driver behind the lack of reasoned debate on the topic is an anachronistic interpretation of the 2nd amendment. This amendment was part of our bill of rights, the first 10 amendments to the constitution, in September of 1789. At the time, the weapon of choice was a smooth-bore flint-lock musket, with a rate of fire of 3 rounds per minute (if you were a skilled shooter). Its effective range is 75-100 meters, again, only if you're a good shot.
Just 6 years earlier (1783) we defeated a tyrannical British government to claim our own independence. So there were legitimate concerns about a need for the people to be able to defend themselves from a tyrannical government.
In the 224 years that have passed, the US government has not even remotely bordered on tyranny anywhere near the level to which the British oppressed the colonists. Not even close. There are a few kooks out there today who swear that today's government is tyrannical because it "controls our lives." These kooks cite examples like (local) smoking bans and (local) property ordinances as examples of (Federal) tyranny.
Today's weapon of choice for crazy mass-murderers is the AR-15. It's a spectacular weapon. It's a semi-automatic rife, so you can fire off 50 rounds per minute with decent accuracy, and it's effective to 500 meters. Basically, it's infinitely more powerful and accurate than what the authors of the 2nd amendment expected you might keep around the house. I challenge any reasonable gun rights supporter to hop in a time machine, take an AR-15 to the founding fathers, and ask "is this what you meant by right to bear arms?" Of course it's not. The AR-15 is a killing machine. Sportsmen don't use it to hunt; police departments use it to level the playing field with gangs.
Our founding fathers demonstrated tremendous foresight in many aspects of writing our constitution, but let's cut the bullshit and stop pretending that the 2nd amendment was intended to allow easy access to AR-15s.
The ATF is a joke, thanks to the NRA. They inserted language into the Patriot act that requires the Senate to confirm the head of the ATF, so it hasn't had a director since 2006. Anytime an ATF director is nominated that the NRA doesn't like, the NRA pressures the Senate to NOT hold the confirmation hearings. The NRA can do this because they own most Senators. The ATF is prohibited from creating a database of gun transactions. They're not allowed to require gun stores to keep an inventory, so most don't. As a result, when a gun is used in a crime and the cops want to trace its purchase history, they have to use a MANUAL process of phone calls and reviewing hand-written documents to do so. It's 2013 people! They're only allowed to inspect gun stores once a year, and they don't have enough agents to even do that. On average, a gun shop gets inspected once every 17 years. 40% of gun sales in the US occur outside of gun stores anyway, so no background check is required. The NRA supported closing that loophole in 1999, but reversed it's position in 2012. So any NRA member who tells you it's a gun rights group is an idiot. It's a firearms industry lobby, period. They care about gun makers and gun sellers, and the ability of gun enthusiasts to buy guns. Gun safety and avoiding crime are PR campaigns, nothing more. It's like when Wal-Mart tells you they care about the community, yeah right.
The NRA argues that we should not have more gun laws because criminals will get around them anyway. This is easily the most absurd argument out there. If we follow that logic, we shouldn't have speed limits or laws against theft, because the criminals are just going to speed and steal anyway. Brilliant logic. Let's just have no laws, because good people will always do good and bad people will always be bad. That way we can get rid of those pesky jails and the court system - no need for either once there are no laws to break! Limited government! Personal liberty!
Somehow in all this, based on absolutely zero evidence and zero historical precedent, the NRA has succeeded in convincing some percentage of gun owners that the government is coming to take their guns, literally. It's never happened in US history, no one is proposing it, but yet this guy is going to come take your guns. Because he hates America. And he's a socialist from Kenya. And this picture was staged. And photoshopped. The NRA told people he was coming to get their guns in 2008. Between 2008 and 2012 the US government took exactly ZERO guns away from lawful gun owners; ZERO "re-posession" of assault weapons. Rather than admit that it's full of crap, the NRA's messaging for the 2012 campaign was that "Obama is waiting for his 2nd term to come get your guns, when he doesn't have to face the electorate again." I knew it all along! Surely they're right THIS time. They wouldn't drum up baseless paranoia to further their own interests, right?
The key driver behind the lack of reasoned debate on the topic is an anachronistic interpretation of the 2nd amendment. This amendment was part of our bill of rights, the first 10 amendments to the constitution, in September of 1789. At the time, the weapon of choice was a smooth-bore flint-lock musket, with a rate of fire of 3 rounds per minute (if you were a skilled shooter). Its effective range is 75-100 meters, again, only if you're a good shot.
Just 6 years earlier (1783) we defeated a tyrannical British government to claim our own independence. So there were legitimate concerns about a need for the people to be able to defend themselves from a tyrannical government.
In the 224 years that have passed, the US government has not even remotely bordered on tyranny anywhere near the level to which the British oppressed the colonists. Not even close. There are a few kooks out there today who swear that today's government is tyrannical because it "controls our lives." These kooks cite examples like (local) smoking bans and (local) property ordinances as examples of (Federal) tyranny.
Today's weapon of choice for crazy mass-murderers is the AR-15. It's a spectacular weapon. It's a semi-automatic rife, so you can fire off 50 rounds per minute with decent accuracy, and it's effective to 500 meters. Basically, it's infinitely more powerful and accurate than what the authors of the 2nd amendment expected you might keep around the house. I challenge any reasonable gun rights supporter to hop in a time machine, take an AR-15 to the founding fathers, and ask "is this what you meant by right to bear arms?" Of course it's not. The AR-15 is a killing machine. Sportsmen don't use it to hunt; police departments use it to level the playing field with gangs.
Our founding fathers demonstrated tremendous foresight in many aspects of writing our constitution, but let's cut the bullshit and stop pretending that the 2nd amendment was intended to allow easy access to AR-15s.
The ATF is a joke, thanks to the NRA. They inserted language into the Patriot act that requires the Senate to confirm the head of the ATF, so it hasn't had a director since 2006. Anytime an ATF director is nominated that the NRA doesn't like, the NRA pressures the Senate to NOT hold the confirmation hearings. The NRA can do this because they own most Senators. The ATF is prohibited from creating a database of gun transactions. They're not allowed to require gun stores to keep an inventory, so most don't. As a result, when a gun is used in a crime and the cops want to trace its purchase history, they have to use a MANUAL process of phone calls and reviewing hand-written documents to do so. It's 2013 people! They're only allowed to inspect gun stores once a year, and they don't have enough agents to even do that. On average, a gun shop gets inspected once every 17 years. 40% of gun sales in the US occur outside of gun stores anyway, so no background check is required. The NRA supported closing that loophole in 1999, but reversed it's position in 2012. So any NRA member who tells you it's a gun rights group is an idiot. It's a firearms industry lobby, period. They care about gun makers and gun sellers, and the ability of gun enthusiasts to buy guns. Gun safety and avoiding crime are PR campaigns, nothing more. It's like when Wal-Mart tells you they care about the community, yeah right.
The NRA argues that we should not have more gun laws because criminals will get around them anyway. This is easily the most absurd argument out there. If we follow that logic, we shouldn't have speed limits or laws against theft, because the criminals are just going to speed and steal anyway. Brilliant logic. Let's just have no laws, because good people will always do good and bad people will always be bad. That way we can get rid of those pesky jails and the court system - no need for either once there are no laws to break! Limited government! Personal liberty!
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