Clearly, there's a lot of anger in America right now.
Much of it justified, as some can afford shower curtain rings that would dwarf others' weekly wages (and the latter are the ones who are lucky enough to have jobs). When you take this fact, combine it with the Orwellian "Newspeak" so pervasive in our media (which David Neiwert has written so articulately about), and multiply that by the NRA's mission to fight for the rights of criminals, the mentally ill and even terrorists to have access to guns, you have a toxic stew, ready to erupt.
Scene: Panama City, Florida. A school board meeting is interrupted by a man with a criminal record of assault (with a gun) waving a gun, and furious that his wife lost her job, his benefits have run out and the board members were unwilling to raise sales taxes so she and others like her wouldn't be fired (it should be noted that reports are still sketchy, so not all of what he says about his wife and himself during the five minutes when the board members try and talk him down can be confirmed yet).
We don't yet know where he got his gun -- but we do know his criminal record and history of mental illness made it illegal for him obtain a gun of any kind. We also know that you can walk into a gun show in many states, such as Virginia, and buy any weapon, no background check necessary. The Governor of Virginia thinks that this is a-ok. No matter that everyone from members of Hezbollah to the Columbine killers to the Pentagon shooter got their guns in this manner.
Apparently, to make an omelette, you have to shoot a few eggs.
So the gun lobby marches on: Much harm, no foul.
The NRA has spent years trying to destroy and delegitimize the ATF, such that nobody has been leading this important law enforcement agency for the past 4 years. Why? Because they try and track where guns come from when they kill people. Crazy. right?
And of course we know that we are creating our very own Bonus Army, as millions are filled with despair and anxiety as we give them a pittance while extending tax cuts for people who make Richie Rich look like Oliver Twist.
So is this our future? Videos of killers wielding illegal guns and holding innocent people hostage -- or worse. Reality TV, gone very, very wrong.
Unless/until we decide that gun safety, economic equality, and preventing pundits from inciting riot/slandering whole groups of people on air are reforms worth fighting for. Stay tuned on this one. In the meantime, sadly, I can promise you one thing: Many mini-revolutions such as this will be televised.
And it will be ugly.
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Do you think that criminals will oblige you?
Many of them have been declared "gun free zones". Hasn't helped.
Or someone in the audience. Or the lady who tried to stop him with her purse.
Let's call "gun-free" zones what they really are: criminal empowerment zones.
..http://www.justfacts.com/guncontrol.asp
Secondly, in Virginia, a person can not just buy a hand gun. You may not need a permit to purchase, but you have to pass a background check. I know this is cliche, but guns ki ll people. Those who want to harm another person will do so, by any means.
Third, Mr. dukes, was a progressive, on his facebook he spoke of class warfare, he spoke of liberal sites like mediamatters, and 9-11 truther. He was not a right wing n ut. But we will never hear about those things, just like cliff decided not to write about it. But he will call for "mini-revolutions", and tell us to scared of the big bad rich people that are coming to take all your money. Class war-fare is what these guys are pushing.
Most Americans are good people, and those that own guns legally are not the ones people should fear. Americans need to become better people, with better morals, and more love for their neighbors.
After 50 years of voting I at last admit it doesn't matter. I will vote for Sarah in 2012 and I want kindergarteners to carry concealed weapons.
Nonetheless, there is really only one remedy and it is a long-term one: education.
The people have what the people want, or think they want - on average, of course. They need to start wanting better/different things.
Plenty of people in the US seem to think they are safer with a gun. Few people among other western democracies think so. Perhaps both are right. If so, it would mean that the US is an inherently violent society. And of course there is ample evidence for that, starting with the support for the death penalty, unique among western democracies. How do you turn all that around? Only with long-term education. The image of the lonesome cowboy in the lawless West is deeply ingrained in the American psyche.
I thought it was disgraceful how the pundits on MSNBC and CNN slandered the tea partiers, but I'm against any effort to censor them, if that's what you have in mind. You seem to have a problem with the first two of the Bill of Rights.
Not only that, but isn't CNN about to host a Republican primary debate with Tea Party Express?
I might remind people that during the Great Depression there was 25% unemployment, and millions being thrown out of their homes and off their land. People were throwing themselves from skyscrapers.
If there was ever an era ripe for an armed insurrection, it was the 1930s.
It didn't happen then; it won't happen now.
Not really on topic, but an interesting little fact.
http://www.iasp.info/pdf/papers/mishara_suicide_and_the_economic_depression.pdf
Because "those people" never come to things like school board meetings. It's likely very few people here will ever encounter an uber-rich in the flesh. So anger and gun barrels will be aimed at the people at hand.