Don't get me wrong, I blame George Zimmerman for shooting Trayvon Martin. But I also blame the NRA and the politicians who do their bidding for putting the gun in his hands.
George Zimmerman had an arrest record and a history of violence. Yet he was allowed to carry a loaded, hidden handgun in the state of Florida. This was the way the NRA wanted it, and this was the policy that the Florida State legislature created on the gun lobby's behalf.
Make no mistake, the gun lobby wanted George Zimmerman to have a gun, and to be carrying his gun the night he shot Trayvon Martin. They worked very hard to make it so. It is all part of the NRA's ultimate vision -- a vision they proudly admit -- of guns just about everywhere, in just about everyone's hands. George Zimmerman is the creation of the gun lobby.
George Zimmerman is the NRA.
Don't look for logic or science to support the gun lobby's arguments. It relies on highly discredited research and questionable anecdotes, tinged with just the right amount of racism, to create the fear and paranoia it uses to justify why everyone should carry around guns, everywhere.
The NRA glibly says "an armed society is a polite society." Tell that to Trayvon Martin's parents. Tell that to the families of the thousands of others killed unnecessarily every year because of the guns that the gun lobby and, worse, our elected representatives have put on the streets and in the hands of dangerous people.
The NRA wants an America where conflicts -- however petty or imagined -- are "resolved" at the barrel of a gun, as they were that February night in Sanford, Florida. It wants an America where people like George Zimmerman are armed with the mentality of taking the law into their own hands and the guns to make that mentality lethal.
That is not the America most of us want to live in.
The gun lobby says it is fighting for a right to bear arms, or self-defense. But it is not.
The gun lobby is just that, a lobby. It fights for an industry whose goal simply is to sell more guns -- and they don't care who buys the guns, or how they are used. It reflects the perspective of a small group of political extremists, not even the average NRA member.
I would imagine that most Americans don't even realize that today, a convicted felon can walk into a gun show in most states and buy a gun without a background check. So can a convicted domestic abuser or a terrorist. And virtually anyone, including those same people can also arrange a private sale over the internet and legally buy guns, also without any background check.
As a result, thousands of Americans are injured or killed, every year. That is the work the gun lobby is doing and it is the America that the gun lobby wants. They claim they are protecting your rights or helping you defend yourself. Those are lies. They are selling more guns. And they are killing our citizens.
Even, worse, perhaps, are the politicians who do the gun lobby's bidding. These are people who put the agenda of the gun lobby ahead of the lives of the citizens they have been elected to represent. I have talked with many of them. They know the difference between right and wrong. Yet they make decisions that they know are going to cost lives, and they do it out of political expediency.
Too bad we can't arrest people for that!
What we can do, however, is to hold our elected leaders accountable for the lives that are lost as a result of their support for the gun lobby -- lives like Trayvon Martin. We can ask our elected officials simple questions like, "Do you believe a convicted felon, domestic abuser, or terrorist should be able to legally buy a gun anywhere in our country?"
And if their answer is not to your satisfaction, and they will not commit to stop willingly arming dangerous people, you may not be able to arrest them, but you can vote them the heck out of office.
Russell Simmons: Gun Shots!! The New Heartbeat of America!
"And virtually anyone, including those same people can also arrange a private sale over the internet and legally buy guns, also without any background check."
Totally false. You can only make an internet gun sale by shipping the firearm to a licensed dealer, where the buyer picks it up after passing a background check.
I'm not sure what CCW laws you think making walking by "some folks" scary, but I live in a state with widespead CCW and it doesn't make me live in fear.
You confuse dealers (FFLs) with private sellers.
"In addition, many states with their cocealed weapons laws make it scary to even walk by some folks."
Since the key component of concealed carry is that the firearm be concealed, you would not know it was there and therefore you would be unable to be scared of it. That nice lady ahead of you in the grocery checkout, that guy who just drove past you as you were out for a walk, that woman out walking her Bichon Frise, that guy you saw in BestBuy buying a new Xbox game for his kid's birthday -- any of them could have been carrying and you did not know it.
Hucksters like this choose to get involved in issues that will never go away because it ensures their employment. This guys position pays about $250,000 annually, which is about 8% of the total contributions to the Brady Campaign for the last year reported.
He does it all for the cause.
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Sorry but that is a pretty stupid thing to write. What possible support could exist for such a statement? To purchase/own a gun is a significant decision - speaking at least from personal experience the big bad NRG, nor "the politician who do their bidding", had any impact on my decision whatsoever. Guess this all boils down to the death of personal accountability in this country. Guy buys a gun...uses it in a State that allows self-defense...a jury of his peers hasn't even heard the case yet...and all of a sudden this author (and many others are blaming a third party. Way to go.
The new president of a anti gun group that has lost much of its membership, support and frankly is not relevant anymore.
And they have to submit their articles to HP, a media outlet with a user/member base that is notoreously anti gun. It's all they got.
It's complicated, but one thing stuck out to me. Even from the strictest constitutional viewpoint, there is an acceptance of limitation on gun ownership to something approximating "reasonable" according to the available technology of the time. The founders were not embracing the notion of cannons in every home. I think if the discussion focused on this point, which would serve to illuminate the boundaries of this liberty, progress could be made. But not as long as the gun industry is involved in the discussion. The commercial interests involved can only muddy the water as far as I'm concerned.
That doesn't address the problem we face where people like Jared Loughner are able to legally obtain handguns or weapons of any kind. That is a much more difficult issue, but points nevertheless to authority, and consequent responsibility, focused at the most local level as possible, but it also involves the trickiest aspect of the entire debate, which is the problem of mental illness and how difficult that is to measure, monitor, or in any way take into consideration when determining to infringe the deified 2nd amendment.
Sounds to me like you think gun owners should only be allowed muskets?
Put that thought process to work on the 1A as well. Were phones, computers, the internet and even the telegraph available at the time it was written?
After researching the history of the 2nd amendment, it appears there are basically 2 divergent opinions about the intentions of the founders. One of those views has held sway, for better or worse. Regardless, the problem of mental illness hangs out there like a hornet's nest waiting to be be dealt with, but as far as I can tell no one in the stalwart 2nd amendment camp wants to touch it with a 10-foot pole.
I personally don't care so much about what kinds of weapons folks carry; I'm much more interested in their frame of mind, and you will never convince me otherwise: there are boatloads of folks who are not mentally or emotionally capable of honoring the responsibility that comes with the 2nd amendment right.
I guess you don't know after all. The people I meet at shooting ranges come from all political walks of life.
Are you insane?
F/F
Not really. And please realize there are nearly 90,000,000 gun owners, and only 4+ million NRA members.
Glad to see you are bringing all your judicial and law enforcement expertise to this conversation! (snort). Also, I am very pleased to see that you are bring all your psychological and psychiatric knowledge to the forefront. I am finding I have to agree with eljefefx.
The records for his crimes were expunged, doubtlessly due to the influence of his father.
"In an average year, roughly a hundred thousand Americans are killed or wounded with guns."
Read more http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/04/23/120423fa_fact_lepore#ixzz1sEMBKnET
New York, New Jersey, Deleware, New Hampshire, Conneticut and California. All of these are liberal bastions with very tight gun control laws yet they see increases every year in gun related violence. Gun control doesnt keep crime in check. Criminals arent scared of the police. Criminals are scared that the grandma sitting across from them and the business man across the way will draw down on them if they do something stupid. Disarming our citizens is dangerous, reckless, and illegal. Gun control laws do NOTHING To stop crime. In fact repealing them has been shown to have an effect on crime by reducing rather than increasing crime rates.
You bleeding hearts want to give up your guns...be my guest. It is your RIGHT to not own them. Just as it is mine to have them. When a crime is commited against you by someone with a gun however...dont come bleating about having no way to protect yourself.
A little food for thought
http://winteryknight.wordpress.com/2011/10/05/crime-rates-in-chicago-and-dc-drop-after-gun-control-laws-are-struck-down/
Reduce crime
Remove the gun.
If we ban handguns in the US we start stopping this madness
and you will get a different decision.
Remember Dred Scott?
That got changed too.
How many idiots like Zimmerman are around with hand guns?Unless Florida stops bowing down
and the rest of this country comes to terms with this stupid law funded by the NRA this country will
remain killing each other,handguns need to be banned in the United States
Because most people reach their convictions mostly emotionally - a great boon to propagandists of both the commercial and political variety. The rest is just casuistry - a fig leaf for the lack of a solid foundation for the belief.
By the way, good job correcting yourself, I was getting worried reading the first post based on the math alone. :)