Yes, we can have sane gun control
FRIDAY, DEC 14, 2012 07:30 PM EST
The NRA might not believe it, but it's possible to have strict regulations without trampling the Second Amendment
BY JOSHUA HOLLAND, ALTERNET
The United States is not the only country to experience the horrors of mass shootings. We are, however, the only society in which a serious discussion of tighter gun controls doesnt follow incidents like the massacres weve seen at a Connecticut elementary school on Friday. In fact, in most countries these kinds of tragedies result in some kind of concrete legislative action.
The reason we cant have a sane, adult discussion of how to cut down on random gun violence is simple: the NRA has hoodwinked a lot of reasonable gun owners into believing that theres a debate in this country over banning firearms altogether. Well never be able to have a serious discussion about how to cut down on gun violence until that group accepts the actual terms of the debate. And the NRA has a vested interest in making sure they remain obscure because the organization represents gun manufacturers and a small, highly ideological minority of gun-nuts, rather than (typically responsible) gun owners.
And that means that, at least in theory, there is political space for a new kind of gun control advocacy one that isnt about whether Americans have a right to bear arms, but instead explicitly advocates safe and responsible gun ownership, a goal the polls tell us most gun owners would embrace.
Th idea that someone wants to grab Americans guns couldnt be further from reality. The truth is that Americans right to own firearms has never been more secure at any time in our nations history. A series of Supreme Court decisions notably a 2010 decision that settled, in gun owners favor, decades of debate about whether the Second Amendment was an individual right effectively ended any question of banning firearms ...
http://www.salon.com/2012/12/15/yes_we_can_have_sane_gun_control/singleton/
sanatanadharma
(3,720 posts)...but does NOT deny to us (society) the ability to define what 'arms' are. The gun idolaters may keep what the nation says is an 'arm', they have NO right to determine what those arms can be. That needs to be our call.
Call your representatives and senators and ask why, if Sandy Hook teachers can take a bullet (many) to protect their students, why will you (elected rep) not take a vote to protect us all from the idolaters.
Throckmorton
(3,579 posts)I will not even ask for them to be registered.