This reminds me of a comment on another thread: the problem with watchlists is that the person who commits a crime was inevitably a law-abiding citizen until the moment they carry out the crime. The same guy who is legally open-carrying an assault rifle could be the perpetrator of a mass shooting just a few minutes later.
If you can’t reliably predict who is gunna lose it and kill a bunch of people, maybe we should stop dumping so many weapons into the population with no accountability or oversight.
“I think we can all agree that Both Sides Do It. Republicans wouldn’t be forced to obstruct every bill if Democrats would stop bringing them up. If anything, Democrats are worse, because Partisan Politics and Rampant Obstructionism weren’t an issue back when Reagan was in the White House. And, furthermore, the American people want to move past this tragedy and on to the next one…” ~ Half of any conversation on a Sunday morning political talkshow
What? We need to arm everybody so that, statistically, some of the Bad Guys with Guns will accidentally kill some of the other Bad Guys with Guns.
Exactly. Even if you are pro more gun control, this is the completely wrong way to go about it.
Gun control is a great idea, terrorist watchlists are bullshit
No argument here.
Roger That!
It’s like you’re inside the minds of the TEAGOP. I wonder does it hurt?
Hey, even if it was cheap political theater, you must admit it made the GOP look like monkeys. Not like that’s hard, but it’s still of value.
All my hatred of the NRA aside, isn’t that exactly the NRA’s position?
The NRA and most Republicans have opposed linking the terror watch list, or the smaller “no-fly” list, to gun restrictions as both an infringement on Second Amendment rights and on due process, since many of the people on the list have never been convicted or even accused of a crime.
“…due process protections should be put in place that allow law-abiding Americans who are wrongly put on a watch list to be removed.”
You forget that, when a Democrat is president, Republicans believe that things like Terrorist Watch Lists (and no-fly lists, and the TSA, and, and, and) are tools of the evil government expanding it’s executive powers to curtail the liberties of innocent Americans.
Everybody believes the 2nd amendment has limits. We infringe on the “right” of felons in prison to bear nuclear arms.
It’s a giant shit show. When you have “news headlines” with sensational BS head lines line, “With Blood On Their Hands, Senate Republicans Vote To Sell Guns To ISIS” - I mean really? I mean I know they aren’t REAL journalists, but if you are going to pretend to be one, can’t you at least act like you have some journalistic integrity.
Not a member of or spokesman for the NRA, but I happen to have the NRA statement on the issue at hand-
“The NRA believes that terrorists should not be allowed to purchase or possess firearms, period. Anyone on a terror watchlist who tries to buy a gun should be thoroughly investigated by the FBI and the sale delayed while the investigation is ongoing. If an investigation uncovers evidence of terrorist activity or involvement, the government should be allowed to immediately go to court, block the sale, and arrest the terrorist."
The Republicans weren’t going to vote for it, not matter what. The only people who thought it had a shot were headline makers looking for clicks, cable news stations, and those people too naive to know any better.
Yeah, because gun control worked SO WELL in preventing the Charlie Hebdo and Bataclan massacres.
There’s a reason why mass shootings in America happen in “gun free” zones.
Nobody mentions the two amendments the GOP proposed, that the Democrats voted down.
Those two amendments addressed putting mentally ill people on the NICS database, with protections for them, and also addressed how to use watch lists in conjunction with the NICS checks, with protections for the buyers and provisions for law enforcement being notified and being able to stop a purchase if necessary. Surprisingly well written and well thought out changes to existing law - and the Democrats voted them down. It appears the Dem’s are not interested in “reasonable” and “common sense” gun laws, but simply gun bans.
Yet all I see are headlines like “NRA-owned Senate votes down 4 gun control changes”, and then discussion of the two amendments the GOP nixed (without mentioning their Constitutional flaws), allowing people to assume the GOP killed the other 2 as well - sleazy media at its worst, ignoring Democrat anti-gun bias at its worst.
So far 0 mass shootings in Australia since they cracked down after the mass shooting in 1996, and there’d been 10 mass shootings in the prior decade. So it has worked there, at least for 20 years. Ditto for the UK.
And actually there was an armed officer at the Pulse and a couple of others came in shortly so not exactly gun-free… and still 49 killed and another 50+ injured.
So in other words, unless you can prevent 100% of mass shootings, why bother.
Rather like “criminals will get their guns illegally anyway” argument. Why bother with any laws unless you can guarantee 100% compliance.
Already after the Boston bombings, Al Qaeda put out a video suggesting that lone wolves take advantage of lax gun laws in America.
Where do you live? I’m sending over your “freedom fries” right now.
[note sarcasm & schadenfreude]
THANK YOU. This past week has felt like shouting into the fucking void.
ARM EIGHT YEAR OLDS, of course.
And that’s if the list is 100% fair! It becomes a whole different ballgame if they can add people because they went to a vegan potluck, or were named something that sounded foreign, or had an affair with an officer’s partner, or any other completely bullshit reason.
