Discussion for article #243459
It’s gonna take more than a strongly worded editorial to loosen the grip that the NRA has on our politicians, media, and the millions of single issue gun nuts in this not-well-in-the-head country. But every bit helps, so thank you, NYT.
someone help me out here…
I’m a bit conflicted in that living in California we have some of the toughest gun control laws in the country…
for long guns you have to pass a background check and wait 10 days before taking possession of your firearm… to buy a handgun you have to pass a written test and demonstrate knowledge of the handgun you purchase and then wait 10 days to pick it up… you can only buy one handgun every 30 days…
it has been suggested that some of the guns used were ‘straw man’ purchases… made by someone else and then given to the shooters…
given all that… how does it get fixed?
California only allows possession of 10 round magazines but its easy to drive over the Nevada or Arizona border to buy larger magazines…
the country outlawed full auto weapons but you can still get one if you have a Federal license… do we need to do that with AR15 and AK47 type weapons that crappy politicians use to cook bacon with?
help me out here…
The Daily News is labeling Wayne LaPierre a terrorist.
Clearly, this is something the states can not accomplish by themselves. Not matter how many restrictions California puts on killing machines, Arizona can and does trump them. Other states as well. Only a national solution will suffice in this instance.
They’re being too kind.
"It is a moral outrage and a national disgrace that civilians can legally
purchase weapons designed specifically to kill people with brutal speed
and efficiency,” the editorial board wrote. “These are weapons of war,
barely modified and deliberately marketed as tools of macho vigilantism
and even insurrection.”
…
Thanks NYT. it’s a start Now we need to direct this outrage toward members of Congress. One at a time if necessary. Let them know it’s VOTERS who are dying. They might understand that. Maybe.
Well, actually, I believe we’d be better off all the more if we just outlawed crappy politicians and lawmakers. We would never have ended up where we are in the first place. But … I digress.
As you point out, or imply, no one law is going to immediately solve all gun crime forever, and people can still make bombs if they really just want to cause random death and mayhem. If you banned guns entirely one morning you’d have a black market booming by mid-afternoon. But the theory is that if you make it somewhat harder to acquire guns in general and incredibly potent guns like the AR-15 and variants in particular, you create a threshold over which a large number of people won’t bother to go. If a thing’s easy to do, it’s one thing; if there are hurdles to jump, it’s another. So the day someone cracks, it’s more likely he’s got a pistol, or a hunting rifle, not something designed to wipe out soldiers on a battlefield, drastically more powerful and reloadable than any other type of gun. As I see it, this is doing what you can do until the culture changes.
- Require licensing for all gun owners and registrations for all guns.
- No more one-on-one private sales. Sales must be brokered through a division of local or state law enforcement.
- Concealed carry permits require thorough training, a competency test, continuing education and periodic recertification.
- Require tracking and limitations of ammunition sales.
- Harsh, no tolerance rules for any weapons violations. Require jail time and full revocation of weapons privileges. If it’s a law enforcement officer, they lose their job.
To equate someone not being able to buy a gun because they might be accidentally be put on a terrorist no fly list with the almost daily mass murders in this country,then use it as an excuse to do nothing is truly an outrage.
Desperate times call for desperate measures. The gun problem will not go away until it becomes a liability for politicians to accept political contributions from the NRA. There is no doubt that the NRA abets terrorists. They should be officially recognized as doing such, making political contributions illegal.
Significant laws already exist for purchase of bomb making materials, especially ammonium nitrate, the most potent of the raw materials, and one that is now under legal control (not outlawed because it is fertilizer). The bomb used by McVeigh was ammonium nitrate and kerosene, an incredibly explosive mixture as we’ve seen there and elsewhere. Go ahead, try to buy a truck load of ammonium nitrate. It’s impossible. You may be able to steal it somewhere but it’s under locked control mostly anymore, by law. Try it, and you’ll have the FBI breathing down your back tomorrow. Same with investigating / researching bombs and their construction via the internet.
For far too long now, the NYT has become one of the many other media outlets that let gop/bags say and do anything they want without pushback or followup.
Finally, the NYT writes a front page editorial that is gripping in it’s truth. It might not help now, but like the NY Daily News, it’s a small crack against the nra cancer that is a scourge to our country!
Here’s my favorite,
“The attention and anger of Americans also should be directed at the elected leaders whose job is to keep us safe but who place a higher premium on the money and political power of an industry dedicated to profiting from the unfettered spread of ever more powerful firearms.”
By the Republican Party.
The thing is these weapons are not being aimed at the tyrannical government that Republicans claim we have and that we know they run. The guns are being aimed at innocent men, women, and children.
Not a single Republican has said those victims didn’t deserve to die, because Republicans don’t believe that. They believe those people did deserve to die, either because they didn’t buy into the Republican policy of gun proliferation, or they weren’t conservative. Either way, the bottom line is the Republican Party represents the interests of the shooter, not the victim.
It is time we ask all of our independent friends and republican friends to be single issue voters come next fall. Gun control. Vote on that one issue alone. 90% of Americans, a majority of Republicans support this. Surely they can put up with 4 years of Hillary in exchange for a safer country. For god sake the words ‘well regulated’ are in the 2nd amendment. Tell them to hold their note and vote for on this one issue alone.
- All existing and grandfathered guns need to install a new firing pin with a serial number that is imprinted on any bullet fired from the gun.
- Yearly inspections of all weapons required, during which time things like the firing pin are inspected.
- Annual limits on total ammunition purchases (i.e., no more than 50 bullets per year).
- 1000% ammunition tax.
- Federal gun buyback program that pays way more than the value of the gun.
Let us see if any other news outlet has the gonads to run with this strong a call…Right now I only hear crickets…
Thank you NYT! T. Egan, at nyt, has an excellent article on gop bag— ‘THoughts and Prayers’…today too!
Thank you NYT. We need single issue voters who will vote for candidates who want to “do something” about guns. Otherwise, the GOP will continue to cower to the NRA. We get what we vote for!
one of the things you can buy over the internet is black powder… its classified LE - low explosive as opposed to HE - high explosive… its very popular with pipe bomb makers…
I have some myself for my cap and ball revolver… which btw was legally purchased thru mail order since its classified as an ‘antique’ type weapon…
its also very easy to make gunpowder and the 3 ingredients you need are easily purchased… charcoal, sulfer and saltpeter
limiting ammo sales? what about re-loaders? people who load their own ammo have access to HE powder for their loads and since they keep their brass how would you monitor how many rounds they might have in their possession?
its almost impossible to get a concealed carry permit in the major metro areas of California…
what’s worse, to me, are the idiot law enforcement people that leave their guns unsecured in their cars and that get stolen and used in crimes… people who should know better…