When the leading cause of death in children is gun violence this is not a 2nd amendment issue it...

[Soph0571]

...is a public health issue

I was watching the news tonight and they were talking about the horrific stat that in the US the leading cause of death for children is gun violence. Not cancer, not traffic accidents, not tiny fingers in electrical sockets, not stranger danger, not family violence. In America - your child is more likely to die by gun violence than any other cause of childhood death. Do you know how crazy that sounds to everyone in the West? This is a public health emergency.

Oh and the pro life crowd can fuck off right off. They will happy allow the slaughter of babies as long as they have living breathing heart beat.

[Blue Owl]

1. The domestic fetal incubators will keep churning out the NRA's target fodder

The "Pro-Lifers," the NRA, and all the GOP gun-nut enablers can indeed all fuck right off, when it comes down to it, they are creating a death cycle and a dangerous world nobody will feel safe in...

[Lovie777]

2. Houston, we have a problem . . .

[TheRealNorth]

6. But fatalities are up...

Because people are driving faster.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/05/17/road-deaths-fatalities/

[CivicGrief]

8. I see a pattern in your posts.

Defending guns at a time like this. Bravo.

[unblock]

4. The constitution is a balancing act, not a set of absolutes

The first amendment has a ton of restriction because, for instance, the government has a legitimate interest in public safety.

Do you can't incite a riot or falsely cause a crowd to panic (yelling fire in a crowded theater) or blackmail or extort or....


Similar logic applies to the second amendment. No matter how you interpret the second amendment, it doesn't make the rest of the constitution irrelevant. The government can still regulate things to preserve the safety of the people. That just has to be balanced against the right to keep and bear arms.

Which means that reasonable regulation is entirely permissible.

[Mysterian]

7. The constitution is obsolete

Many of the founders were brilliant men but too many undemocratic compromises were made during ratification.

It is insane that we still have an electoral college, allowing a president to be elected with less votes than another candidate.

It is insane that a legislator can prevent the president from appointing a supreme court justice.

It is insane that states with less population than many U.S. cities have the same number of senators as states with 50 times as many people.

It is insane to have expected small population states to concur with amendments to fix these problems.

[unblock]

11. the problem is that the entire founding of america was an ugly compromise

the constitution had a number of ugly compromises designed to preserve slavery in slave states while keeping free states free.

the civil war only got rid of the most overt of these.

but many of the problematic structures we're stuck with today were, if not the direct result of, certainly influenced by, agreement to maintain this ugly balance.

why not just have a one-chamber parliament? because the slave states wanted it to be hard to pass laws, lest one unfortunate election put a hamper in their profitable business of owning humans.

why is it a monumental task to amend the constitution? same reason.

why is the senate based on states rather than people? same reason. this way you essentially need a majority of people *and* a majority of states to pass laws

why the crazy electoral college? same reason.


obviously there were other arguments for such things, but the idea that we had to keep this delicate balance to keep the slavers happy pervades the entire constitution.

the mere fact that black people are denied basic equal treatment over one and a half centuries after winning their "freedom" if telling. hard to do that without lingering structures designed to continue unequal treatment based on race.

[TheRealNorth]

5. The Right doesn't give a shit about Public Health either....

Covid proved that. They only care about Public Health when they can use it against undocumented immigrants and gay people.

[SYFROYH]

9. Thats a statistic that usually includes 18 and 19 year olds

Ita usually phrased to include children and teens. People often assume the data stops at 17 but includes 18 and 19 year olds.

https://time.com/6170864/cause-of-death-children-guns/

Still too many kids die from gun violence.

[ancianita]

10. It's a national security issue. The U.S. has seven times more domestic mass murder -- 288 --

than the next seventeen countries put together. Firearms are the leading cause of death for America's children. https://www.npr.org/2022/04/22/1094364930/firearms-leading-cause-of-death-in-children

The security of our next generations must have national security status, and because the 2nd Amendment is not absolute, Homeland and Congress must work to secure America's children from being sacrificed on the gun altar.