William Rivers Pitt | An Open Letter to Lovers of the Gun

[Electric Monk]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024383782

(Can you feel the love? )

[upaloopa]

1. What harm does it do to the NRA to work with

others to reduce gun violence?
Isn't it in the best interest of gun owners to work to keep guns out of the hands of those who are a danger to society at least as well as can be.
What I don't get is the complete intransigence on the part of the gun lobby.
At some point in the future gun violence will reach a critical mass and there will be something done that the gun lobby won't like.

[friendly_iconoclast]

2. Perhaps they don't care to deal with Prohibitionists...

...who are are currently styling themselves as 'gun safety advocates'

Just out of curiosity, what makes you believe that

At some point in the future gun violence will reach a critical mass...

?

[upaloopa]

6. Logic reason critical thinking

[clffrdjk]

7. Here let me fix that for you.

Opinion, opinion, opinion

I find it funny how you tried to avoid posting any of the evidence that logic, reasoning and critical thinking would all require.

[friendly_iconoclast]

8. Care to elaborate, or are we to take it on faith?

[upaloopa]

10. People will not tolerate daily shootings. Now we hear of a killing in one state and in another

the next day. Soon it will be 2 a day in the same state.
The right will not remain in power for ever. Laws will change gun ownership. It is in enviable. Nothing remains constant.

[clffrdjk]

11. There you go again posting opinions and feelings as facts

"Soon it will be 2 a day in the same state."
What evidence do you have to support this?

[hack89]

4. Then make a firm commitment against gun bans

Gun owners have no desire to work with people that want to take away guns - every time I hear a gun controller say "this is a good start" I tune them out. Give us a clear idea what the end game is.

[Eleanors38]

9. What the "gun lobby" sees, and what reasonable gun owners see, is

a small but well-sited (MSM, political elites) group of prohibitionists, and they WILL NOT deal with them. You can see these people right here on DU (the very thread you reference, cross- posted in Guns Dogs is a prime example). These folks and their small elite "organizations" largely created the modern NRA (and even more hard-line 2A groups), and now stand in the way of Any reasonable discussion.

It is what they want. It is more important to them than any reasonable legislation, and quite possibly more important than the deaths of the children they say they decry.

The greater question is what the controller/prohibitionist REALLY wants or is reacting to. I suggest the answer is in long-term pent-up frustrations over the decline in the progressive activist character of the Democratic Party and its corporate leaders, and an utterly intransigent Right. So, they have conjured an All-Purpose Enemy the hatred of which is Legitimized, to the point of stigmatizing fellow DUers.

They can't let up. To do so, to reflect, to stand back and reconsider is to admit their own culpability in this destructive and unnecessary culture war. That is what's most important to them.

[Jenoch]

3. As long as the focus is on 'school shooting statistics'

it appears the Purdue shooting was different from other school shootings in that only one person was specifically targeted, it was not random. The fact that it happened at a school is not necessarily significant.

[gejohnston]

5. Instead of talking about just gun violence,

let's talk about violence. How many fatal school stabbings have there been? I don't know either, but I can find a few with a quick search. I doubt those are the only ones. While these are pre Newtown, there is a good chance there have been more than a handful since then. Yet they haven't made the national news, why? Are just as disgusted about those murders as I am? If so, why aren't you speaking out?
http://www.policeone.com/school-violence/articles/6550830-2-arrested-after-stabbing-at-Indiana-University/
http://www.policeone.com/school-violence/articles/6540773-Mass-teacher-slain-14-year-old-student-charged/
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/teen-stabbed-to-death-at-la-high-school/
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2014-01-24/news/chi-arrest-made-orland-park-stabbing-20140124_1_orland-park-police-stabbing-death-taylorwanderson
http://www.wtop.com/41/3462501/12-arrested-after-stabbing-death-of-Va-high-school-student
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/teen-charged-murder-stabbing-texas-school-article-1.1446507
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/09/04/spring-texas-houston-harris-county-stabbing-spring-high-school-dead/2762649/
While we are on the subject of violence:
http://www.nbcnews.com/health/school-violence-lands-more-90-000-year-er-study-finds-2D11898820

Now, what laws could prevent those? Current federal law prohibits minors from possessing handguns unless at a supervised shooting sports event. That law didn't prevent them. How many of the states that the shootings took place have licensing schemes, safe storage laws, licensing, etc? Some do. Oh, and most if not all states prohibit guns on campuses. How did that law work out? How many of these guns were legally obtained?
Don't expect solutions from Animatronic Wayne, Wango Tango Ted, Monsanto Shannan, or Wantabe Plutocrat Mike because they have none. I seriously doubt you do either.