Woulda, coulda, shoulda, maybe, if only. Yada, yada, yada. You make the glaringly obvious point but conveniently ignore the self evident truth that "focusing on services and other systemic changes to help prevent people from falling to crisis states" ain't gonna happen in this lifetime or this world.
But it has happened in every other developed western country. There is no reason it can't happen here as well, if the people demand it.
In the very near future we are facing cuts (if not total elimination) of very basic "entitlements". Do you really think that MAGAworld (or anyone else who isn't personally affected) gives a rat's ass?????
No doubt. But I think the attacks on gun rights are part of the reason we're looking at a Trump presidency for the next 4 years. That cost a lot of support in the rust belt. That's a part of the reason they lose Hispanic support. They are turning off their base that support these rights. Why do you think Harris was so upfront about saying she's a gun owner? Part of the reason Democrats are losing their their base is because they are making baseless political claims which they know nothing about and that can only lose the respect of their base rather than focusing on the real problems.
Yeah, all that shit needs to be done....and in a caring world it would be. This ain't that world. So do the doable. Restrict the fuck out of firearms and fuck twisting ourselves into pretzels trying to justify the Second Amendment as inviolate when it actually isn't, no matter how loud "Murricans whine or present convoluted, nonsensical arguments. Sometimes common sense is exactly that.
You can't get rid of 400 million firearms. Or 3d printers. You can't eliminate the millions of garage shops capable of making fully automatic assault weapons.
Shit, the Philippines make fully automatic guns by hand for the black market without half the ability or equipment the average American garage has.
And they don't have near the gun culture we have in the US. If you more strictly restrict guns, you will simply have people making untraceable fully automatic weapons in their garages for the black market. Because fully automatic weapons are much easier to make than semi-automatic weapons.
It's simply not possible to significantly reduce firearms deaths with further firearms restrictions. Certainly not with the restrictions that are being suggested (assault weapon ban even though anything they try to define as an assault weapon is used to kill fewer people than are killed by blunt force objects, and couldn't be further restricted anyway).
Quit letting the Rittenhouses and Daniel Pennys of the world off while prosecuting the Mangioni's. Quit trying to gray up black and white. We are such a weak willed, scared bunch of pussies, afraid to do the right thing. And........
I've got no arguments here. I don't know the details of those cases. Rittenhouse is certainly no hero.
Why do we automatically assume the NOLA driver was mentally ill, or in a mental health crisis?? Sounds to me like he had well executed, murderous intent. But we'll likely never know.
I don't assume this murderer is in their right mind. But if they were born here there's probably a pretty good chance that they slipped through the cracks somewhere.
And.............you may not be required to be trained and licensed to own a car, but you are required to be trained and licensed to drive one. As a longtime vehicle owner (who has never owned a firearm) it sure seems like vehicle ownership requires far, far more regulation and oversight than gun ownership.
You are required to be licensed and trained to have a firearm in public as well, at least, in most states. And I'm fine with states being allowed to make that restriction. Though I believe there should be a federal standard that must be met if a state does make that restriction. And federally funded training and certification process rather than the random state level tests that rely on local law enforcement to manage like we have now.
I think if we got serious about this we could probably get most states to require a license and training to conceal carry a firearm in most cities.
But it would probably require allowing reciprocity of that license across all states.
I think we could further help things by offering tax incentives for individuals to take these annual federal courses.
Anyway, slice it however, it's always easier to control the ownership of inanimate objects than it is to regulate and control mental health. But I'm sure you'll find a way to argue otherwise.......
I am absolutely going to argue differently because most Western nations (all of them but the US) have instituted the kind of changes that I'm advocating for. And they all saw the benefits of far lower crime rates and rates of violence than we see in the US. And that was all the case before they had any gun restrictions. Since they instituted gun restrictions the US has actually seen a larger reduction in violent crime and murder rates than those countries have.
Yes, it's going to be a shit show with Trump. But the Democrats need to get their shit together and start talking about things that are really important and make sense to most Americans otherwise we're going to get JD Vance after Trump.
There is no gun control that can change anything to the benefit of Democrats.
I don't fault you for having your opinion and I understand why you have it. Unfortunately I know a lot about this subject and some of the things you are talking about are simply not accurate or reasonable.
