The “tide is turning”

By

Filed Under Domestic Policy on Dec 27 

That phrase is in the news a lot lately, referring, obliquely, to some “tide” about prevailing opinion on gun control.

The “tide” against big-capacity ammo clips?
The “tide” against allowing gun rampages by out-of-control nutcases?
The “tide” against the ‘gun ownership culture’ of this country?

We’re having a “national conversation” about some “tide” that is “turning.”

I know I’m convinced, especially now that we’re having that long-overdue conversation. If only we’d spoken sooner. I agree with everyone who is against mass murder, especially when committed against school children. I didn’t realize that that was a tide that needed to be turned, but if so, then I’m there.

Outlawing 10+round clips as Senator Diane Feinstein has so courageously proposed, would do nothing to gather up the millions of big-clip weapons already in circulation. Those are grandfathered.

Oops.

Big clip magazines are not the key to a psychopath being able to commit multiple murders. Having multiple small-capacity clips on hand–like Cho did at VA Tech when he gunned down 32–is what does it. Not “big capacity clips.” And they weren’t “assault rifles” either, they were handguns.

Oops.

We don’t have the money, or desire to put armed guards at each school (as some people have recently pointed out so directly).

Oops.

But even though statistically the number of mass-murder shooting victims is less than drownings or poisonings or alcohol-related driving fatalities, it just seems so much more horrific when a 7-year old is shot than when the pimple-faced 17-year-old Joey drinks Dad’s Skyy behind his back and then wraps his ’95 Altima around the big elm at the corner. Hey, that was Joey’s fault. He should have known better. He had a choice. 10,000 Joey’s for every 7-year-old shooting victim. But the 7-year old grabs the headlines and the attention. Yes, thank goodness the “tide” is turning.

Maybe we should arm teachers, as some have suggested. Not mandatory, only the ones who volunteered to be armed. No one need know which teachers are armed and which are not.

An armed teacher could stop Sandy Hook in a instant.

“But we don’t want guns in our children’s schools!”

That’s absolutely right. We don’t. Especially when they’re carried into a school by a psychopath.

Another person recently opined that he thought the actual pct of nutcases in this (or any) country’s population was relatively constant, a very low number. But the same percentage of an ever-increasing population will result in an ever-increasing absolute number of potential mass murderers and incidents.

Everyone who feels better, safer, more confident, and assured that the number of these incidents will be reduced in the future because we’re having a “national conversation” and the “tide is turning,” please raise your hand.

“But I really, really, really wish that our children would never be threatened by gun violence ever again. All we have to do is get rid of 10-round clips and ‘turn that tide’ with our ‘national conversation.’ ”

Whew. Glad that’s settled. I wish we’d come up with this plan a few years ago.

Oh, yeah, we have to do one more thing, the one key thing that will absolutely ensure that this problem goes away forever:

We have to get the national liberal media to blame conservative Republicans for the whole thing. It’s all their fault. Eliminate Republicans and you eliminate all gun violence for good. After all, Chicago–the murder and gun violence capital of the country–is a Republican town.

Oops.

Comments

  • Japippy

    Steve; just to make a long story short, I pretty much agree with what you’ve stated, but wouldn’t you agree, that for the most part, with all of the weaponry that is in the hands of INNOCENT, NEVER BEEN IN TROUBLE BEFORE PATRIOTIC CITIZENS, that controlling MENTAL ILLNESS would do a lot more to head off moments and/or incidents like Connecticut and Columbine??
    The number of NUT CASES out there that either Take Mind Altering Drugs unlawfully, or the legitimately mentally ill people who either take them too often as prescribed or don’t take them often enough; if monitored in a better manner could save much sorrow too, in this country.
    Do you recall when SO VERY MANY MENTAL HOSPITALS lost all funding and many individuals wound up roaming the streets?
    If my taxes were to be raised just a little bit to assure me that MENTALLY ILL people were being properly monitored and or treated, I wouldn’t belly ache too much. To me, that would be a VERY GOOD CAUSE to support. Much more so than sending $250,000 to the Muslim Brother Hood and Airplanes to Egypt etc etc.
    Jim Petersen