It is depressingly like clockwork. Every few weeks or months another gunman goes off and shoots up a school or a workplace-or a church.
Some are white, some are black. some did it for racism. some do it because they believe themselves to be victims of racism but what happens is everyone expresses sorrow, grief, outrage, but when it's over it's pass the popcorn. Nothing gets done.
And the GOP tells us we can't politicize it and that the problem is not guns but the mentally ill and that anyway, if everyone in school or at work had a gun we'd all be safer.
Sure, that's the basis of a healthy, secure society. I won't shoot you because I realize you're packing too and will shoot me.
The only thing stopping us from shooting up a library is that everyone else in the library is also packing. That's the kind of society we should strive for.
Silly me for thinking the reason I don't shoot up a school is because the very notion is vile and abhorrent to me. Nope, it's just the worry that the NRA has a gun in everyones holster.
I'm sure that's the only reason why you don't do the same.
So the GOPers tell us nothing but what we can't do: we can't blame the guns. It's not them, it's the mental illness or maybe if we enforced the laws already on the books.
So we don't politicize it, go back to the popcorn and Starbucks, and Instagram and in a month or so it happens again.
President Obama tonight is fed up and rightly so. He says this should be politicized-and that's correct: provided you actually want to solve the problem rather than sing an ode to evil and mental illness are all around us and we're just powerful against these dark forces.
I don't want to make this primarily about Bernie Sanders but in all candor if we do have to politicize this it's fair to ask him about what he intends to do about this epidemic as he's less strong on gun control-he voted against the Brady bill for starters and the NRA is surprisingly fond of him.
Here is the President:
"An exasperated Obama delivers what has become a frequent refrain, and asks the American people to demand more gun controls."
Some are white, some are black. some did it for racism. some do it because they believe themselves to be victims of racism but what happens is everyone expresses sorrow, grief, outrage, but when it's over it's pass the popcorn. Nothing gets done.
And the GOP tells us we can't politicize it and that the problem is not guns but the mentally ill and that anyway, if everyone in school or at work had a gun we'd all be safer.
Sure, that's the basis of a healthy, secure society. I won't shoot you because I realize you're packing too and will shoot me.
The only thing stopping us from shooting up a library is that everyone else in the library is also packing. That's the kind of society we should strive for.
Silly me for thinking the reason I don't shoot up a school is because the very notion is vile and abhorrent to me. Nope, it's just the worry that the NRA has a gun in everyones holster.
I'm sure that's the only reason why you don't do the same.
So the GOPers tell us nothing but what we can't do: we can't blame the guns. It's not them, it's the mental illness or maybe if we enforced the laws already on the books.
So we don't politicize it, go back to the popcorn and Starbucks, and Instagram and in a month or so it happens again.
President Obama tonight is fed up and rightly so. He says this should be politicized-and that's correct: provided you actually want to solve the problem rather than sing an ode to evil and mental illness are all around us and we're just powerful against these dark forces.
I don't want to make this primarily about Bernie Sanders but in all candor if we do have to politicize this it's fair to ask him about what he intends to do about this epidemic as he's less strong on gun control-he voted against the Brady bill for starters and the NRA is surprisingly fond of him.
Here is the President:
"An exasperated Obama delivers what has become a frequent refrain, and asks the American people to demand more gun controls."
"Reiterating that "thoughts and prayers" are not enough, a visibly frustrated Obama called on state legislatures, governors and Congress to work with him to implement effective gun legislation that could prevent future shootings."
"Everything about these events "has become routine," the president remarked. It was not even the first time Obama had delivered nationally televised remarks on a shooting this year."
"The reporting is routine. My response here at this podium ends up being routine. The conversation and the aftermath of it. We’ve become numb to this," Obama said, delivering a meta-analysis of the cycle between shootings and media coverage of the past two decades. "We’ve talked about this after Columbine and Blacksburg, after Tucson, after Newtown, after Aurora, after Charleston… It cannot be this easy for someone who wants to inflict harm on other people to get his or her hands on a gun," he added.
"The number of mass shootings has piled up. According to Everytown for Gun Safety, a Michael Bloomberg-backed nonprofit that bills itself as a gun-violence prevention group, there have been 142 school shootings since the December 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut. In 2015 alone, the group estimates, there have been at least 45 school shootings in the United States"
"Other countries like the United Kingdom and Australia, in response to one mass shooting, have been able to stop most future incidents, Obama claimed."
“So we know there are ways to prevent it. And of course, what’s also routine is somebody somewhere will comment and say, Obama will politicize this issue. Well this is something we should politicize. It is relevant to our common life together, to our body politic," he said, urging news organizations to publish statistics comparing the number of Americans killed by acts of terror to those killed by gun violence."
“This is a political choice that we make. To allow this to happen every few months in America. We collectively are answerable to those families who lose their loved ones because of their inaction," he added, urging Americans to elect officials who reflect their views.
Obama also called upon responsible gun owners to make sure their views are being accurately represented by groups that claim to have their best interests at hand.
"I hope and pray that I don’t have to come out again during my tenure as president to offer my condolences to families in these circumstances," Obama said, ending his address on another somber, yet hopeful note. "But based on my experience as president, I can’t guarantee that. And that’s terrible to say. And it can change.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/10/obama-oregon-shootings-214352#ixzz3nMhkONI5
He's right that other countries have solved the problem. Scotland did it in what would be totally politically incorrect in America-they banned guns.
Now I'm not saying that's the right answer for us; I don't think you need total abolition-but surely the answer is in the direction of more sensible regulation.
As the President says to not do so is a political choice as well. It'd be nice if the takeaway was not that we can't politicize gun violence but that we are demanding no more mass shootings.
"Everything about these events "has become routine," the president remarked. It was not even the first time Obama had delivered nationally televised remarks on a shooting this year."
"The reporting is routine. My response here at this podium ends up being routine. The conversation and the aftermath of it. We’ve become numb to this," Obama said, delivering a meta-analysis of the cycle between shootings and media coverage of the past two decades. "We’ve talked about this after Columbine and Blacksburg, after Tucson, after Newtown, after Aurora, after Charleston… It cannot be this easy for someone who wants to inflict harm on other people to get his or her hands on a gun," he added.
"The number of mass shootings has piled up. According to Everytown for Gun Safety, a Michael Bloomberg-backed nonprofit that bills itself as a gun-violence prevention group, there have been 142 school shootings since the December 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut. In 2015 alone, the group estimates, there have been at least 45 school shootings in the United States"
"Other countries like the United Kingdom and Australia, in response to one mass shooting, have been able to stop most future incidents, Obama claimed."
“So we know there are ways to prevent it. And of course, what’s also routine is somebody somewhere will comment and say, Obama will politicize this issue. Well this is something we should politicize. It is relevant to our common life together, to our body politic," he said, urging news organizations to publish statistics comparing the number of Americans killed by acts of terror to those killed by gun violence."
“This is a political choice that we make. To allow this to happen every few months in America. We collectively are answerable to those families who lose their loved ones because of their inaction," he added, urging Americans to elect officials who reflect their views.
Obama also called upon responsible gun owners to make sure their views are being accurately represented by groups that claim to have their best interests at hand.
"I hope and pray that I don’t have to come out again during my tenure as president to offer my condolences to families in these circumstances," Obama said, ending his address on another somber, yet hopeful note. "But based on my experience as president, I can’t guarantee that. And that’s terrible to say. And it can change.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/10/obama-oregon-shootings-214352#ixzz3nMhkONI5
He's right that other countries have solved the problem. Scotland did it in what would be totally politically incorrect in America-they banned guns.
Now I'm not saying that's the right answer for us; I don't think you need total abolition-but surely the answer is in the direction of more sensible regulation.
As the President says to not do so is a political choice as well. It'd be nice if the takeaway was not that we can't politicize gun violence but that we are demanding no more mass shootings.
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