cods wrote on Sep 21
st, 2019 at 8:41am:
Marla wrote on Sep 19
th, 2019 at 12:54pm:
cods wrote on Sep 19
th, 2019 at 10:07am:
thats odd! I didnt know mass shootings in American schools only started when Trump was elected...
I thought it was part of the culture of that country...
silly me!
Eh, more like dumbass, you. The F A T orange puke is the one in power - along with Turtle Boy - to stop it.
HOW petal! the same way Obama tried maybe!
I dont agree with Trumps attitude on guns but so help me I cant see how anything anyone says will change the culture of ITS EVERY AMERICANS RIGHT TO BARE ARMS...
its enshrined! its your culture...admit it?..
no advert is going to make the slightest difference.
No, dear, the current string of mass shootings follows the anulment of a Clinton restriction on assault weapons, passed in his bipartisan crime bill package. The law survived constitutional challenge, but alas, the law had a sunset clause. Obama wasn't able to renew it with a Republican Congress. Mr Trump doesn't want to try.
This issue is not constitutional. All US states have restrictions on bearing arms - with, perhaps, the exception of Alaska. Every country in the world has restrictions on firearms. I doubt America is the only country that lists firearms in its constitution.
Nor is it cultural. When gangsters held cities like Chicago at siege during prohibition, firearms regulation was seen as a positive. All through the post war years, safe gun regulation was considered a government duty - especially after the spate of assassinations in the late 60s, which included a president.
The change happened when the NRA shifted from being an apolitical organisation that promoted gun safety to becoming a lobby group for the arms industry. This happened in the late 70s, after the weapons industry had lost its military contracts at the end of the Vietnam war. The arms industry went domestic.
The NRA policy shift caused multiple resignations, but continued as the NRA promoted and expanded its membership through the 80s and 90s. It found its political teeth with the Clinton crime bill, forging alliances with Republicans. Essentially, this bill traded restrictions on assault weapons with tougher sentencing and funding for more prisons, also a major US business. At the time, gang violence was a major problem the government needed to tackle.
Today, the NRA has become a reactionary crusade. It's allied with the Bible Belt to form a narrative that the right to have guns is
God given. The NRA has now become an arm of the Republican Party. All of this is
political, not cultural, although it's now hard to see the difference. The rise of the NRA is a true American success story, but a totally dystopian one. Its cause now sees it defending the rights of mass shooters. The original cause of promoting gun safety has become a quaint memory as the NRA has gotten into bed with the arms industry.
The NRA's ties to Republican politicians, many of whom owe their positions to the NRA, mean that federal gun reform is effectively undoable. Obama and now Trump have found just how inflexible these politicians are. They see opposition to even the slightest gun restrictions as a political victory. Their role in shaping legislation for the public good has been totally undermined by this business.
Each step along the way, of course, the weapons industry grows. Even the threat of legislation sees gun sales rise. It's a very effective business model: a mass shooter takes down a school, for example, the issue of firearms restrictions is raised in the media, and gun owners go out to buy the latest weapon in case it gets banned. The NRA says over my dead body, Republicans in congress agree, and gun owners feel relieved again.
This political process, linked to random mass killings, is actually a business strategy. Not only does the arms industry profit from war, it profits from domestic crime and murder. The Wild West was a minor blip in comparison to the carnage carried out today, all in the name of gun sales.
There is nothing constitutional about this, it's about profit. As Calvin Coolidge said, the business of America is business.
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