America's Darkest Days II: Blackest Night

[briareos_kerensky]

Trump is in it up to his eyeballs - why else would he be trying this hard to shut the investigation down?

I wonder if Republicans will ever reach a point where they can't follow this charade any longer. Those close to Trump ever since the candidancy want the investigation to be stopped because if Trump goes down they'll go down as well, but the rest? There has to be a point when coscience kicks in.

[MartyG]

Look's like Trump wants his ego stroking: https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...fb7_story.html

[Cassius_Smoke]

I'm reminded by a Tao Te Ching quote here:

"The state's weaponry should not be displayed."

Essentially what is unknown raises more fear than even the largest army does. Unseen weapons are more threatening to the enemy than the sharpest and shiniest swords.

[charlesr]

Anyone that thinks that normal civilians should have guns in a country where civilians go nuts with guns all the time is also saying they don't care that lots of children (and adults) WILL get shot each week. It's a constitutional right to be happy with that certainty (it's not a risk any more).

[endo]

What's this, the sixth school shooting so far this year in which kids have been wounded or killed? And it's only 15 February.

[Asura]

What's this, the sixth school shooting so far this year in which kids have been wounded or killed? And it's only 15 February.

They happen almost weekly. We often don't hear about it.

[Mayhem]

You'd have to get rid of a lot of the illegal weapons in the US first before anyone would really think about giving up a legally held one.

[QualityChimp]

I found this article interesting:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/feb/13/remington-bankruptcy-guns-trump-slump-sales

Basically, gun manufacturer Remington has filed for bankruptcy.
You'd think a pro-gun President like Trump would bolster sales, but it's the opposite.
When Obama was re-elected, there was a spike in gun sales as Americans feared he would prize their guns from their cold, dead hands.

Now there's less hurry to buy their Bushmaster XM-15 with a Maximum effective rate of fire of 45 rounds per minute (semi-auto) with an effective firing range of 600 yards.

For home defence, obviously.

[fishbowlhead]

Don’t worry guys, nothing to fear hear, it’s was video games all along that killed those kids, not guns after all. Phew.

If a senetor says it’s fact then is has to be, right?

[Neon Ignition]

Hearing the White House and gun lobbyists speak on the news and on the radio in their attempts to deflect attention away from guns isn't just embarrassing, it's yet another source of national shame.

It's not so much that many American's want to keep the rights to own weapons, it's how they're utter cowards when it comes to discussing it

[Asura]

Hearing the White House and gun lobbyists speak on the news and on the radio in their attempts to deflect attention away from guns isn't just embarrassing, it's yet another source of national shame.

It's not so much that many American's want to keep the rights to own weapons, it's how they're utter cowards when it comes to discussing it

To be fair, part of this that never gets brought up is that the people on one side of the debate have guns and the people on the other don't like to use them.

[Neon Ignition]

True, it's a painful debate to listen to. It's always all too clear that the issues and answers are known but are being ignored for self interest.

Last night I listened to some discussion about how Trump had been laying the blame again for the recent shooting at the feet of mental health and yet had only recently repealed Obama's motion to ban firearm sales to individuals with mental health concerns. Once again, Trump's trouser snake for Obama overriding any sense.

Thing is, I can understand how the situation with guns in America is what it is as it's built on hundreds of years of engraining it into the societies DNA. If any sitting President is ever going to begin the process of changing anything it won't come from changing the nations laws, it'll come from education reforms that help to educate children that the 'right to bear arms' does not grant them a constitutional right to own a gun and that guns are only creating bloodshed in their country, not stopping it. They need to start creating the foundations for a generation that won't want to contribute to the poisonous pockets of the NRA and will want to and will make the changes they wish they could make today.

[Asura]

Thing is, I can understand how the situation with guns in America is what it is as it's built on hundreds of years of engraining it into the societies DNA. If any sitting President is ever going to begin the process of changing anything it won't come from changing the nations laws, it'll come from education reforms that help to educate children that the 'right to bear arms' does not grant them a constitutional right to own a gun and that guns are only creating bloodshed in their country, not stopping it. They need to start creating the foundations for a generation that won't want to contribute to the poisonous pockets of the NRA and will want to and will make the changes they wish they could make today.

It still has the issue, though, that even if you were going to do that over decades, you're asking a generation of people to start not having a gun in a country of people who do. Like in the UK, the only criminals who have guns are the real criminal element; a clumsy burglar is unlikely to have one - but if I lived in the US? I imagine there are plenty of people who don't want to own a gun.

Education is definitely the answer, though - or some social aspect. The stat that is often repeated is that Canada has a gun culture and a hunting culture as big as the US's, but when scaled for population they don't have this problem on anywhere near the same level as the US.

[QualityChimp]

[MartyG]

It still has the issue, though, that even if you were going to do that over decades, you're asking a generation of people to start not having a gun in a country of people who do. Like in the UK, the only criminals who have guns are the real criminal element; a clumsy burglar is unlikely to have one - but if I lived in the US? I imagine there are plenty of people who don't want to own a gun.

Although gun ownership in the UK has never been high, prior to Dunblane there were over 200,000 handgun registrations - these were all banned for private ownership after that event and had to be handed in, and not having done so can see you with ten years inside.

It's not impossible to make gun ownership illegal or massively restrict it - but it'll definitely never happen with Trump and the NRA.