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They were bought at gun shows dummy, and the ATF was powerless to stop them from taking them over the border, because of existing laws brokered by the NRA........P.S. if the gov't wanted you dead, NO amount of assault weapons that you could buy, or rounds of ammunition would save you......glad I could help.....
Well, this definitely won't happen before the election, especially with the righties beating the drum to its base about "Obama's gunna take yer Guns away from yeh"
....maybe after the election, but not a moment sooner....
The root problem, as you said, is private money in politics and the anonymous way it can be donated. The California DISCLOSE Act, like the Federal DISCLOSE Act, would at least help address the anonymous part of this problem...but would you believe it, we can't even get progressive champions like yourself to help us pass it and the fight is going on at fever pitch right now in Sacramento!
You rarely if ever mention the California DISCLOSE Act on your show...and you won't even have our President, Trent Lange, on your show to discuss it. Senator Russ Feingold and his organization Progressives United, have strongly endorsed it...so has Public Citizen, Common Cause, and the Courage Campaign...but we can't get you to give us the time of day, despite months of trying.
I love you and your show, Thom, and shining a light on these problems is crucial, but I wish you'd do more to help us solve them (and that goes for Rachel and Ed and Lawrence and Chris and Norman too). We'd sure love to hear from you...just ask your producer.
Craig Dunkerley, frustrated activist...
Hey, if you can get away with shooting a Congresswoman without any gun law changes, why would Congress change gun laws when pions are shot?
Why not have a type of recycle program for bullets and or guns? I'm not a gun guy but it makes sense to me to have as a minimum some form of approval process / tracking program in place to be assured the wrong type of people can't get their hands on both the wrong type of weapons and excessive ammuniation. It seems silly to require a doctor to prescribe and refill prescription drugs but anybody on the internet can ship 3000 rounds of amunition. Is it just me or doesn't this seem possible? Can bullets eject a completed stamp for a trade in program or something like that?
And if a gun isn't available..they'll use some other way...knives, hit-and-run, baseball bat. That's it...lets outlaw baseball bats! That'll make us safe! Oh, and make sure we outlaw fertilizer, too!
"Also, not once, was he required to submit a background check or register his name to the purchases."
The above statement is simply not true!
Maybe the next outbreak will target those damn idiotic maggot telemarketers and collection agency scamsters who pester the hell out of people by calling them up on the phone. I wouldn't be sorry to see a lot of those bastards....
disappear.
Trickle down economics does not work. Those with these massive piles of money, merely need to use the current vehicles of investment manipulations and the lack of regulations to generate more wealth.Who needs to make a darn thing, pay an employee, or start a business. Who would pay taxes to government for anything when you can go directly to washington, buy a politician(s) and achieve an much more direct and effective result. Our problem is the money influence in Washington. We need to reinstate Glass Stiegel and overturn Citizen United and hit people like the Koch Brothers with the tax bill for the last 30 years of reprieve. I learned something long ago while working retail in a very high dollar luxury item industr. There are none cheaper or more selfish than the rich.
Facts trump gun-nut paranoia. Sharing this, Thom!
Here in Canada we have very strict handgun laws and people are killed by hand guns all the time. This year alone over two hundred shootings in Toronto alone. Just last week 2 where killed and 23 injured in a shopping mall shooting. I do have to say I went to a gun shop in Houstan TX and they where selling a gun with a 100 shot clip (not available in Canada). My freind and could not for the life of us think of what the hell you would need that for unless you are up to no good or a very bad shot.
Thom, you've got to play the song "Let There be Guns" by the Arrogant Worms, if you haven't already.
http://www.arrogantworms.com/music/ listed under the album C'est Cheese from 1995.
(Note: I previously thought this song was called "Wouldn't It Be Great If Everybody Had a Gun?")
Leave our 2nd Amendment Rights alone.
I cannot understand why the NRA is running American politics.
We need to do with guns what we've done with cigarettes. We have to make guns items that we scorn. That we know are lethal, just as cigarettes are.
Besides, if they outlaw guns in the US, criminals can always buy guns from the US government (eg: Operation Fast and Furious). What?!! You mean our own government sold thousands of high powered assault weapons to Mexican Drug Cartels? And they want to take away OUR weapons? Right!
See, they only want to keep American citizens from being able to defend themselves....they don't care about Mexican Drug Cartels. In fact, our government has a history of doing business with these drug lords. Our banking system would collapse if drug smuggling was stopped...what? you say our banking system did collapse? And the taxpayers were ripped off to bail them out? Some politicians would likely not get reelected because they would lose baksheesh and payola.
The criminals who are currently running our government and infrastructure and National Security (Spying-on-it's-citizens) State want it's citizens to be totally disarmed and totally reliant upon them for "protection" (read: exploitation).
Are you seriously saying Treason about President Obama?.
I think this subject brings out all the gun nuts.
How would any normal citizen use assault rifles? Are you going out to kill de
58 Murders a Year by Firearms in Britain, 8,775 in US
Juan Cole, Informed Comment
Cole reports: "The international comparisons show conclusively that fewer gun owners per capita produce not only fewer murders by firearm, but fewer murders per capita overall."
READ MORE
Sure, I bet that the ruling regime that corners us into finally fighting back will just love it that all we, the people, have are BB-guns and slingshots.
Wow, I make almost exactly the median income. And you're right, Thom, it's not easy to live on. I do all right, but I can't buy a new car or a house. I'd probably have trouble paying for a social life, but I've never really had one of those so it's hard to tell.
A country with a violent history...that praises violence in our media...on TV, Movies, games...should expect to see more internal violence in the future. Sure, blame the gun-manufacturers, the retailers, the government with laws that allow people to have guns...but that doesn't get to the root of the problem..and people will still get guns or other weapons anyway. Most people really don't want to get to the root of the problem because it would mean that their entertainment would be taken away from them to live a dull life. No heroic military propaganda movies...no killing..no self-righteous feelings of superiority over either the accused wacko or a holier-than-thou subrosa crusade against Muslims...no more electronic gladiatorial arenas.
Today's ruling elite knows what they knew back in ancient Rome....you gotta keep the people entertained in a way that acts as a kind of catharsis and temporary distraction away from the harsh realities of their exploitation by the wealthy. Problem is that some few people over react and kill a few people from time to time. Maybe they pretend they are gladiators or "The Joker".
We need to change the language. Instead of gun control, how about high-powered, automatic assault weapon control? Or high-caliber, multi-clip bullet control?
.
James Holmes killed 10 wounded 58...inexcusable...but how many have our military murdered in the Middle East? Maybe we need to disarm our military...take away their Jesus-saying inscribed guns from the biggest mass murderers in recent times. Gun control should include the military!
Tom, I have been listening to this well deserved extremely valuable debate on gun contorl all over the media today. I have what I believe is a equally valid perspective, I wish my fellow progressives and liberals, and democrats would consider and keep in mind. While this event in Colorado is horrible,its timing is even worse. The natural reaction to it is to ask these important questions about our gun laws and also this Administration's aversion if not apathy when it comes to addressing it. Bottom line, short answer, is timing. This is an election year, more importantly an excrutiatingly high stakes election. I feel we need to pull together and keep our eye on the big picture. This is a hot button issue, a big ugly devisive hot issue, with the potential of throwing kerosine on the Right's already thriving blaze. Isn't it much more in our mutual interest to keep our current Democratic President in the White House, to re-address the issue when there is hope of actual successful legistation rather than fuel the fire of the already pervasive lies previously perpetuated by the gun lobby, right, and tea party. Let me be clear, I am totally on board with control to the extent that these weapon intended for only human destruction should be more heavily regulated. But inthis crucial season it seems to be another case of our best intentions undermining our chances of the opportunity to make a differnce.
The one thing that America has excelled at that could be the reason why some people are influenced to go whacko and kill people....the example is set in our movies and TV and games. I don't hear many people trying to ban TVs or movies or games for being too violent. Sure, they give movies ratings...big deal..James Holmes was 24. Holmes thought he was "The Joker".
Violence is celebrated and romanticized and put right up with heroism. The military loves it...because it influences young minds to fit the mold of the the murderers they train to fight wars. Guns don't kill people...people kill people! If they don't have guns...they'll get knives...or explosives...or gas...or viruses...or crash their small planes into buildings.
Even if they are regulated...or outlawed...the outlaws will still get the guns, or whatever, and the citizens will be left with relying on a corrupt police force that always gets there too late. The only way to counter that would be to put a cop on every street corner in America.
When you have a government that can justify their violence..murdering so many innocent civilians...a government that is bought and owned by the criminals who are profiting from the illegal 911 wars, the ones that run the National Security State that are spying on us, then you have a Nation that will continue to hatch occasional outbursts of internal violence.
@Govt follows you: Twitter feeds info to US police state
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jS9ghs51FXE
The NSA Is Lying - They are spying on you - Democracy Now April 20, 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jS9ghs51FXE
The way I'd rewrite the 2nd Amendment is something like this: The populace of each community shall have the right to adequate means for its defence.
The meaning of "adequate" would then have to be determined by that community. Anything beyond adequate may be legal, but not constitutionally guaranteed. When you consider that we now have a standing army and police forces, adequate could be set pretty low. And the term "its" (or "thereof", if this were written in legalese) is intentionally ambiguous as to whether it refers to the populace or the community.
Jobs/Health Debate VS Gun Control Debate:
Would the right to carry a job with a health care system that leaves no one behind have prevented this.......maybe. It does makes for a much more poignant debate.