Here comes a gun rant. Here we are again. Deadliest shooting in US history (apparently slaughtering children in an elementary school was not enough). We are going to see gun nuts immediately try to make us try to not blame guns, to tell us not to think about things when we are emotional (truth be told, they say we should not PERIOD), honestly not giving two shits about the loss of life but about whether "the guv'ment gonna take mah guns" and posting memes to that effect, and we will all be disgusted and not do a thing. We are going to do this again, and we will do this forever. Because 'murica.
I'm not saying guns should be banned. But it's madness to think nothing should be done. I was in Washington DC after the Sandy Hook elementary shooting, listening to hours of committee meetings and testimony by all sides (including the NRA and that ass-hat Wayne LaPierre, the worst man in the room). I can't say I agreed with everything; many restrictions in the assault-weapons ban seemed arbitrary and restricted things that were reasonable for civilian use, but there were reasonable restrictions on the size of a clip (make the shooter reload) and increasing the use of background checks. No one would take your guns away; existing weapons would be grandfathered and thus legal. The restrictions would be on manufacture of new weapons. But that's not what the "guv'ment gonna take mah guns" people will have you believe, and thanks to them, nothing will get through Congress (not even pussyfoot measures like those that were proposed; don't think Jill Stein will be a magic bullet) and we will go through this again after a madman shoots up 100 infants in a maternity ward (and again, no one will give a shit). Also, this an example of why a "good guy with a gun" (which is statistically a myth) is not enough; the careful ones will struggle identifying the shooter and not hitting the civilians who are everywhere, and the stupid vigilante "heroes" will make the problem worse by (a) shooting up civilians, and (b) make it more difficult for police to identify the true threat, thus adding to the chaos. More people will die. Stop sacrificing people with your wild west fantasies. Oh, and about the shooter and Islamic radicalism: keep in mind that organizations such as ISIS don't try to send people here because it's much easier to radicalize losers already here. So no closing the border or "no refugees" bullshit; it's radicalized American citizens who are the threat, not refugees. An Onion headline put it perfectly. We think here in America there is no solution even though we're the only first-world nation with this problem. Maybe we should learn from the rest of the world about how to fix this? Nope, because 'murica.
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AuthorCurtis Miller is an instructor and graduate statistics students at the University of Utah. Archives
June 2016
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