There are times when I honestly have to puke watching the Sunday talk shows. I find myself asking does this person actually believe a word he/she is saying? Case in point: John McCain. David over on Video Cafe writes this about the segment.
"I don't know, to tell you the truth, what we can do, and this immediately leads to the issue of gun control," McCain told CNN's Candy Crowley. "The killer in Norway, which is a country that has very strict gun control laws, and yet he was still able to acquire the necessary means to initiate and carry out a mass slaughter."
"I think we need to look at everything, if that even should be looked at, but to think that somehow gun control is -- or increased gun control -- is the answer, in my view, that would have to be proved," he added.
Crowley noted that James Holmes, the suspected Colorado shooter, had, over short period of time, purchased an arsenal of weapons and equipment, including an AR-15 semi-automatic assault rifle with a 100-round magazine, two Glock handguns, a Remington 12-gauge shotgun and various types of body armor.
"You get to this point, you don't want the government spying on what people are buying," she explained. "On the other hand, what's the price? The price is all these things we just read off."
"Let's remember it's a constitutional right," McCain replied. "Second of all, if you could prove the case that it, indeed, has a positive effect -- we had a ban on assault weapons that expired some years ago, it didn't change the situation at all in my view."
Hold on. McCain didn't just use Norway to justify Americans stockpiling AR-15's, did he? That's ridiculous. Anders Breivik, the Norway shooter was actually allowed to buy high powered guns in Norway:
He decided to obtain a semi-automatic rifle and a Glock pistol legally in Norway, noting that he had a "clean criminal record, hunting license, and two guns (a Benelli Nova 12 gauge Pump-action shotgun and a .308 Bolt-action rifle) already for seven years", and that obtaining the guns legally should therefore not be a problem.[29]
I guess Norway isn't as strict as McCain makes them out to be, but forget that....The Norway shooting and bombing was their worst violent incident since WWII, can we say the same? Candy Crowley ticked off just a few violent incidents to McCain since 1999.
CROWLEY: Let me turn you back now to the situation in Colorado, and remind our viewers of what has happened. This is dating back to 1999, Littleton, Colorado, otherwise known as Columbine, 13 killed in a mass shooting. 2007, Virginia Tech, 32 killed. 2009, Fort Hood, Texas, 13 killed; 2012, Aurora, Colorado, 12 killed. Different circumstances, different people, but people look at this and say, can't we do anything to stop this?
That's quite a resume all by itself and McCain's lame excuse about the Second Amendment doesn't pass the smell test. How many actual gun owners have joined a trained militia? Jason Alexander answers that question in a very long and well thought out piece:
Many of them cite patriotism as their reason - true patriots support the Constitution adamantly and wholly. Constitution says citizens have the right to bear arms in order to maintain organized militias. I'm no constitutional scholar so here it is from the document itself:
As passed by the Congress:
"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
As ratified by the States and authenticated by Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State:
"A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."So the patriots are correct, gun ownership is in the constitution - if you're in a well-regulated militia.
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Or from Merriam-Webster dictionary:
Definition of MILITIA
1a : a part of the organized armed forces of a country liable to call only in emergency
1b : a body of citizens organized for military service
2: the whole body of able-bodied male citizens declared by law as being subject to call to military serviceThe advocates of guns who claim patriotism and the rights of the 2nd Amendment - are they in well-regulated militias? For the vast majority - the answer is no.
Exactly, but full scale massacres aren't even the biggest threat posed by gun violence, but those that happen everyday.
In 2006, there were 30,896 deaths due to firearms in the United States. This equates to an average of 85 deaths due to firearms each day. (CDC, WISQARS, 2009)
There are tons of stats you can find so I won't bother to list them all. And here's a heartbreaking story that happens all too often around America:
A 5-year-old girl was wounded in a drive-by shooting Saturday afternoon -- the fourth young child to be shot on Oakland's streets in the past 12 months, police said..
--The shooting was one of several recent incidents involving gun violence and child victims.On Dec. 30, Gabriel Martinez Jr. -- a 5-year-old Alameda boy -- was shot and killed near his family's taco truck in the 5400 block of International Boulevard; 23-month-old Hiram Lawrence died Dec. 9, 11 days after he was struck by crossfire in West Oakland; and Carlos Nava, 3, was killed Aug. 8, in a drive-by shooting in the 6400 block of International Boulevard.
You'd think right wingers would support stricter gun control laws just for the children, but alas, no. It's a question of freedom.
Cars in America serve one particular purpose: to transport you and whatever passengers and/or cargo from point A to point B and so on. However, they can also be a deadly weapon under the control of some people. It is exactly that reason why you are required by law to pass tests to get a driver's license. Every car owner must register the vehicle with the DMV and buy car insurance. And if you abuse the privilege and harm or kill someone, you lose your driver's license. It's the law that Americans have been following for years without complaint.
Why not the same for guns?
