Could there be anything less controversial than denying gun purchases to people on the terrorist watch list? Yet Republicans prefer to express concern about “due process” for gun purchasers even as they propose blanket bans on Islamic refugees.
'It' [American society] is represented by the Houses of Congress. — Wayfarer
The number of deaths by gunshot in the USA per head of population is entirely disproportionate compared to comparable OECD countries such as UK, Australia, Germany, France, Japan, and so on. ... That is a fact that it is impossible to either deny or rationalise in my opinion. — Wayfarer
Aside from pandering to the gun lobby... — Wayfarer
Hyperbole, indeed.So I have come to the conclusion that really American society thinks that murder and suicide are OK. — Wayfarer
Aside from pandering to the gun lobby, the Republicans major pastime is launching vexacious litigation against public health, which they describe as 'communism'. — Wayfarer
But if the OP means that anybody who votes for a conservative is complicit in the death culture of America's advanced capitalist danse macabre, I'll agree to that.
Ah well. That's a far more responsible conclusion. — Ciceronianus the White
But if the OP means that anybody who votes for a conservative is complicit in the death culture of America's advanced capitalist danse macabre, I'll agree to that. — Landru Guide Us
What good does making statements like that do except preach to the choir? — Marchesk
So I think the debate needs to acknowledge the fact that, as far as Americans are concerned, high rates of murder and other kinds of death by gunshot, is simply a consequence of 'lviing in a free society'. 'Being free' means having plentiful access to the means to kill, and any attempt to curtail access to those means constitutes an 'infringement on freedom'. So face up to it. Freedom means, many people will continue to die - mothers, fathers, brothers, someone's dad, someone's son. Maybe they should all be given special recognition as having laid down their life for the rights of Americans to bear arms - because I think they are far more likely to get that, than any real protection from the possibiility of being shot. — Wayfarer
The second amendment guarantees the right to bear arms only in the context of a well regulated militia. — Thorongil
But individuals have retained the right to own guns long after the US had an official military. — Marchesk
Excoriating evil in words is good for the soul and the first step in defeating it in practice. — Landru Guide Us
How issues are framed determines how they get argued. — Landru Guide Us
The gun issue should be framed as the freaks and fetishists against rational normal Americans who want to go about their business without worrying a gun nut will shoot them. — Landru Guide Us
Are you trying to say that people who disagree with your position are evil? — Marchesk
Not, it should be framed as people have a different understanding of the second amendment, which has to be balanced with what to do about the problem of gun violence. — Marchesk
And it's also good for making the opposition look bad. If we're on the side of righteousness and those evil, selfish, greedy bastards are out to drink our children's blood, well then, we don't need to bother with their side of the matter. We can just dismiss it. — Marchesk
Does it? How has the Supreme Court and constitutional scholars traditionally understood the issue? You make it sound like it was well understood to just be in the context of maintaining a well regulated militia, until the most recent court. But individuals have retained the right to own guns long after the US had an official military. — Marchesk
Gun nuts reject the argument that they believe their guns are worth any number of mass murders. I reject it too. Their guns, after all, were not the guns used in the mass murder. (Unless they were, then they should be arrested, immediately.) — Bitter Crank
The sanitized NRA version of a militias being citizen soldiers is pure historical dreck. The 2nd Amendment was about one thing - southern slave owners killing and exploiting blacks. Your narrative is nonsense. — Landru Guide Us
The best scholarship shows that — Landru Guide Us
Are you arguing that the exploitative, boorish, knownothing positions of conservatism aren't evil, or are you arguing we're not allowed to call it that? — Landru Guide Us
The narrative here is that the US is in the thrall of NRA paranoid gun nuts who hate democratic values, not to mention minorities, women, workers, etc. It happens to be true, but that's besides the point. The point is to never mention guns without this frame. — Landru Guide Us
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