Today, survivors of the mass shooting at Club Q in Colorado Springs, Colorado, testified before the House Oversight and Reform Committee. Club Q is an LGBTQ club in the city of about 500,000 people. The shooter opened fire there on the night of November 19-20, during a dance party. He used an AR-15 style rifle, murdering five people and wounding 19 more. Six others were hurt in the chaos.
A classic HCR Letter today, presenting a fact-based historical narrative describing the path to where we find ourselves today – a country in which at any moment, in any venue, lives are ripped apart, a condition cultivated by a Republican party grounded in a soured ideology borne from decades of relying on the basest of appeals and bereft of principle beyond gaining and holding power at any cost.
How much $ have hostile foreign governments donated to the NRA PAC?
Our 2nd amendment is seen by some Americans as a “freedom”, when it was intended to be a well regulated privilege with duty and responsibility to serve the collective National defense. But to foreign governments, our 2nd Amendment is a vulnerability to exploit, to divide then destabilize with school, racial, and LGBT shootings, then political assassinations.
It’s not a coincidence that before the Rowanda, genocide, the guns and weapons flowed in. Preceding Every conflict the the world over, the guns flow in before the conflict starts. The Russians are masters at this destabilization tactic. One thing Congress should do is take a look at the NRA PAC and find out where all that money is actually coming from.
If assault rifles can't be handled responsibly in this country, they should be sent to Ukrainians to protect themselves against raping and pillaging Russian soldiers.
I hope political support for common sense gun control will continue to grow and finally overwhelm its opposition. That judge from. TX proves that we certainly grow 'em bigger here. Bigger Pendejos, I mean.
Hard to believe the nuttiness and nonsense around guns in the U.S. I read somewhere that the Second Amendment is a relic of slavery, included in the Bill of Rights to encourage southern states to ratify the Constitution by assuring them that the federal government it created could not disarm slave patrols (the famous ‘well regulated militia’).
We should rewrite the Second Amendment to read ‘The safety of its citizens being necessary to the security of a free state, the right to own and use arms shall be well regulated.’
How many of our children must die to gun violence for us to declare; “Enough”?? Schools or clubs or churches or sporting venues or restaurants or literally anywhere in our communities should be places safe from gun violence. The NRA has bought the GOP-they are one of the entities corrupting our democracy and the health and well-being of our communities.
Compare the wording of the 2nd amendment (“...the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed) with that of the fifth amendment (“No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury...; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law....”) The 2nd amendment is a right of “the people,” whereas the 5th is a right of each and every person. The founders clearly knew there was a difference between a general right vs. a right pertaining to individual persons. That distinction seems to have evaded the “originalists” in the Heller decision. We are paying for their misconstrual in the blood of children and other innocents.
I can't imagine what feelings survivors of a mass shooting experience when they hear lawmakers saying that there is no need to regulate such firearms as have been used in so many mass shootings. I imagine gut-wrenching may describe what some feel. It is the guns. Too many, too powerful, too accessible.
It's not just guns, its the kind of guns. Forty years ago when Abercrombie and Fitch was something more than a clothing store, the guns they stocked, or for that matter, that any dealer stocked, were fine hunting pieces, prized for the fine craftsmanship of their walnut stocks and forearms. Price was driven by the quality of the grain pattern in the wood and the fine hand-carved checkering. Many had fancy gold inlays with hunting scenes in them. Try to find just one store that stocks such things today. even inexpensive guns were of this type, without the fancy detail work. Those sorts of firearms can still be had special order, but today, everything that is stocked, whether handgun or long gun, is designed for use against people. They have nothing to do with hunting. Even police weaponry was quite tame by today's standards. The right wing gun culture is only about killing people, for whatever reason the heat of the moment happens to be.
The Republican support for guns along with tacit or open approval of white supremacy surely reminds me of the KKK, armed and deadly, promoting their right to terrorize and demean their chosen enemies. President Wilson and Trump each extended Jim Crow for future generations.
I lost a close friend to an assassin with a handgun thirty years ago. Since then, the politics of guns has gotten far worse, not better, as HCR has well documented. I have yet to read anywhere that someone, or a group, has accused Rep politicians of being accessories to mass murder, but that is exactly what they are, in fact and perhaps also in law. Isn't it long past time to press charges against these people and also the NRA leadership? At the very least this could be an effective form of political action. In some cases, for example when a Rep says something particularly egregious preceeding or following a massacre, a judge might actually agree to hear "accessory" charges.
A classic HCR Letter today, presenting a fact-based historical narrative describing the path to where we find ourselves today – a country in which at any moment, in any venue, lives are ripped apart, a condition cultivated by a Republican party grounded in a soured ideology borne from decades of relying on the basest of appeals and bereft of principle beyond gaining and holding power at any cost.
I can’t conceive of a more meaningless phrase than “thoughts and prayers.”
How much $ have hostile foreign governments donated to the NRA PAC?
Our 2nd amendment is seen by some Americans as a “freedom”, when it was intended to be a well regulated privilege with duty and responsibility to serve the collective National defense. But to foreign governments, our 2nd Amendment is a vulnerability to exploit, to divide then destabilize with school, racial, and LGBT shootings, then political assassinations.
It’s not a coincidence that before the Rowanda, genocide, the guns and weapons flowed in. Preceding Every conflict the the world over, the guns flow in before the conflict starts. The Russians are masters at this destabilization tactic. One thing Congress should do is take a look at the NRA PAC and find out where all that money is actually coming from.
If assault rifles can't be handled responsibly in this country, they should be sent to Ukrainians to protect themselves against raping and pillaging Russian soldiers.
When it comes to guns, an obscene number of Americans have been seduced into buying guns - and a growing subset propagandized to use them.
It’s madness induced by interest groups, laden with cash, that bend lawmakers and judges to their will.
In this aspect of American life we aren’t free. We’re captives.
Should we sue the US Supreme Court to remove all restrictions to bringing our guns into the Court?
I hope political support for common sense gun control will continue to grow and finally overwhelm its opposition. That judge from. TX proves that we certainly grow 'em bigger here. Bigger Pendejos, I mean.
Hard to believe the nuttiness and nonsense around guns in the U.S. I read somewhere that the Second Amendment is a relic of slavery, included in the Bill of Rights to encourage southern states to ratify the Constitution by assuring them that the federal government it created could not disarm slave patrols (the famous ‘well regulated militia’).
We should rewrite the Second Amendment to read ‘The safety of its citizens being necessary to the security of a free state, the right to own and use arms shall be well regulated.’
How many of our children must die to gun violence for us to declare; “Enough”?? Schools or clubs or churches or sporting venues or restaurants or literally anywhere in our communities should be places safe from gun violence. The NRA has bought the GOP-they are one of the entities corrupting our democracy and the health and well-being of our communities.
Thanks for once again pointing out the hypocrisy of the Republican party.
Compare the wording of the 2nd amendment (“...the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed) with that of the fifth amendment (“No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury...; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law....”) The 2nd amendment is a right of “the people,” whereas the 5th is a right of each and every person. The founders clearly knew there was a difference between a general right vs. a right pertaining to individual persons. That distinction seems to have evaded the “originalists” in the Heller decision. We are paying for their misconstrual in the blood of children and other innocents.
I can't imagine what feelings survivors of a mass shooting experience when they hear lawmakers saying that there is no need to regulate such firearms as have been used in so many mass shootings. I imagine gut-wrenching may describe what some feel. It is the guns. Too many, too powerful, too accessible.
This obsession is killing us!
It's not just guns, its the kind of guns. Forty years ago when Abercrombie and Fitch was something more than a clothing store, the guns they stocked, or for that matter, that any dealer stocked, were fine hunting pieces, prized for the fine craftsmanship of their walnut stocks and forearms. Price was driven by the quality of the grain pattern in the wood and the fine hand-carved checkering. Many had fancy gold inlays with hunting scenes in them. Try to find just one store that stocks such things today. even inexpensive guns were of this type, without the fancy detail work. Those sorts of firearms can still be had special order, but today, everything that is stocked, whether handgun or long gun, is designed for use against people. They have nothing to do with hunting. Even police weaponry was quite tame by today's standards. The right wing gun culture is only about killing people, for whatever reason the heat of the moment happens to be.
The Republican support for guns along with tacit or open approval of white supremacy surely reminds me of the KKK, armed and deadly, promoting their right to terrorize and demean their chosen enemies. President Wilson and Trump each extended Jim Crow for future generations.
I lost a close friend to an assassin with a handgun thirty years ago. Since then, the politics of guns has gotten far worse, not better, as HCR has well documented. I have yet to read anywhere that someone, or a group, has accused Rep politicians of being accessories to mass murder, but that is exactly what they are, in fact and perhaps also in law. Isn't it long past time to press charges against these people and also the NRA leadership? At the very least this could be an effective form of political action. In some cases, for example when a Rep says something particularly egregious preceeding or following a massacre, a judge might actually agree to hear "accessory" charges.