Every time I hear Senator Kennedy hold forth on something I can’t help but think of a former President with the same name spinning in his grave. Sen. Kennedy went on Hannity’s show last night to lament the mass shooting in Manhattan. He’s sorry. Oh so sorry. He just can’t understand why such things happen or how to stop it. The one thing he IS sure of is that gun control won’t work. Instead we need IDIOT Control! Getting idiots like him out of elective office would be a good start!
Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana can never be confused for former President John F. Kennedy. For all his faults, JFK was brilliant, young, and health issues notwithstanding cut a dashing figure. Sen. Kennedy, the guy we see pop up now and then comes across as a sad-sack old guy that tries to sound smart by spouting “catchy” phrases. He routinely comes across as, in a word an IDIOT. There’s a short piece from Real Clear Politics of his little chat with Hannity. I can’t seem to embed the clip from Real Clear Politics but here’s a longer version. Fortunately it starts off with what I’m talking about here:
Oh he’s so, so sorry. And at a loss of what to do. He was also worried that today “demonic forces” (ok, so he didn’t SAY that but it’s what we all know he thinks) would go to work on Capitol Hill and talk about gun control. We have mass shootings (defined as four or more people shot) every day in this country. No other country on the face of the earth does. In fact, if I’m not mistaken we have several times as many as every other country combined!
Why do you think that is? To me and many others the answer is obvious. Our country is FLOODED with guns including and especially guns specifically designed to kill other people. I grew up hunting. Having a shotgun and a rifle was natural. Shotguns carried in the field had to have a “plug” limiting them to three rounds. Most hunting rifles could hold five or less. If a shotgun was for home defense only and not taken outside the house it didn’t require a plug and could hold eight rounds/shells. Handguns for self/home defense have magazines that can hold ten to thirteen rounds. Yet handguns don’t fire at anything close to the velocity of assault rifles.
This country, unlike any other country is awash in assault weapons with the preferred one being variants of the old M-16. Capable of carrying magazines of thirty rounds which when fired travel at a significantly higher speed than hunting rounds. Even older military rifles like the M-1 and M-14 have a muzzle velocity of around 2800 feet per second. The .223 or 5.56mm rounds in the current U.S. military weapons and their civilian variants travel at 3250-3300fps. That extra velocity creates what’s called ‘cavitation’ as it destroys tissue three to four inches wider than the actual bullet. That’s what makes them so deadly effective.
Even semi-auto versions can pump out a lot of rounds in a very short time. The problem is that guns, even weapons of war are so easily available in this country. Virtually anyone can, once they reach the right age in their state walk into a store and buy one. Fill out the standard federal ATF form, the state one if there’s one for that level, wait for the background check (done over the phone, usually in minutes) and that’s it. Yes, would be purchasers with criminal records are denied and in some places so-called red flag laws stop (for a while at least) people in the system for mental health issues or who have restraining orders.
However many a person who has no business having a gun HAS one. They could be meaner than hell bullies, fumbling/bumbling dummies and plain IDIOTS with no sense of responsibility. But they can and do buy guns including assault rifles every single day! In one sense Sen. Kennedy is right, we need idiot control but even if that’s as far as it went who defines “idiot?” How about people who are impulsive and have a history of lashing out with verbal outbursts when pissed off and even make physical threats? We know damn well sometimes such people will walk away from a confrontation – then return with a gun! Or go buy one and hunt their antagonist down.
The plain fact is that while idiots shouldn’t be allowed to have guns there are others who aren’t blithering idiots who shouldn’t have them either. Second Amendment goobers scream about ‘the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed’ but they IGNORE the phrase that comes just before, the part about a well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state. Gun control was common in many places when our Constitution was ratified and it continued even with the Second Amendment! Now, every state and territory has an actual “Well-Regulated Militia” – we call it the National Guard.
Other countries limit, in some cases quite severely the ownership of firearms. And the type citizens can have in the home as well as the conditions under which they can be carried and used outside the home. And THEY don’t have mass shootings!
The “idiots” Sen. Kennedy says need controlling are asshats like him. People in positions of power who can advocate with a megaphone and/or craft legislation who choose to protect GUNS instead of people. Kennedy can take his “sorry” and shove it up his ass. Same for him and others with their “thoughts and prayers.” What we need is to start combining “idiot” (and other types who shouldn’t have guns) control with legislation that prevents people who should have guns from actually having them.
Growing up I was taught that freedom comes with responsibility. Until we accept that millions, perhaps tens of millions of people simply aren’t responsible enough to have guns the horrific violence will continue. Being “sorry” or offering “thoughts and prayers” clearly doesn’t work. Only legislation that puts people who want to own guns through a process that screens them in a meaningful way will help.
**********
Zoomers, if you can spare some change to keep the Little Political Blog That Could trekking through cyberspace, we appreciate it. This has been a dim and grim year compared to others before it. All we’re trying to do is survive until things get better. Thank you. Ursula
I don’t remember exactly the year, sometime in the 90’s, Australia instituted gun control laws. From what I’ve heard their homicide rate has declined a lot. And of course, they don’t have mass shootings either. That’s how the sane people live. I do envy them. Here, even if you don’t own a gun, you can be shot over a traffic incident.
I don’t remember exactly the year, sometime in the 90’s, Australia instituted gun control laws. From what I’ve heard their homicide rate has declined a lot. And of course, they don’t have mass shootings either. That’s how the sane people live. I do envy them. Here, even if you don’t own a gun, you can be shot over a traffic incident.
“The plain fact is that while idiots shouldn’t be allowed to have guns there are others who aren’t blithering idiots who shouldn’t have them either. Second Amendment goobers scream about ‘the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed’ but they IGNORE the phrase that comes just before, the part about a well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state.”
Well, unfortunately, our illustrious right-wing SCOTUS pretty much decided that the “plain language” behind the “original intent” that the Founding Fathers placed in the Constitution was–unlike pretty much EVERY OTHER WORD OR IDEA in the Constitution–intended to change with the times in the 2008 Heller decision (which was then reinforced by the 2010 McDonald decision).