The School Shooting in Minneapolis (and the Issue of Gun-Control in the US)

[The Grand Nudger]

 
The NRA fighting regulations in the US is very similar to the trial of tobacco companies in the 1990’s. For those of you who don’t know: Back in those years the main tobacco companies where trying to convince the general public that “there was no proof that linked tobacco consumption to cancer” (which was a complete lie of course). And today, they are trying to stitch to selling E-cigarettes and vaping machines to their customer bases who no longer see cigarette as something trendy or cool.

This is a widely held misconception with legs.  The nra was actually formed by army vets over a century ago to focus on civilian marksmanship and safety in response to the poor performance of union troops on the battlefield during the civil war.  It wouldn't be until 1960's that the nra engaged in anything we could call partisan activity.  They supported increased gun control because black panthers.   By 1968 the us passed the gun control act in order to suppress black gun ownership, which the nra opposed, because the ideology and rhetoric within the black panther movement had infiltrated the nra itself and leadership found it compelling.  In 1977, the nra planned to move out of dc and away from politics entirely, to colorado springs.  They'd build a rec center and focus on conservation and recreational shooting.  That did not happen.  Instead, the revolt in cincinatti happened, an administrative coup and subsequent purge which would leave the nra in more or less the shape it extested from then to today.  Not a gun rights group, or  a gun manufacturers group, but a political organization that maintained guns as a wedge issue in order break into right wing kingmaking for profit.  

Gun manufacturers have a lobby, it's quiet and effective and doesn't give a shit about americans gun rights because the real market is active conflict zones in foreign countries.  That's what they lobby for, that's the profit interest, and they get what they want.
 

To this I may add that almost all the weapons that are currently in the hands of Haitian gangs are also coming from the USA.

-and the straw buyer network is a middleman sucking up profit in what the gun manufacturers would rather handle directly while the nra only believes that we have the right to bare arms to kill people who look like haitians.
 

So yes: There has to be more regulations and I don’t think it is anti-capitalist to say that. No other country in the developed world has so few regulations on the ownership of lethal weapons by ordinary citizens.

As an american, "no other country has the rights you enjoy" isn't the flex it probably seems like to you.  

Here's the thing.  What people believe about america, american gun ownership, americas gun culture, and gun crime in america is 180 degrees at odds with the reality of it.  By the numbers, we're a remarkably safe and responsible people.  The main driver of gun death in the us is suicide.  The main driver of individual shooting death is domestic abuse.  The main driver of mass shooting death is domestic terrorism.  We wouldn't need a single new gun control law to deal with the actual problem, or with the statistical nonentity that people have confused for the real problem.  Hell, a major part of the actual problem that is related to mass shootings and mass shootings at schools and churches doesn't even have a possible legal solution..at least not yet.  Not until the mad king makes it a-okay to deport americans for badthought.  At that point, it's smooth sailing.  We run a nationwide buyback.  Fund mental health to reduce the majority of gun death by suicide.   Make institutional changes about domestic abuse and neglect reporting.  Then, deport all the magats.

OFC, starting with the last thing would make all the previous things easier...and there, right there, is our actual gun problem..not a thing to do with guns, or the amount or breadth of laws about them. They're fucking terrorists. They don't love guns. They hate you. They hate all of us. They hate themselves, they hate their girlfriends and wives, they hate their children. The gun is a means, and not an end. They want them so that they can seize power, and as soon as they have they'll find a need to remove the guns from the people who got them that power because, clearly, those nuts are fucking dangerous.

-For completeness. I'm a recreational shooter. I don't hunt anymore, and the thought of using a gun to defend my home makes me extremely uncomfortable. There's nothing in here worth anyone's life. Still, if guns were more strictly controlled I would not comply. I would probably go out and immediately buy whatever our owners were about to make illegal...because no matter how well intentioned some law may be, the trouble with the us government is that it keeps getting the trumps.