Quote from Tsing Tao, in response to L-Kabong:
We don't tell you that you have to own a gun. We just don't want you telling us we can't. This is pretty much SOP for the left - always tell others what they must accept or adhere to. The right just usually wants to be left alone. Do whatever the hell you want, keep it out of my life. I certainly don't want my life impacted or - God forbid - surrounded by twats such as you.
To be fair, you would have to agree, wouldn't you?, that there is not a single post here, from Kabong or anyone else, that suggests you should not, or "can't", own a gun. It seems most of the discussion has been centered around how to keep guns out of the wrong hands without infringing on our basic right to own them -- the Court in D.C. v. Heller has already put us on notice that the type of gun can be restricted without infringing on our right to own one. And it does seem there is plenty of support for restrictions among the public.
Those who want no restrictions whatsoever --not saying that's you-- or want to advocate for every adult being able to carry a gun anywhere, no registration, no background checks, are free to do so. But I assure you that the national mode right now is not going to be accommodative of such positions. Nor will the idea that the probability of being a victim of one of these mass shootings is so small that it is not worth giving up any of our 2nd Amendment freedoms just to make a decrease in an already very slight probability. I must admit this latter argument held some appeal for me personally, until I considered it in greater depth. (See the data Tom Davis posted.)
It seems the national mood is closer to what Cuomo is backing in New York than it is to what Kroeker is backing in Wyoming. The NRA hardliners, unwilling to give an inch, have so intermingled the absurd with what otherwise might have been reasonable, that few in a public forum will take them seriously. They will be pushed off into their own corner as lunatics. Their objective participation would be welcome, their petulant obstruction will not be.
I see very low probability of any meaningful gun legislation getting through both House and Senate because of the current filibuster rule. (Unlikely to get out of the House, and if by miracle it did, a single Senator could block it!) Therefore I am virtually certain that if we get any federal action it will be in the form of an executive order. And that will surely be tested in the courts. And sadly, once again, because our Congress is non-functional, the grownups in the Court will have to fill the role that peoples' House should have filled.
We are all best served by a rational discussion, recognizing that none of us will get everything we would want, and maybe not even most of what we want.
