"How many deaths will it take til he knows that too many people have died?" Dylan's question could be directed at any law maker and should be. The recent events in California continue the horrific number of mass shootings of 2022 which saw nearly 700 such event.
2023 already has more than one mass shooting every day, and it's not even February.
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In the Heller case, Antonin Scalia, the patron saint of conservative justice, wrote:
"There seems to us no doubt, on the basis of both text and history, that the Second Amendment conferred an individual right to keep and bear arms. Of course the right was not unlimited, just as the First Amendment’s right of free speech was not, see, e.g., United States v. Williams, 553 U. S. ___ (2008). Thus, we do not read the Second Amendment to protect the right of citizens to carry arms for any sort of confrontation, just as we do not read the First Amendment to protect the right of citizens to speak for any purpose."
When Congress banned assault weapons, mass shootings decreased markedly. When the GOP controlled Congress let that bill lapse, mass shooting increased exponentially. Clearly, Scalia knew that the right to bear arms is not sacrosanct, that some sensible regulation is possible, and has been done in the past. We don't have machine guns in the general public because they were effectiveley limited in 1934
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If you need an assault style rifle to hunt, to fire multiple shots with high velocity ammunition that actually does more damage to your prey, than you aren't a very good hunter. As one doctor described the child victims of Uvalde, TX, "They were decapitated."
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The states with the highest per capita rates of gun violence are those state with the most lax gun laws. Nine of the top ten of those states are completely controlled by GOP legislatures and governors.
Of course no gun legislation can stop all gun violence, but we can and must reduce the deaths and injuries.
There is no conceivable justification for weapons of war to be in the hands of regular citizens, but getting them all off the street is not a feasible option. Registering the ones out there is. Banning the manufacture and sale of new ones is.
Limiting the magazine capacity it feasible. Hunters who need more than one shot to bring down a deer is not a good hunter.
Rigorous background checks, mental health checks, and lengthy waiting periods are also feasible. Red flag laws also can make a difference.
I'm not naive enough to think that all such gun violence will end, but how many more have to die? Dylan asked that question over 60 years ago. When will somebody have the answer?
#gunviolence #guns #sensiblelaws
