If nothing else, the proposals put forth by President Obama and VP Biden are logical and needed pieces in the overall puzzle in at least trying to move the ball forward in the never-ending debate over gun availability in America. We allowed the obscene amount of guns to pile-up over the years, and to try and reverse engines now on the madness may be next to impossible. That's because you can't talk to the NRA or anyone else in the gun lobby because they've always won the debate. It's easy for them since the second amendment has been so wildly defined. Most people with common sense know a "well regulated militia" really means something akin to the National Guard and allowing citizens to carry guns in the 1700s was meant in such a different way (than our current situation) than the interpretation our forefathers had in mind. We were a new country just moving past a revolution which gave birth to our nation. Men had to have guns to fight our battles against the British or others, not to mention just using a gun to kill animals so people could eat. What was written then for our very new country has been taken so absurdly out of context to what we have today: weapons of mass destruction which can mow down dozens of humans within a minute or two. I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that is not what our forefathers had in mind when they wrote the second amendment. The ensuing madness over guns in the last fifty years is akin to allowing the madness of J. Edgar Hoover being allowed to continue as the all powerful crime czar in the early 1950s. It was obvious then that he was crazed in his myopic view of the communist threat in America. He was partly to blame (along with Nixon & Joe McCarthy) for the "red scare" which led to "truth & loyalty oaths" and investigations which turned up almost nothing in the way of "commie spies" infiltrating our government. It's not to say it didn't happen, but it was always quite minimal and not worth destroying lives over. President Truman had his distrust of Hoover, but mistakenly allowed him to continue. Truman's previous firing of popular war hero, General Douglas MacArthur, may have prevented him from firing Hoover, who was also popular with the public.
Listen to or read interviews with NRA officials like its President, David Keene or the whacky Wayne LaPierre, and you'll hear nothing of contrition or anything remotely sounding like agreement with what anybody says if it has to do with any limitations on guns whatsoever. Most of the gun lobby types tend to be Republicans and that usually means they swing to the right. That political bent usually includes to just saying NO to anything scientific. I just think they abhor science because they're too ignorant to understand anything that's complicated. If you don't believe me, just listen to Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and their callers: a scary bunch. This crowd is ignorant and they're having children which is even scarier. Forget climate change for a minute, they are against any studies into gun violence! Why would the American people or, God forbid, our government, allow the NRA to prevent such studies?? Who in the hell are these freaks? The NRA is so powerful, that they've convinced their puppets in congress to prevent the money from being funneled to the Centers for Disease Control for a study on gun violence. We are ready to fund anything that may infect us, like AIDS (getting funding going back in the 1980s wasn't easy for that either-guess why) or influenza, but what makes humans kill is off-base because that killing usually includes firing a gun. Is the NRA afraid of what those studies would discover? Maybe that any weak-minded and angry person, with little time to think or comprehend their violent thoughts, would shoot first, and maybe think about their action later. That's where gun availability comes into play. That's too close for comfort in the bloodshot eyes of the National Rifle Association.
Gun availability should have been limited decades ago. Only a well regulated array of dealers should have been allowed to sell guns so oversight would have been easier. Allowing any hick to sell firearms at a gun show or on a street corner is what we've ended up with. It's an accepted number that about 40% of all gun sales occur without any background checks. It's too late for this generation, and the next for that matter, but we should use the depravity of what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary to make the next step for future generations. Maybe our citizens of the future won't be scared into thinking that securing gun availability and sales is not the first step to total confiscation. These scare tactics have been used for generations by politicians and government officials like J. Edgar Hoover, Nixon, McCarthy, and more recently, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, to frighten the masses into backing their wayward policies. The NRA wouldn't exist without utilizing fear plus great sums of money to force scared politicians into doing their bidding, no matter how illogical or insane. Can you imagine not allowing even a study of gun violence? A profile in cowardice has infected our political structure. We restrict access to alcohol, drugs, and automobiles but any idiot can grab a gun.
I applaud the Obama administration for correctly seizing the moment and at least using executive action to fire off some rounds of sanity. They can get around the NRA and weak-willed hacks in congress by funding some gun violence studies. They can also offer other ideas either by executive action or at least by shaming congress into admitting that they are just pawns of powerful lobbies like the NRA. The parents of slain children also need to get involved as is Gabby Giffords. Like the families of those killed on 9/11, it sometimes takes average citizens to right the wrongs of what goes on in America. The 9/11 Commission wasn't perfect, but it did do some good, exposed weakness in our national security, and forced two lame excuses for leadership, Bush and Cheney to testify. Even when they were forced in front of the commission, it was behind closed doors, and had to be done when they were together. I always thought George W. Bush couldn't speak without the voice of Dick Cheney, and that charade proved it.
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