Saturday 9 January 2016

Executive Decisions

(Thanks to author David Gerrold for this one.)

What's most depressing about the gun debates is that so many of the posts I've seen attacking the U.S. president for doing his job, are so stupid that I have to wonder about the people who think that way.  If their IQs were raised to room temperature, would their brains overheat?

Really - some of the things that people have posted, some of the memes, are so crazy and illogically stupid that calling them intellectually bankrupt assumes there was some thought there in the first place.

Look.  It's not all guns everywhere versus no guns at all anywhere. That's not the issue, it's never been the issue, and anyone who continues to argue as if that's the issue (regardless of which side he/she is arguing from) is contributing absolutely nothing useful to the discussion.

The issue is gun safety.  The issue is gun responsibility.  The issue is what can we do to slow down the carnage?  What can we do to make another Columbine or another Sandy Hook or another San Bernardino a lot less likely?  That's a fair question to ask.

And we have lots of evidence to draw upon.  To start with, there's the model of what other countries have done.  There's the history of various gun control laws here in our own country.  We have a pretty good idea of what works and what we can do to slow down the death rate.

Anyone who tries to argue that the right to [carry a weapon] in public is more important than the rights of parents to send their children to school in safety?  They're the problem.  For too long the sociopaths have dominated the conversation.

And that's the point.  Reading through the crap that some people have been posting on Facebook is depressing.

I respect the right to own a gun, but if someone wants me to respect his or her arguments (on either side), then for goodness' sake, that person has to address the subject like a rational, compassionate adult who's concerned about saving lives and finding ways to prevent additional gun violence.

If that's too much to ask, then just don't bother.

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