It's Time To Talk About Guns, Violence

Every time a mass shooting happens in America, we talk about how we need to have a discussion about gun violence, and how to prevent it.  But, we say we'll have the discussion "later," when the emotions from the latest shooting die down.

I still get emotional when I think of the fact that my best friend's family left Trolley Square at 6:30 PM on February 12, 2007.  They parked near where a young man with a gun had parked.  Had they spent 15 more minutes enjoying their dinner, they may have been victims of the shooting.  Two days later, instead of getting married, he could have been preparing for a funeral.  Or, the funeral could have been his own.

I still get emotional when I think about turning on the TV after picking up my nephew from Kindergarten on December 14, 2012 to see that someone killed 20 Kindergartners.  Even though it happened on the other side of the country, it still hits as close to home as Trolley Square.

And, about the time we start to forget about one mass shooting, another appears on our TV screens.  Let's face it, the emotions are never going to die down.

After two people set off bombs made by pressure cookers at the 2013 Boston Marathon, we set about changing policies to make sure that this type of thing never happens again.  But, when it comes to gun violence, it's never that time.

There are several things that we need to look at, the first is gun regulation.  I'm not talking about taking away your right to own a gun.  However, the four most overlooked words in the US Constitution come from the Second Amendment: "A well regulated militia...."  Our militias are far from well-regulated.

Next, we need to stop glorifying the terrorists.  Googling "timeline of gun deaths" brought me to a handy interactive timeline from the LA Times that went from a shooting at a McDonald's in 1984 to the latest shootings in California last week.  I'd link to it, but it highlights one of the problems we have in reporting gun violence: it shows the faces of the perpetrators.  We know everything about the people who committed the crimes, but nothing about the victims.  Do the names Daniel Rohrbough, William David Sanders, or John Tomlin sound familiar? Probably not, but they are linked to two more familiar names: Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, perpetrators of the shootings at Columbine High School. We've seen a lot about the ranting and writings of the guy in California last week than we'll ever hear about what kind of people he killed.

We also need to look at the violence that is so often accepted as a cultural norm.  There was a play produced at Pioneer Theater that generated some controversy recently.  You see, Pioneer Theatre publishes "content advisories" for all of the plays they produce so that you can have a pretty good idea if there is going to be anything "objectionable" in the play.  In this particular play, two men kiss right before the end of the first act.  This generated some complaints, especially since it was not included in the "content advisory."  It was not included because this particular scene is a major plot twist, As until this point, the only two male characters we've met (and there are only three men and two women in the entire play) are an older playwright and a former student of his.  What nobody complained about was what happens before the kiss: We believe we see the playwright viciously murder his student, only to discover that it is part of a plot to kill the playwright's wife so that he and his student can live together happily ever after.  In other words, killing your wife, that's OK.  Kissing another man:  Horrible.  And, it ignores the fact that they gay couple are the bad guys.  Look at the box office charts for nearly any weekend.  Over half of the movies are rated PG13 or R for violence.  And the MPAA will tolerate much more violence than it will sex or language.

Lastly, we need to have an honest, open, adult debate about this.  For far too long we've allowed the fringes of our society to dictate the political debate.  Taking away everyone's gun won't make us any safer than arming everyone will.  But somewhere in between is a solution.

What that solution is, I don't know.  But it's a discussion worth having.

Romney Roundup 7/26: Illegal Legal Guns From The Soviet Union That We Built By Ourselves With Help From The Government

This is the first in an irregular series where I will post a bunch of unrelated stories about Mitt Romney, and a snarky comment about them.

Talking Points Memo: "Romney Camp Once Again Warns Of ‘Soviet’ Threat"'

A foreign policy adviser to Mitt Romney’s campaign warned against policies that would aid “the Soviet Union” Wednesday, making him at least the third person from Team Romney — including Romney himself — to refer to a country that hasn’t existed since 1991 in the course of attacking President Obama’s foreign policy.

Maybe they are using the history books found in some Utah classrooms.....


HuffPost: "Mitt Romney: 'Many' Of Aurora Shooting Suspect's Weapons Were Illegal" 

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Wednesday said many of the weapons obtained by the shooting suspect in Colorado were obtained illegally and that changing laws won't prevent gun-related tragedies.
But the firearms that authorities allege James Holmes used to kill 12 people in Aurora, Colo., were obtained legally.

Typical Republican, making up his own reality....

 Think Progress:  "Romney’s ‘We Did Build This’ Events Feature Businesses Built With Government Subsidies And Contracts"

Today, the Romney campaign is hosting an entire series of campaign events based on President Obama’s misinterpreted commentabout small businesses. While Obama’s full speech made a “no man is an island” argument, the Romney campaign has seized on the quote, “If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that” as evidence of Obama’s disdain for small business owners.
Romney, ignoring the fact that he has echoed this same sentiment on multiple occasions, organized 24 “We Did Build This” events in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Virginia, Ohio, Iowa, Florida, Missouri, North Carolina, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Mexico, and Nevada. At each event, local business owners are speaking about their self-sufficiency in running a business and how government is hindering their growth.
But, like the New Hampshire business owner showcased in Romney’s attack ad on the issue, many of these business owners have received significant support from the government, a ThinkProgress analysis finds.

Nothing like pointing out that your opponent was right.  Thanks, Mitt!

Margaret Dayton's Gun Deregulation Bill

So, Senator Margaret Dayton (nRa - Orem) has a bill to change how guns manufactured in Utah (presumably to be used only in Utah) are regulated.

A personal firearm, a firearm action or receiver, a firearm accessory, or ammunition that is manufactured commercially or privately in the state to be used or sold within the state is not subject to federal law or federal regulation, including registration, under the authority of Congress to regulate interstate commerce.

However, there is a big problem with this, as pointed out by the Tribune:

The Legislature's own lawyers, in an analysis of the bill, conclude that it is highly likely the bill would be found unconstitutional by the courts. The reason is the Constitution's Supremacy Clause, which places the federal government above the states in the constitutional pecking order, and because of existing judicial interpretations of federal firearms laws as they apply to conduct within a single state.

And, as we all know, the state has a large budget surplus right now, so there's plenty of money to spend on a lawsuit.......

Oh, wait. Nevermind.

Do Legislators pack heat into Jazz games?

After learning that four Utah Legislators made a show of turning their guns into the NRA before going into Hill Air Force Base and an Oil Refinery, it led me to ask one question:

Do these same legislators, when attending Jazz games on the lobbyists' dime, pack their guns? Or do they hand them to an NRA rep for safe keeping?

In case you didn't know, Energy Solutions Arena, a privately-owned facility, doesn't allow weapons.

-Bob

[UPDATE 8/20/07 4:08 PM] As per Misty's comment below, I don't want to infer that the legislators are packing heat into Jazz games. Trust me, if I knew for sure that they were packing heat, you would have heard about it from numerous sources by now....

Gun Control, Virginia Tech, and Trolley Square

In case you hadn't heard (I just barely did), There was a massive shooting today at Viginia Tech, with 32 people dead and 29 wounded.

Both side of the gun control issue are jumping all over this. Especially the pro-gun people.

It appears that Virginia Tech had a very strict gun control poicy. Some people are saying that "maybe, just maybe, if somebody on the inside just had a gun...."

Which is crazy.

On February 12 of this year, it is very concieveable that more people than an off-duty cop legally had a gun. Yet, only one pulled it out. He was unable to completely stop the shooter until more help arrived. Don't get me wrong, he is a hero. He not only risked his life from the shooter killing him, but risked his life from SLPD killing him, thinking he was one of the shooters. Or, maybe from annother CCP holder firing at him for the same reason.

However, I do agree that having a no-gun policy doesn't work when there's nobody to enforce it. Many sports venues have a no weapons policy, but only rarely do they do more than a quick check for any weapons being carried in. Same with many schools.

Like Virginia Tech.

-Bob

Local blogs on Virginia Tech:

Simple Utah Mormon Politics: "Who is the lunatic who thinks that gun control works?"

Irrational Optimism: "Virginia Tech University already had the strictest gun control possible and it could easily be argued that such a policy exacerbated the problem."

"Lifetime Hunter" Romney has hunted only twice before

To hear Mitt Romney talk on the campaign trail, you might think the Republican presidential candidate had a gun rack in the back of his pickup truck.
"I purchased a gun when I was a young man. I've been a hunter pretty much all my life," he said this week in Keene, N.H., to a man sporting a National Rifle Association cap.
Yet the former Massachusetts governor's hunting experience is limited to two trips at the bookends of his 60 years: as a 15-year-old, when he hunted rabbits with his cousins on a ranch in Idaho, and last year, when he shot quail on a fenced game preserve in Georgia.

Read the full story here.

Choice

Ever notice how Republicans are all about "choice" when it comes to things like education and guns, but not when it comes to anything to do with a human's reproductive system?

Just wonderen'.

-Bob