Plumbing the depths

"Joe the Plumber" recently said, publicly

As harsh as this sounds -- your dead kids don’t trump my Constitutional rights

What I find interesting about that is not the brash lack of tact or good sense, but the implied recognition that gun control will save lives.  What kind of sociopathy leads one to think that saving lives isn't even a worthy goal?

But that recognition is something that hasn't been seen from the "pro-gun" lobby.  I'm not sure what to make of it, but it's interesting.

Standing your ground?

I was listening to NPR yesterday, and they were talking about people boycotting Florida (refusing to vacation there, for instance).  They brought on someone to defend the bill, who was saying how it was supposed to protect people visiting the state, in case of someone invading their hotel, say.

I was a bit surprised; after all, the bill is only about saying that you don't have to try to leave when you can.  I wonder how he thinks people can leave when someone invades their hotel room.

A few minutes after, they gave a portion of a floor speech by a Democratic lawmaker (I missed his name), talking about repeal.  I forget exactly what he said, but I could hear a subtext in his words of, "I can't freakin' believe I have to say crap like this to people who would label themselves 'pro-life'.  Do they have any self-awareness at all?"

The whole thing just seems amazingly stupid, unless your goal is to increase homicides.  After all, the whole point of the bill is to escalate hostile encounters.  Inevitably, that will lead to people dying, as we saw with Trayvon Martin.

I hadn't realized there were already thirty states with 'stand your ground' bills.  At that point, the federal government really needs to step in, because that's some mighty widespread insanity.

Actually, there was one surprise with this.  Virginia, gun-loving state that it is, is not one of the 'stand your ground' states.  Let's thank heaven for that.

Thoughts on the recent tragedy

I haven't posted anything about the Newtown massacre, as I don't think I've got anything to say that hasn't been said many times.

One thing was kind of weird, though.  When I first read about it, at work that day, it didn't really register what had happened.  It was just... another school shooting, I guess.  But then they talked about it on the radio on the way home, and it really got me upset.  I started thinking about my own kids (not quite that old), I guess, and I got a lot more emotional than I usually do.

The whole thing just seems so senseless, and my heart goes out to the parents and friends of those children.  And the staff killed, as well.

The NRA's suggested response, putting armed guards in every school, seems stupid, at best.  Meeting violence with violence has only succeeded in stopping violence when one side has nothing left.  Given the supply of crazy (or sociopathically desperate for attention) people around, there will never be nothing left.

But we should be cutting down on the supply of guns.  The number of people killed is tragically high.  In fact, I didn't realize how high until the last week or so, but it's over 10k people a year.  There needs to be regulation, maybe similarly to how cars are regulated.

It's just... this can't go on.

I grew up in a house with guns (not a lot, but they were there).  I learned to shoot at a young age.  I've never owned a gun, but in high school I had a couple of guns on long-term (I think it ended up being a couple of years) loan.  For all intents and purposes, they were my guns for that time period; nobody told me when or how to use them, and I took care of maintenance and care.  I even bought the ammo.

More recently, I've fired fully automatic submachine guns.  It was fun, but it was in a very controlled environment, and that was definitely a good thing.

And I've even considered buying a pistol for target shooting and home defense.

But this easy access to weapons made solely for killing people (there's a big difference between a hunting rifle and an AR-15) is just crazy.  It's too easy, and too many people are dying.  Something has to be done.  I think there are a number of steps that can easily be taken.  One, modernize what records ATF keeps (ie: not on cards).  Two, 100% background checks (yes, it isn't perfect, but it'll help).  Three, get rid of easy access to large-capacity magazines (5-10 rounds is plenty, even for self-defense situations).  Four, these "stand your ground" laws are nuts; they're just designed to make it easier to escalate a situation to where someone gets killed.  Five, limit the number of guns people can buy in a small timeframe.  One a month is plenty for any sane situation

I'm sure there are even better ideas, but that's some easy, low-hanging fruit that will cut down on deaths.