I went to a few big-box stores yesterday, looking for a plumbing part that was not available in the local hardware store.[1] When I walked in, I made note of the emergency exits and where the entrances to the back-of-the-store stockrooms were. My dad had always told me to do that, but back in his day, the concern was emergency egress in the event of a fire.
Not any more. The concern is whether or not some conspiracy-fueled incel with a grudge against the world or some lunatic hoping to start a race war[2] might shoot up the place, using the rifle that seems to be the favorite tool of those murderous nutjobs.
I suppose that I should not worry as much as people in other states. My state has had a "assault rifle" ban place for several years, along with a ban on high-capacity magazines. None of that is foolproof, of course, but as for the stupid young mostly-male, mostly-white things who get it into their heads to buy a rifle and go out and commit mass murder, it slows them down quite a bit.
I have a carry permit. I was not carrying a gun, because I had also been to places where I couldn't. I don't like locking my gun in my car; there is always a chance that somebody might spot me, retrieving it, or putting away, which could lead to a police interaction that I would rather not have.
I don't know what the answer is. Banning AR-15-type rifles outright will require buying them all back (incluing the magazines), which will probably cost north of fifty billion dollars.[3] Banning the sale of new ones does nothing for the tens of millions of such rifles already out there. Treating them like machine guns will require a vast expansion of the BATF, for which there is probably no appetite for in Congress.
But if this nation keeps going with multiple mass-shootings every week, usually with AR-15s, something is going to change. Even in Texas.[4]
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[1] Ended up buying it from Lord Bezos's company.
[2] The news said this morning that "the shooter's motives were unclear." The fucker was adorned with Nazi tattoos, how much clearer does it have to be?
[3] The Fifth Amendment, you know.
[4] It's interesting that the states that seem to be the most dedicated to protecting the right to buy an AR-15 are also the states which are most dedicated to controlling women's reproductive systems. So while it's not OK in those states to have an abortion, it's OK to buy a tool that allows one to kill a shitload of kids at one go? But someone else can have at that topic, if they feel up to it.
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Tuesday, May 9, 2023
6 comments:
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I've owned firearms since 12, and I'm just shy of 70 now. I believe in gun ownership and hunting or target shooting. Collecting is cool too, as I see it. But this latest deluge of street shootings is weighing heavily on me. I would not be agreeable to giving up any of my weapons. Not too fond of registration either although all my guns were legally purchased or inherited. I just wonder what can be done. This isn't right where we have to sit in the back and watch the door, every damn time we go out. That just isn't right.
ReplyDeletew3ski
Unless cops or other first responders get taken out in a mass shooting, I don’t see any prospect for change. But, our cultural hopiliphiles must be served.
ReplyDeleteOne may have to watch for those Sport Utility Vengeance attacks
ReplyDeletewith easily obtained SUVs and other similar wheeled weapons....
Seems we have a population that has a problem and insanity or mental illness does not adequately address the behavior.
Eck!
Mr. Eck, Comparing vehicular assault with using a fast shooting rifle is a poor defensive tactic and false equivalency. Motor vehicles were invented to transport people or goods more efficiently than what was used before. Firearms were invented to kill faster and farther than what was used before. To say nothing can be done so let's do nothing is no different than the fact that red light runners. school bus passers and drunk drivers are still going to do those things means why have laws at all. It's ironic that the same people that say that gun ownership is 100% personal responsibility but a women's health has to be regulated. I am not a gun grabber or anti-gun by far but believe some more effort should be used to keep unstable people from having easy access to firearms especially of the non-sporting pray and spray type.
ReplyDeleteLOL ~ sometimes it pays to read the sidebar. I have noted that, along with e-exits and unobstructed runways, I drive a lot more aggressively defensive now that I drive an eMini more than my old one-ton four-by-four Chevy pickup*. Got plenty of power to get out of anything I might get into ~ yesterday I went from 40 to 60 in a second rather than let a tailgater pass me ~ but it's a really small car and most people just don't look. I drive it like m'old Harley.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised it took this long for the terrorists to figure how to use motor vehicles as weapons of terror and mass destruction ... like "9/11", there've only been movies made about it since the nineteen thirties ...
* Nobody messes with me when I'm in my truck.
This is a good video, though four years old none-the-less timely: FBI: You can survive a mass shooting: Run, Hide, Fight
Here's one good take on what might be a good start:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.stonekettle.com/2015/06/bang-bang-sanity.html
Even the NRA would have a hard time arguing against that without looking so stupid that even die-hard NRA-ists would start to wonder.
Basically, make the NRA's safe gun handling rules into LAW.
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