I think the main point is that anyone who has a child should not feel good if we can’t somehow be confident that their children are safe there, and that safety isn’t going to involve their kids watch exchanges of gun fire, even if there are five ‘good guys’ for every bad guy.
I likely agree with Conservatives that gun confiscation would be disaster, and I don’t think anyone is seriously pursuing it at this time.
But for gun advocates to go from wanting not just freedom to own weapons, but basically wanting them everywhere is horrific. I think some states have legalized having guns in church, in bars and at work.
Regarding schools, I see at least as much risk of a stressed out teacher who carries a gun to school panicking or in a fit of rage shooting a student as that same teacher being the ‘good guy’ that stops the next Adam Lanza. Introducing guns into more of our daily interaction can only cause normal confrontation, and arguments to have much more potential to turn into a gun fight and maybe a death or two.
Our society is in serious trouble if the only we can be safe is to be in a state of MAD. Remember that? At the height of Cold War we lived with the doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction or MAD. The peace was kept by the knowledge that if a confrontation spiraled out of control it meant the end of EVERYTHING. It worked, but is a balance of terror the best we can do between nations and individuals?
I will say that Mr. Obama would have done well I think to not elevate the gun issue. While I think his limited measures have merit, it was not hard to see that his pushing the issue would cause the massive push back among red-states we are seeing. In the end, I think three things will happen:
1. Obama’s new gun policies will be blocked at least in the house;
2. The GOP will gain in fall of next year at least partially from the gun issue coming to the forefront;
3. More insane laws like the right to guns at school or church will be passed in red states.
No response at all to Sandy Hook would be better than those three I think.
Obama should have pursued better mental health policy. That likely would help us as much or more the gun proposals; might have actually been enacted; and would have lead to guns in church.
I think the only President of the US that could ever enact gun restrictions like limited magazine, with their limited benefit would be a conservative Republican. A conservative might never take that action of course, but I think he or she would not be under such suspicion that it was just the first step to confiscation, and you wouldn’t see the crazy reaction that Obama has summoned up.
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