I warned you about this on Saturday:
The top Republican with jurisdiction over firearms regulations in the 113th Congress has shut down talk of gun control in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., massacre, a sign that the House will be the largest obstacle to overhauling federal gun laws.
Rep. Robert W. Goodlatte of Virginia told CQ Roll Call on Tuesday that he does not favor tightening controls on firearms, such as banning assault weapons or high-capacity clips, after 27 people, including 20 children, were killed by a shooter in Newtown last week.
My suggestion is that we start contacting every registered voter in his district.
The problem is that guns are magic. Power at a distance. Look at something, blow it away. Your target explodes in front of your eyes, your hands, arms and trunk absorb the rapid release of chemical energy, and the air fills with sharp, biting gases of ignition and combustion. Another shot of adrenaline with each squeeze of the trigger.
Pretty obvious by now how easy it is to cross the threshold that rains this down onto people.
Monsters from the Id. It’s built-in to who we are.
One might say that this is nature’s way for keeping down the population, like bubonic plague and influenza.
But we don’t like to be culled, so we work at these problems, and we beat the bugs, sometimes, by rigorous application of cleanliness.
And when we don’t beat certain bugs, we come back at them for another try.
We can’t clean out the guns, so we need to focus on slowing the rate at which joe blow citizen can legally deliver death at a distance.
No auto or semi-auto firepower, and no big ammunition magazines. No compromise.
Reloading is when they’re vulnerable.
Lots of hunters in the Great Valley of Virginia. If his district ran another 50 miles south, it would include Virginia Tech.
My own preference is to end lobbying first. Then it will be a lot easier to get a lot of things done. Plus there is not Constitutional right of corporations to lobby politicians with cash, is there? Oh there is. Well a couple of well-crafted common-sense Constitutional amendments should be able to deal with that. “Corporations are not people. Money is not speech.” Those constitutional amendments could be a wonderful wedge issue in 2014.
you are wandering off-topic.
Sorry. But that shapes the way the folks think about guns legislation. And the way that folks like Goodlatte get elected.
Haven’t heard anything about hollow-point “cop-killer” dum-dum bullets, which these were, and which blew very large holes in small bodies. Even in big bodies, these bullets kill quickly. (One news source held this up as a feature, not a bug: the little children didn’t suffer long, because their wounds were so huge.)
If your intent is to protect yourself, dropping your foe should be enough. You need hollow-points only if your intent is to kill your opponent, thus granting you the judge’n’jury power, on top of your stopping power.
If Congress doesn’t outlaw hollow-point bullets, perhaps the President can ban their importation (and let someone try to sue him); call in all the ammunition manufacturer CEOs and tell them “You stop making these now or we brand you as cop-killers”; and remind people that hollow-point bullets are used only by psychopaths. No legislation required. We can make them as odious as no-filter cigarettes.
I tried to tell you that a gun ban was impossible with this House.
“My suggestion is that we start contacting every registered voter in his district.”
My suggestion is that we start contacting every PARENT OF YOUNG CHILDREN in his district.
Good idea–but please be more specific. What actions should we take exactly? How do we contact the constituents? What do we say that would be most effective and through what media. There is an army of people fresh off of the GOTV ground game. We need guidance and we are ready to act.