I was going to write a letter to the editor in support of our local mayor and police chief who are advocates for sensible gun regulation. Some ND legislators are pushing outlawing whatever federal gun laws may be coming. A local church already has para-military Gatekeepers.

Then I saw that Reid and McConnell smacked down progressives on filibuster rules and decided what’s the point. Dystopian tyrannical future? We’re livin’ in it, ba-bee.

The outlaws have already won.

Feature not bug. (we should just adopt FNB for short)

Obama is really fast out of the blocks on any obviously polarizing proposal.

It provides built in plausible deniability because he can always say he ‘tried’.

He couldn’t achieve any truly progressive reforms in his first term because of ultra-partisan resistance based on the unpopular healthcare program.

In his second term he won’t be able to do anything because of ultra-partisan resistance based in right-wing hatred of gun control.

But watch how easy it will be to degrade ‘entitlements’.

I live in a community where a gunman opened fire in a Unitarian church, killing and permanently injuring several people, and my Congressman continues to insist that gun control is not necessary, blames the problem on things like “father-absent households” and violence in video games, and does nothing other than tow the party line.

When will Americans speak up loudly?

Yes. The Obama problem resembles the senate problem (another thread) — set it up for failure and then blame others that nothing worthwhile can be accomplished. Same in foreign affairs. It’s the fault of the Iraqis, Afghans and Libyans — we tried.

Well speak up — what would you do about the 200 million privately-owned firearms in the USA, along with all the people who own them? Loaded question — there are too many of them.

“Opinions about the Obama’s proposal were even more polarized along partisan lines than along ideological ones. It would appear that as soon as Obama is attached to a popular idea it immediately loses support because it is reflexively rejected by many in the Republicans base.”

I agree, but it’s not just the GOP, it goes the other way to, look what the Dems did . . .

The NRA proposed placing armed guards in schools, and all the Dems and left laughed and talked about what a crazy idea that was, but 3 of President Obama’s 23 Presidential Executive Orders did exactly that, He ordered placing armed police officers in schools, and all the Dems switched and said it was a great idea, but the NRA is still wrong and stupid.

I know some of you may not believe it, so I copied those 3 executive orders below. and the proposal to congress to pay for them.

Executive Orders:
1) Providing law enforcement authorities, first responders and school officials with proper training for armed attacks situations.

2) Providing incentives for schools to hire school resource officers.

Note:(School resource officers, known as SROs, are fully sworn law enforcement officers, armed, in uniform and assigned to a school full-time)

3) Developing model emergency response plans for schools, houses of worship and institutions of higher education.

3 Proposals to congress to pay for them:
1) Acting on a $4 billion administration proposal to help keep 15,000 police officers on the street.

2) Financing programs to train more police officers, first responders and school officials on how to respond to active armed attacks.

3) Providing $30 million in grants to states to help schools develop emergency response plans.

Currently, the gun nuts are all on Facebook (and presumably other social media) saying that the coroner’s reports show that Adam Lanza did not use the AR-15 (he used four handguns for the killings), that it was found in his car (as first reports from the scene had mentioned), that he had been turned down in an attempt to buy an AR-15 rifle and had to kill his mother in order to steal it.

But the darned “liberals” like Piers Morgan are lying about the whole thing to get the assault weapons ban reinstated and take away “our” 2nd Amendment “rights” to own machine guns.

Well…

1) What the hell did his mother need an AR-15 for, anyway?

2) The fact that Adam, who had been rejected for AR-15 ownership, could acquire one by simply killing his mother (and who DOESN”T want to kill their mom? I mean, really…) would argue that the background checks are insufficient as far as keeping AR-15s out of the hands of psychopaths. Better to ban them, then.

3) So he did all that killing with four handguns? Well, perhaps there needs to be a ban on multiple handgun ownership, then. At least make the mass-murderers re-load, for pete’s sake. Put some effort into it, you lazy bastards.

4) But…taking away our ability to fire hundreds of shots without reloading leaves us helpless when the government comes! As opposed to all the brave patriots who have used their guns to stand off the Durned Gubmint, like…er, like…

Seriously, has any gun stockpiler ever won a battle with the law? Fire a few shots and flee, maybe. Hunker down in your bunker and you’re dead meat. The killing machines don’t even serve their alleged purpose.

But I’m still willing to bet that Obama manages to ban exactly zero guns. It’s not as though he’s opposed to murdering American citizens, after all…

I have been speaking up, writing letters to my representatives. One of them wrote things like what I wrote @ 3 and that calls for gun control is “based primarily on emotion,” that it amounts to “going after law-abiding gun owners,” and that it “will not prevent similar shootings in the future.”

There is also donations to groups like Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly’s political action committee, Americans for Responsible Solutions: http://americansforresponsiblesolutions.org/.

My question is why more Americans aren’t speaking up. There are plenty of Americans who should be writing and calling representatives’ offices and making donations to groups like Americans for Responsible Solutions.

The US is still somewhat a democracy, and there are not the votes to do anything you’re suggesting. You are free to question why people want guns, and several guns, but the facts are that they want them and it is constitutionally protected.

As an OWG (old white guy), I don’t throw down the Race Card casually. Given the state of the GOP historically and especially in the last 10-15 years, I feel safe in saying that anything the Dark Guy in their (imagined/presumed) White house is automatically opposed based on race.

They are so Bat-Shit crazy, if Obama said he hated N*****s, they’d condemn him and embrace the nearest black guy.

Are you Canadian or French so you can’t speak as an American?

Those in the tea party movement do not ask “when will Americans speak out against taxes?”.

Those in the tea party movement do not ask “when will Americans speak out against taxes?”.

Those in the tea party movement think, do and say whatever the puppet masters funding and running the “movement” tell them to think, do and say.

Unfortunately, the rest of us don’t have such benefactors and our voices either aren’t heard or are just plain ignored by both parties.

You’re so right about Obama taking ownership of ideas. When he did this to health care reform, it was the last effective mention of single payer.