Texas Again, and Georgia

In the near future maybe we’ll just start getting a daily body count like we did during Vietnam. The founding fathers would be so proud of the insane interpretations of their relatively benign Second Amendment.

Holy shit, stuff like this is actually happening? Terrible…

Some NRA lady just told Anderson Cooper that we should not regulate guns, because they are inanimate objects. Following that argument to its logical conclusion, since PCP and meth are inanimate objects, we should make no effort to regulate them either, right? Doing otherwise would be an assault on liberty, and God forbid we should ever do that. And don’t even get me started on the tyranny of auto safety regulations.

@Dave H: Where have you guys been? This stuff has been going on forever. No one paid attention until Sandy Hook, however. People get shot everyday. The day in, day out gun violence was ignored until reporters put google news alerts on shootings. What looks like a sudden epidemic has been going on for years.

Are local DAs charging gun crimes? No, not here in Santa Fe, anyway. An 18 year old goes to a party, shoots and kills two guys over the sale of a bottle of rum. 1. He was not legally able to carry a gun 2. It was concealed. 3. Who helped him obtain the gun? That person should be charged, too. I supported that woman when she was running for DA and she’s doing a terrible job. Charge the shit out of these assholes. Hit them hard.

The local cops put the smackdown on property crime by hitting likely/repeat offenders. They should do the same on guns. Pull a kid over at night? Ask for weapons. Pull felons, burglars, drug/robbery offenders over? Ask/search for weapons. Civil libertarians will shit their pants, however. The focus on the mentally ill and guns could also cause a liberal schism, too.

Some will say “but none of those things would have stopped the guy in Phoenix.” Substitute that argument with “but a background check would not have stopped the guy in Phoenix” and that person is the same as Wayne LaPierre.

@redmanlaw: thought there had been an uptick since CT as I keep track, but maybe I’m wrong.

We had a mini-wave north of here before Christmas, including an execution style double murder and a related hit in retaliation – both of which involved the burning of mobile homes with bodies inside – but quiet (and really cold) since then.

There was that kid south of Albuquerque who killed his whole family a couple of weeks ago. He’s from a semi-prominent political family (had dinner with his uncle the state senator once), The family belonged to a evangelical mega-church, so there are some odd overtones on that one. The home schoolers were calling in to the local right wing talk radio station denying that his education and upbringing contributed to the killings.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/01/29/3207482/family-vows-support-for-nm-teen.html

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/01/24/3199390/defense-attorney-weighs-in-on.html#storylink=mirelated

Statistically, at least, I think RML’s right: lots of people killed with guns over the last N years. We don’t usually hear about them. Now we do. I was wondering too, if we were seeing an uptick, but I think we’re just seeing more focused reporting.

Which is frustrating as hell, because that means that this is a concern-du-jour, and that means it’s going to be pushed aside when the next public anxiety comes around. I know more people are aware and vocal now, but if the press loses their focus on the problem, so does the public.