Your words today should be on the front page of every major newspaper in the U. S.
What happened in the Tennessee legislature is another tear in the fabric of our democracy. Actions like that are another “baby step “ on the path to Fascism. The divide in our country is wide and deep enough. We must all March, write and sing about the gravity of gun violence and the ever weakening of our democracy by those who seek power by any means at their disposal.
Thank you so much for your research this morning. The comments by former Chief Justice Warren Burger were exactly what we needed to read today. Senator Dianne Feinstein was the chief sponsor of the assault weapons ban and it was signed into law by Clinton. Both are Democrats. George W. Bush allowed the ban on assault weapons to lapse in 2004. President Obama tried to get the law reinstated but of course we know how hard it was to get anything done when the Senate and House were both controlled by the GOP. Then after Trump was elected he weakened the guidelines on background checks related to people with mental illness. Over and above that Florida just enacted legislation allowing people in Florida to carry a gun without a permit. So that demonstrates what today's GOP really stands for.
Apr 7, 2023·edited Apr 7, 2023Liked by Steven Beschloss
Call the Republicans what they are: Stubborn and disconnected denialists, tethered to the donor purse strings of the NRA. Their loyalty is essentially bought and paid for. They cling to the status quo because guns represent power to them, and their biggest fear is losing status. The fact that so many American lives are lost to gunfire, seems to matter little to them. Military grade weapons were not meant to be owned by private citizens. No hunter uses an assault rifle. As I have long contended, the gun lobby dictates the policy to 'hold their ground' and their guns, on either side of the great political divide. This no-win situation comes at a very high price. Your words are compelling, Steven. " The refusal to act is suicidal and perhaps the grimmest expression of our representative government’s failure to support the will of the majority, serve the common good—and respond to the heartbreak and lifelong trauma that survivors and victims’ families and friends must endure. " Would that they were read by EVERY individual who erroneously interprets the Second Amendment for their own purposes.
Excellent piece, Steven. I wish the current SCOTUS would heed the words of Burger. What happened in Tennessee is appalling and casts a stain on the state. But these Republicans have called the country's attention to their racism and the courage of these three legislators, and I hope it will ultimately be their undoing.
The GOP is based on fraud: they have no ideas of their own, they do what their mega donors want; they do what the corporation heads want; they do what the religious extremists want; they do what the NRA wants. They do not have a platform or guiding principle except to oppose anything that comes from a Democrat. They have been doing this since long before Obama was elected but ramped it all up when he was. They ignore the will of the people - they have their agenda and damn even their own who don’t agree with it. They have fits because Trump was indicted yet call for the same thing; they accuse Democrats of weaponizing the government yet this is what they are doing. They are, with their indicted leader, the consummate projectionists. Everything they do is someone else’s fault or what someone else does. Just like Trump, they are all toddlers who have crying fits when they don’t get what they want and when they do, they are tyrants.
Even those on the Right who will discuss gun reform fail to grasp this. They say the issues are "too complex" or "banning guns won't change anything" or "the Second Amendment guarantees freedom to own weapons." I'd like to ask these folks to define the word 'amendment,' because once they do, they're forced to acknowledge that by definition if the Constitution was changed once on this matter, it can be changed again.
I am of the belief that we (the majority) are not looking at the accumulation of guns is by Red state Republicans. They are preparing for war. You must step back and look what is happening in Red states. The Republicans are turning these states into fascist states. Limiting voting rights, abortion rights, LGBTQ+ rights, racial rights. making the state government stronger than the federal government. The removal of two elected legislators in Tennessee is one small example, arresting the Democrat's legislators in Texas, now 22 Republican trifecta states. The Democrats are not paying attention to the important issues to the general public. If you can take the White House by having Republican legislators vote against the winning candidate you have taken over the country. We need to wake up it is happening before our eyes.
I have said it before. I’ll say it again. I’ll keep saying it until these idiot politicians we have elected to do the will of the people listen.
There’s absolutely no reason, none whatsoever, that any style Assault Rifle or weapon needs to be on any shelves in any gun shop, gun show, or any private citizen’s homes. NONE. I don’t give a good d**n what any gun advocate says, they cannot come up with any excuse to own an assault weapon of any kind.
You have to be macho and own a gun “for protection”? Buy yourself a pistol or revolver. Hell, if you can’t hit your target in 6 rounds, you don’t need a gun to start with!
We need to elect politicians that will listen to us. Tennessee did, two of them were expelled for doing the right thing. We need politicians that will say “NO” to accepting money, kickbacks, etc. from the gun lobbyists. We need politicians that will tell the gun lobbyists that “enough is enough. You have caused the death of enough of our children, enough of our educators, enough of our churchgoers, enough of our citizens out shopping with their families.”
America is a gun loving country. How many who read this column own a gun or two and are willing to give them up? They invade our culture. Guns & Roses. Annie get your gun. Lay that pistol down, babe. God & guns. Shotgun blues. Happiness is a warm gun. Why, even Attica Finch had a gun. We are a warring nation. WW II-yes. Granada-no. Now, getting involved with China. Has a little bit of fascism crept into our policies in that we think we can tell other countries what to do if we don't like their positions. Sounds like DeSantis. Representatives are supposed to do their constituents bidding. They do.People want guns. The Senate was designed to be above the fray, know better what is good for the country. Nope. Do what is good for getting NRA money.
Children can march until they get blisters. They do not vote.. They just get murdered. Their parents continue to vote for people who side with a Boebert or a Rittenhouse. Until one of their own becomes the latest. I will not substitute teach, go to crowded gatherings, parades, outdoor markets, I even have to consider going to church on Easter. Call me coward, but call me alive.
I would, in a dream world, ban ALL guns except for army and police. Nobody has the courage to amend the amendment. Banning this rifle might help, but believing these atrocities will stop is a high falutin empty fantasy.
Some problems cannot be fixed. They need support. This is one of them.
My feelings can be summed up in there quote from the March For Our Lives protest: “What do we want? Gun control. When do we want it? Now,”. Warren Burger was so wise. He made a difference. But then the power changed in our country and the bans on assault weapons expired and then there were mass killings and mass killings and more and more mass killings. Can we even count how many children would be alive and growing up today if those bans had not expired. Does any GOP legislator want to talk to the parents of the Sandy Hook young children who were murdered? Does any GOP legislator want to talk to the parents of amy of the Parkland teenagers who were murdered? Does any GOP legislator want to talk to the parents of the children who were murdered last week at the Christian child care center? Does any GOP legislator have any idea what it is like to be 1 of those parents or loved ones of any of the children or adults who were murdered by gun violence, those people who have had their lives forever torn apart, their hearts ripped from their bodies and their very being destroyed FOREVER??? The 2nd amendment was written for a specific time and for a specific purpose. When, if ever, will the GOP, who are so beholden to the gun lobby and the NRA ever find some compassion and understand? When will they ever realize that the 2nd amendment didn't mean that anyone should be free to buy an assault weapon? Because assault weapons in this day and age, in our country, on our streets, in our neighborhoods serve no purpose except to kill innocent people and destroy lives and families and destroy the freedom to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness that we Declaration of Independence gave us.
Stupidity on this issue is rampant!!! Honestly, I have never held a gun of any sort in all of my 76 years!!! There never has been a need!!! It’s simply a power issue and struggle and like most things in our society--it’s about $$$!!!
The idea of banning assault weapons in order to lower the carnage in our schools and on our streets is so commonsensical and obvious a solution as to be beyond question. I mean, who with so much as an ounce of ethics or common sense could ever argue otherwise? Yes, it is certainly true that there are countless numbers of these horrible weapons in circulation already. The solution, then, while banning the sale of these weapons, is also to make their possession a crime.
The problem with trying to work towards effective change, however, is that we get sucked into the vortex of debating the issue of how to stop gun violence on the terms of a malevolent minority that is willing to sacrifice children at the altar of greed.
However, since that minority is quick to take refuge behind the skirts of the 2nd Amendment, let's take them on by opening a debate into the merits of that Amendment itself. As you have so eloquently stated, Steven, it was framed to allow States (and specifically Virginia, I believe) to have the muscle to withdraw from the Union if they so chose. The fact that the Amendment was written in haste and for a narrow end speaks to why it was so badly worded. But the nonsense that is now perpetrated in the name of that Amendment is now beyond insane. (The concept of "open carry" is a prime example.)
I contend that it is high time that we open a national debate about repealing the 2nd Amendment. Yes, I know, that's a highly unlikely outcome given our current state of affairs (especially in light of the intransigent stupidity of Republican legislators). At the very least, however, the debate will serve the purpose of laying the groundwork for real gun reform by broadening out the agenda. Our children demand no less.
Thank you, again, Steven for your process sanity. Your essay here is so necessary, so urgent, and yet (please excuse me for this) so OBVIOUS! The arguments of gun rights advocates don't even rise to the level of the old joke that the only good things about hitting yourself over the head with a hammer is how good it feels when you stop. Because they won't friggin' stop and thousands of people are dead and will die as a direct result of their specious ideas and performative "Have Gun Will Travel" toughness.
I remember a long ago article on this subject - I believe it was in New York Review of Books - by the great Gary Wills, in which he dissected the meaning of the words of 2A, as they would have been understood by the Founders. It was clear, he said, that the language was "martial" in origin. That the phrase "to bear arms" arose from an era of warfare in which men went into battle with armaments and wore armor and armored their horses, not from hunting game and protecting the South Forty from marauding Indians.
The phrase I've never forgotten: "One does not 'bear arms' against a bunny."
Your words today should be on the front page of every major newspaper in the U. S.
What happened in the Tennessee legislature is another tear in the fabric of our democracy. Actions like that are another “baby step “ on the path to Fascism. The divide in our country is wide and deep enough. We must all March, write and sing about the gravity of gun violence and the ever weakening of our democracy by those who seek power by any means at their disposal.
Fraud. Yes, that’s the proper word for much of the “policy” that has spewed forth from gun advocates over the last 30 years.
We must elect people who will fight and rid us of the fraudsters and grifters in the body politic.
Thank you so much for your research this morning. The comments by former Chief Justice Warren Burger were exactly what we needed to read today. Senator Dianne Feinstein was the chief sponsor of the assault weapons ban and it was signed into law by Clinton. Both are Democrats. George W. Bush allowed the ban on assault weapons to lapse in 2004. President Obama tried to get the law reinstated but of course we know how hard it was to get anything done when the Senate and House were both controlled by the GOP. Then after Trump was elected he weakened the guidelines on background checks related to people with mental illness. Over and above that Florida just enacted legislation allowing people in Florida to carry a gun without a permit. So that demonstrates what today's GOP really stands for.
Call the Republicans what they are: Stubborn and disconnected denialists, tethered to the donor purse strings of the NRA. Their loyalty is essentially bought and paid for. They cling to the status quo because guns represent power to them, and their biggest fear is losing status. The fact that so many American lives are lost to gunfire, seems to matter little to them. Military grade weapons were not meant to be owned by private citizens. No hunter uses an assault rifle. As I have long contended, the gun lobby dictates the policy to 'hold their ground' and their guns, on either side of the great political divide. This no-win situation comes at a very high price. Your words are compelling, Steven. " The refusal to act is suicidal and perhaps the grimmest expression of our representative government’s failure to support the will of the majority, serve the common good—and respond to the heartbreak and lifelong trauma that survivors and victims’ families and friends must endure. " Would that they were read by EVERY individual who erroneously interprets the Second Amendment for their own purposes.
Excellent piece, Steven. I wish the current SCOTUS would heed the words of Burger. What happened in Tennessee is appalling and casts a stain on the state. But these Republicans have called the country's attention to their racism and the courage of these three legislators, and I hope it will ultimately be their undoing.
The GOP is based on fraud: they have no ideas of their own, they do what their mega donors want; they do what the corporation heads want; they do what the religious extremists want; they do what the NRA wants. They do not have a platform or guiding principle except to oppose anything that comes from a Democrat. They have been doing this since long before Obama was elected but ramped it all up when he was. They ignore the will of the people - they have their agenda and damn even their own who don’t agree with it. They have fits because Trump was indicted yet call for the same thing; they accuse Democrats of weaponizing the government yet this is what they are doing. They are, with their indicted leader, the consummate projectionists. Everything they do is someone else’s fault or what someone else does. Just like Trump, they are all toddlers who have crying fits when they don’t get what they want and when they do, they are tyrants.
Even those on the Right who will discuss gun reform fail to grasp this. They say the issues are "too complex" or "banning guns won't change anything" or "the Second Amendment guarantees freedom to own weapons." I'd like to ask these folks to define the word 'amendment,' because once they do, they're forced to acknowledge that by definition if the Constitution was changed once on this matter, it can be changed again.
We no longer have scholars on the court. Well just a few. The OTHERS ARE BOUGHT AND PAID FOR SHILLS
I am of the belief that we (the majority) are not looking at the accumulation of guns is by Red state Republicans. They are preparing for war. You must step back and look what is happening in Red states. The Republicans are turning these states into fascist states. Limiting voting rights, abortion rights, LGBTQ+ rights, racial rights. making the state government stronger than the federal government. The removal of two elected legislators in Tennessee is one small example, arresting the Democrat's legislators in Texas, now 22 Republican trifecta states. The Democrats are not paying attention to the important issues to the general public. If you can take the White House by having Republican legislators vote against the winning candidate you have taken over the country. We need to wake up it is happening before our eyes.
I have said it before. I’ll say it again. I’ll keep saying it until these idiot politicians we have elected to do the will of the people listen.
There’s absolutely no reason, none whatsoever, that any style Assault Rifle or weapon needs to be on any shelves in any gun shop, gun show, or any private citizen’s homes. NONE. I don’t give a good d**n what any gun advocate says, they cannot come up with any excuse to own an assault weapon of any kind.
You have to be macho and own a gun “for protection”? Buy yourself a pistol or revolver. Hell, if you can’t hit your target in 6 rounds, you don’t need a gun to start with!
We need to elect politicians that will listen to us. Tennessee did, two of them were expelled for doing the right thing. We need politicians that will say “NO” to accepting money, kickbacks, etc. from the gun lobbyists. We need politicians that will tell the gun lobbyists that “enough is enough. You have caused the death of enough of our children, enough of our educators, enough of our churchgoers, enough of our citizens out shopping with their families.”
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!!
Thank you ! I’m so grateful to have your words to repeat. You are a statesman an help us understand the argument that needs to be made
America is a gun loving country. How many who read this column own a gun or two and are willing to give them up? They invade our culture. Guns & Roses. Annie get your gun. Lay that pistol down, babe. God & guns. Shotgun blues. Happiness is a warm gun. Why, even Attica Finch had a gun. We are a warring nation. WW II-yes. Granada-no. Now, getting involved with China. Has a little bit of fascism crept into our policies in that we think we can tell other countries what to do if we don't like their positions. Sounds like DeSantis. Representatives are supposed to do their constituents bidding. They do.People want guns. The Senate was designed to be above the fray, know better what is good for the country. Nope. Do what is good for getting NRA money.
Children can march until they get blisters. They do not vote.. They just get murdered. Their parents continue to vote for people who side with a Boebert or a Rittenhouse. Until one of their own becomes the latest. I will not substitute teach, go to crowded gatherings, parades, outdoor markets, I even have to consider going to church on Easter. Call me coward, but call me alive.
I would, in a dream world, ban ALL guns except for army and police. Nobody has the courage to amend the amendment. Banning this rifle might help, but believing these atrocities will stop is a high falutin empty fantasy.
Some problems cannot be fixed. They need support. This is one of them.
My feelings can be summed up in there quote from the March For Our Lives protest: “What do we want? Gun control. When do we want it? Now,”. Warren Burger was so wise. He made a difference. But then the power changed in our country and the bans on assault weapons expired and then there were mass killings and mass killings and more and more mass killings. Can we even count how many children would be alive and growing up today if those bans had not expired. Does any GOP legislator want to talk to the parents of the Sandy Hook young children who were murdered? Does any GOP legislator want to talk to the parents of amy of the Parkland teenagers who were murdered? Does any GOP legislator want to talk to the parents of the children who were murdered last week at the Christian child care center? Does any GOP legislator have any idea what it is like to be 1 of those parents or loved ones of any of the children or adults who were murdered by gun violence, those people who have had their lives forever torn apart, their hearts ripped from their bodies and their very being destroyed FOREVER??? The 2nd amendment was written for a specific time and for a specific purpose. When, if ever, will the GOP, who are so beholden to the gun lobby and the NRA ever find some compassion and understand? When will they ever realize that the 2nd amendment didn't mean that anyone should be free to buy an assault weapon? Because assault weapons in this day and age, in our country, on our streets, in our neighborhoods serve no purpose except to kill innocent people and destroy lives and families and destroy the freedom to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness that we Declaration of Independence gave us.
Stupidity on this issue is rampant!!! Honestly, I have never held a gun of any sort in all of my 76 years!!! There never has been a need!!! It’s simply a power issue and struggle and like most things in our society--it’s about $$$!!!
The idea of banning assault weapons in order to lower the carnage in our schools and on our streets is so commonsensical and obvious a solution as to be beyond question. I mean, who with so much as an ounce of ethics or common sense could ever argue otherwise? Yes, it is certainly true that there are countless numbers of these horrible weapons in circulation already. The solution, then, while banning the sale of these weapons, is also to make their possession a crime.
The problem with trying to work towards effective change, however, is that we get sucked into the vortex of debating the issue of how to stop gun violence on the terms of a malevolent minority that is willing to sacrifice children at the altar of greed.
However, since that minority is quick to take refuge behind the skirts of the 2nd Amendment, let's take them on by opening a debate into the merits of that Amendment itself. As you have so eloquently stated, Steven, it was framed to allow States (and specifically Virginia, I believe) to have the muscle to withdraw from the Union if they so chose. The fact that the Amendment was written in haste and for a narrow end speaks to why it was so badly worded. But the nonsense that is now perpetrated in the name of that Amendment is now beyond insane. (The concept of "open carry" is a prime example.)
I contend that it is high time that we open a national debate about repealing the 2nd Amendment. Yes, I know, that's a highly unlikely outcome given our current state of affairs (especially in light of the intransigent stupidity of Republican legislators). At the very least, however, the debate will serve the purpose of laying the groundwork for real gun reform by broadening out the agenda. Our children demand no less.
Thank you, again, Steven for your process sanity. Your essay here is so necessary, so urgent, and yet (please excuse me for this) so OBVIOUS! The arguments of gun rights advocates don't even rise to the level of the old joke that the only good things about hitting yourself over the head with a hammer is how good it feels when you stop. Because they won't friggin' stop and thousands of people are dead and will die as a direct result of their specious ideas and performative "Have Gun Will Travel" toughness.
I remember a long ago article on this subject - I believe it was in New York Review of Books - by the great Gary Wills, in which he dissected the meaning of the words of 2A, as they would have been understood by the Founders. It was clear, he said, that the language was "martial" in origin. That the phrase "to bear arms" arose from an era of warfare in which men went into battle with armaments and wore armor and armored their horses, not from hunting game and protecting the South Forty from marauding Indians.
The phrase I've never forgotten: "One does not 'bear arms' against a bunny."