{"id":134893,"date":"2017-10-02T09:31:35","date_gmt":"2017-10-02T15:31:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=134893"},"modified":"2018-05-26T18:08:19","modified_gmt":"2018-05-27T00:08:19","slug":"no-way-prevent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/10\/02\/no-way-prevent.html","title":{"rendered":"“No Way to Prevent This”?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not mocking the tragedy with that Onion<\/i> article, but being angry about it, and the thousands of other gun deaths in this nation, every single year, month, day.<\/p>\n

And, no, I don’t want to hear “There’s no way to completely stop all crazies with guns, so we shouldn’t do anything to try.” That’s not how safety regulation works.<\/p>\n

And, no, I don’t want to hear “Well, automobiles kill more people and we don’t ban automobiles.” Not only has regulation dramatically reduced automobile deaths, but most people use their cars every day for useful activities quite different than killing other people with them.<\/p>\n

And, no, I don’t want to hear “Not all gun owners are crazed lunatics \/ terrorists \/ gang-bangers, so why penalize the law-abiding citizens for their crimes?” Because enough of them are (and enough others are criminally negligent with their weapons, and enough others make use of them to kill themselves) that, yeah, they’ve spoiled it for the rest of you.<\/p>\n

And, no, I don’t want to hear “Well, if only everyone carried a gun then this sort of thing wouldn’t happen.” Because the Las Vegas guy was shooting from a hotel room across the street, and the idea of a bunch of panicky concert-goers opening up with pistols on the hotel has the prospect of a death toll far higher than the original shooting itself.<\/p>\n

And, no, I don’t want to hear “Criminals don’t obey the law, so laws restricting gun ownership will be broken by criminals, so such laws are useless.” Because that means we shouldn’t have laws against selling heroin, robbing banks, or assault, either.<\/p>\n

And, no, I don’t want to hear “Well, people can be killed with clubs and knives, too,” because individuals who go crazy with clubs and knives don’t usually leave a toll of 50 dead and over 200 wounded, nor do they do so from across the street.<\/p>\n

And, no, I don’t want to hear “If I don’t have a gun then I will be easy picking for muggers and rapists and grizzly bears.” Because, remarkably enough, a lot of people without guns aren’t<\/i> instantly killed, even here in the United States.<\/p>\n

And, no, I don’t want to hear “I have a Constitutional Right to own a zillion guns,” because even the Supreme Court ruling that overturned decades of jurisprudence to rule that the Second Amendment is, for some non-obvious reason, an individual<\/i> right, not a state right about militias, also indicated that gun ownership could be regulated within the bounds of that right, which is why you can’t walk down the street with an Uzi, even in Texas.<\/p>\n

And, no, I don’t want to hear “If we do background checks on everyone for every gun sale, then the government will enslave us.” That’s pretty close to a prima facie<\/i> case that you<\/i> shouldn’t own a gun.<\/p>\n

There are<\/i> things we can<\/i> do<\/a>, not to completely solve the problem (or, rather, array of problems), but mitigate them. We just don’t have the political will. They don’t necessarily involve banning all firearms, but they do require standing up to the gun manufacturing lobby (i.e., the NRA), they do involve not seeing guns as the ultimate expression of manhood and patriotism, and they do need us to realize that there are<\/i> ways to prevent this sort of tragedy, if we so choose.<\/p>\n


\n
\n<\/a>
\n\u2018No Way To Prevent This,\u2019 Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens<\/a><\/span>
\nLAS VEGAS\u2014In the hours following a violent rampage in Las Vegas in which a lone attacker killed more than 50 individuals and seriously injured 400 others, citizens living in the only country where this kind of mass killing routinely occurs reportedly concluded Monday that there was no way to prevent the massacre from taking place.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not mocking the tragedy with that Onion article, but being angry about it, and the thousands of other gun deaths in this nation, every single year, month, day. And, no, I don’t want to hear “There’s no way to completely stop all crazies with guns, so we shouldn’t do anything to try.” That’s not how … Continue reading ““No Way to Prevent This”?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134897,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,298],"tags":[1197,1241],"class_list":["post-134893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-plusposts","category-guns","tag-guns","tag-lasvegas"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/unnamed-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":127829,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/28\/guns-madness-no-mass-shootings-are-clearly-about-secular-progressivism.html","url_meta":{"origin":134893,"position":0},"title":"Guns? Madness? No, mass shootings are clearly about secular-progressivism","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 28-Aug-15 5:22am","format":false,"excerpt":"Bill's banner is emblematic of this country's gun problem:1. Not all crazy people can be topped, therefore no crazy people can be stopped, therefore gun deaths must be accepted as inevitable.2. Firearms can't be banned [under current Supreme Court interpretation of the 2nd Amendment, as understood by the NRA], therefore\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49224,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/01\/09\/guns-are-now-killing-more-people-in-the-us-than-cars.html","url_meta":{"origin":134893,"position":1},"title":"Guns are now killing more people in the US than cars","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 9-Jan-15 11:19pm","format":false,"excerpt":"America has been concerned over highway safety for decades, and have done all sorts of things to make our roadways safer. And, by gosh, it seems to be working.'According to data gathered by the Centres for Disease Control (CDC), deaths caused by cars in America are in long-term decline. Improved\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":129480,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/01\/13\/guns-and-politics.html","url_meta":{"origin":134893,"position":2},"title":"Guns and Politics","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 13-Jan-16 8:47pm","format":false,"excerpt":"So ... an interesting correlation between state political leaning and state rate of gun deaths per capita. Mapping Gun Deaths by US States' Political Leanings (2) By analyzing publicly available data on political contributions, Crowdpac's algorithm calculates objective political ideology scores for candidates, donors, organizations... View on Google+","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":128303,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/10\/13\/the-only-thing-that-can-stop-a-crazy-with-a-gun-is-um-no-more-crazy.html","url_meta":{"origin":134893,"position":3},"title":"The only thing that can stop a Crazy with a Gun is … um … no more Crazy!","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 13-Oct-15 11:10pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Jeb! has revealed his secret plan to stop mass killings: http:\/\/www.stonekettle.com\/2015\/10\/bang-bang-crazy-two-in-bush.htmlThe cause of all this gun violence is that crazy people can get guns! And then they kill people (not because they have guns, or that they are crazy and have guns, but because they are crazy). So, somehow, we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/gun-crazy-movie-poster-1949-10201427725B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":131842,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/10\/20\/a-tale-of-two-issues.html","url_meta":{"origin":134893,"position":4},"title":"A Tale of Two Issues","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 20-Oct-16 7:37am","format":false,"excerpt":"There wasn't a lot new in the debate last night between Clinton and Trump. The only thing that was different was that we actually got some discussion of what usually come up as major political issues. No surprises there, except that they happened.On gun control, Clinton tried to portray herself\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/161020014819-clinton-trump-debate-one-liners-origwx-cs-00012310-large-1695B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":31887,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/12\/21\/the-difference-is-guns.html","url_meta":{"origin":134893,"position":5},"title":"The difference is guns","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 21-Dec-12 12:52pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Cross-cultural \/ trans-national reviews aren't easy, but there's a case to be made that the biggest reason for the US having a wildly disproportionate number of gun deaths (both homicide, suicide, and accident) isn't disproportionate exposure to violent video games and movies, or a disproportionately\u00a0higher crime rate, or a disproportionate\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134893"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":134898,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134893\/revisions\/134898"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}