SERIOUS GUN DEBATE NEEDED

Two important words are going to come up repeatedly as the gun debate boils up in Washington. One word is ‘need’ the other is ‘want’. Everyone should consider the real meaning of each word in a sensible debate, free of emotion. There is an important danger in doing this. The gun lobby, you saw how it works in the LaPierre news conference the other day, will do everything possible to prevent sensible regulation from being put in place. Extended debate, although critical for good legislations, gives them time to destroy it.

There are three things to consider. First, the horrific killings in Connecticut create an emotionally charged atmosphere, meaning both sides of the issue are fired up to defend their positions, which creates a yelling match that produces hasty legislation, which permanently resolves little. The second consideration is that Washington is broken in two ways. The NRA uses a gangland style protection racket to force legislatures to support their view. In addition, congress has succumbed to internal pressures to maintain power if either party is in the minority. Strangely, the party in the current majority fears changing the rules because they want that power when they are in the minority. It is this second way that allows the NRA, a small (minority) organization, to exert its force through a minority of legislatures. We could refer to this arrangement as dishonestly using a “political advantage” of a “double minority”.

The third thing to consider is the “slight of legislative hand”, which is also dishonest, so common used by the Republican Party. They help to pass semi sensible legislation and then go to the America Public asking for credit for doing so. By “semi sensible”, I mean they tried to destroy it but having failed to destroy it, they have weakened it by putting in a structure they can use to destroy it. Then in the backroom with closed doors, committees members that openly voted for the legislation, vote not to fund the work of the legislation it; thus, destroy it. You never hear about this in the open press but this is they brag about to the radical right wing—NRA.

The point of this blog is that we should not fall into these traps. We should debate the issue and then pass logical sensible well thought out legislation to stop violent gun deaths.