From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
Real Ideas from a Real President
Cadet Bone Spurs’ brilliant plan for reducing gun massacres in schools---besides volunteering to personally run directly into buildings at the risk of inflaming his bone spurs to put down the shooters with his bare hands, and he’d totally do it!---is more guns. Here’s your gun, teacher. Here’s your gun, janitor. Here’s your gun, coach. And one for you, counselor. And, oh look, we have a special heat-seeking missile launcher for you, cafeteria worker. Everybody is armed to the teeth and on edge---problem solved!
President Obama grieved with Newtown, then set an aggressive agenda to curb gun violence. The GOP said no.
Trump and his Republican Trump worshipers in Congress, having paid the barest minimum of condescending lip service (Hi, Little Marco), will now sit back and hope the Great Teen Uprising of 2018 goes away. So while they’re sitting on their hands, let’s revisit the recommendations of the Obama-Biden task force that was formed immediately after the massacre at Sandy Hook that killed 20 kids and six school staff in December 2012. Said the vice president at a White House gathering 33 days after the tragedy:
“Cabinet members and I sat down with 229 groups…from law enforcement agencies to public health officials, to gun officials, to gun advocacy groups, to sportsmen and hunters and religious leaders. And I’ve spoken with members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, had extensive conversations with mayors and governors and county officials.”
After digesting the feedback, President Obama---Democrat---announced 23 executive actions. Among them: more tools and training for mental-health professionals and green-lighting the CDC to conduct research on gun violence including, yes, “the effects that violent video games have on young minds.” He then urged Congress to do its part by passing legislation, including:
Universal background checks, because “as many as 40 percent of all gun purchases are conducted without a background check. An overwhelming majority of Americans agree with us on the need for universal background checks---including more than 70 percent of the National Rifle Association’s members.”
President Obama, with VP Joe Biden, signs 23 gun-related executive orders.
Restoring the ban on military-style assault weapons, and a 10-round limit for magazines, because “the type of assault rifle used in Aurora, for example, when paired with high-capacity magazines, has one purpose---to pump out as many bullets as possible, as quickly as possible.”
And then Obama issued this call to action:
“This will not happen unless the American people demand it. If parents and teachers, police officers and pastors, if hunters and sportsmen, if responsible gun owners, if Americans of every background stand up and say, enough; we’ve suffered too much pain and care too much about our children to allow this to continue---then change will come. That's what it's going to take.”
The American people did demand it. We screamed it from the rooftops. It was deafening. And now, five years later, we see that only one party listened, and it wasn’t the party whose current leader had to be given a cheat sheet with the words “I hear you” on it to remind him to pretend to care in the wake of the most recent massacre.
It’s become as obvious as Paul Ryan’s Pinnochio-length nose that there’s only one solution if we want our government to do something substantial to reduce mass shootings, in schools and elsewhere: kick the Republicans out at every level. Let ‘em lick the gun industry executives’ wingtips as private citizens. The midterm elections are in 251 days on November 6th. That’ll be a good place to start.
P.S. you really should read the remarks by Obama and Biden in full, just to remind yourself what real public servants sound like.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold...
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