From FB group Orange Talk
Rudy Castillo
The problem back then with the Patriot Act was the strong opposition to it by EFF and others. But there were enough people with the realization that something had to change if another 9-11 was to be prevented. It was not a matter of “if we allow giving in an inch, they’ll take a mile”. Life is not a matter of black and white, there are many shades of gray. Long ago, the gangsters carried Tommy guns around in a violin case. The Feds took away that right, so now it’s illegal to own a machine gun without a license.
But the gun makers and sellers have their business at stake. They are going to fight any changes with all they have, money, lobbying, and *most of all* the indoctrination of the public that their Second Amendment rights are being stripped. This basically is the same thing happening with every mass shooting.
If those who have so much at stake don’t come up with an equitable solution, more and more of the people of this country are going to take one side or the other, and there are a lot more people willing to take sides with those who want guns banned. This scares the hell out of gun rights advocates.
I own a gun and I was once like the gun rights advocates. But that was before I found out there were so many people dying from guns. One of my coworkers committed suicide with a gun. I thought about that a lot. Until you and others experience this, it is most likely that you and others will not change. I feel that there is little that I can say that will change anyone’s mind. 😖😞
Rudy Castillo
Exactly. I’m too old to see that, but eventually cars driven by humans will be difficult to see, and every car will be autonomously driven.
But you need some form of transportation to get to work every day, shopping and vacations etc. You seldom if ever need a weapon. In ’66 I watched the smoke from the Riots rising west of my house. If ever there was a time when we thought we would need a gun, it was then, when widespread looting was going on. That was a scary time.
Since those riots, there have been more killed by guns in the US than all the wars combined. More than a million and a half people. The latest gun death statistics are horrible. In 2016, 33 thousand died. And this can (and will) be drastically reduced by doing what Australia has done.