Fuck ’em.
Everyone is always angry about everything now.
I read a lot of tweets attacking Jones as a sell-out, but not a single one arguing that he was incorrect on the substance of his comments. All he did was to praise conservative leaders for doing something right. That’s not selling out. That’s calling it fair. He’s a newsman, and they should be like referees. When somebody does something right, they shouldn’t pretend it never happened.
The reality is that we should stealthily encourage the conservatives to take the lead on issues like that, because if liberals did, the conservatives would crap all over them. Only Dick Nixon could have normalized relations with China, because if anyone else had done it, Nixon would have called him a traitor. It’s good that Donald Trump works toward normalizing relations with North Korea, because the world would be safer if NK were a modern, peaceful country, but if Obama had started moving in that direction, the right-wing wackosphere would have gone ballistic.
I’ll tell you right now – if Trump would champion powerful gun control laws, even I would gladly sing his praises and fully support a Nobel Prize. (I suppose that’s a third rail for his base, but damn, if he wants us to think of him as truly Presidential, that would show guts and leadership, and would go a long way toward winning me over.)
Yeah, yeah. I know it ain’t gonna happen.
Ludwig Van. I used to like VM until I found out he is a total Paisleyite. But I still do listen to the music.
please elaborate on what gun control laws would stop crime. In most of the high profile shootings within the last couple of years, the current laws were not even enforced (aurora Illinois shooter had a felony conviction discovered during applying for his CCW but was never visited by police and told to surrender his firearms, Parkland shooter should have been reported to the state for mental and criminal reasons and thus would have been denied when he was background checked for the rifle he killed people with).
Not one proposed gun control law would stop or slow down crime committed with guns, and until people start talking about the why’s behind crime instead of blaming guns and demonizing lawful gun owners over crimes they didn’t commit, nothing will get solved.
The stats are clear.
The number of gun massacres and massacre deaths decreased by 37% and 43% respectively after the 1994 ban on assault weapons went into effect. After Congress let it expire in 2004, they shot up by 183% and 239%.
The stats show that the NFA in Australia has reduced firearm-related deaths by 60%.
The FCA in South Africa was even more effective than that!
Statistical studies have shown that at least three types of gun control laws are correlated to lower gun violence: assault weapons bans, trigger locks, and safe storage requirements.
Other studies have verified the trends in reverse – which is to say that gun violence and deaths have increased when gun control laws were eliminated or loosened.
And, of course: (1) existing laws must be enforced; (2) private peer-to-peer sales must be highly regulated and tracked, like the sale of an auto; (3) no sales must be permitted unless the buyer is clearly identified and checked. If that last one results in a ban on mail and internet sales, then so be it.
What is the contrary evidence that supports your argument that “not one proposed gun control law would stop or slow down crime committed with guns”?
Posts like this one are why I always like to see Uncle Scoopy’s opinion. Even though I do not know who Van Jones is, and was getting him mixed up with Van Johnson and Van Heflin.
Van Morrison is the best ‘Van.’
Trump coming out for major change in gun control/restrictions? Not a chance.
Foreign policy is about the only place in our body politic where praise can cross party lines, or be seen as non-political. Another example Scoop is that under Republican Presidents is when wars, declared or undeclared, tend to end, and troops come home.
Prison reform is domestic policy. Frankly, I am shocked that conservatives are taking the lead on this. I keep wondering what the catch is. They have to be up to something, right?
The catch is that with the opioid epidemic, drug addicts are no longer disgusting black people who should be locked up for life, but poor white souls who deserve rehabilitation and support.
Ah, you’re right.
Well, whatever gets them on the right track.
Sending people to prison also costs the state a lot of money. Slashing government spending is still a concern for some conservatives.
But this criticism is warranted:
“I can’t forget when Van Jones, on CNN, gushed over Trump’s first speech to Congress, where he was able to read a teleprompter without blowing up or falling asleep– This is where he becomes presidential, Van said. Oy.”
Yeah, I agreed with the liberals on that one. I was wondering WTF Jones was thinking at the time. A newscaster praising Trump as Presidential for merely reading from a teleprompter is like a parent bragging about his/her baby for sitting up.
But still, Jones was (I think) being honest in that case as well. I totally disagreed with him, but I didn’t doubt his sincerity, or suspect that he was in Trump’s pocket.