Pissing into the wind in terms of actually addressing the problem. Because if only 1 out every 1000 of those folks owning fuck tons of weapons flips out for any reason, we have our mass shootings. We see a tragedy like in Lewiston, and look retrospectively at all those obvious signals, as though prior to the shooting they were flashing red in a vacuum, and lament once again that we don’t have systems capable of capturing 100% of those with mental or emotional difficulties.

No such system exists. We don’t have a monopoly on those human weaknesses that cause people to snap. We do have a monopoly on people snapping with weapons in their hands capable of killing lots of people very quickly. So we can keep avoiding the real issue shooting after shooting, and listing out all the ways we need to catch 100% of the problem people. Given that a 0.01% rate of failure on that count is inevitable under any circumstances, until we figure out this gun thing, we’ll get plenty of practice screaming past each other on this subject.

The problem is “gun fetish”. Period. That’s the unique thing about our country. The thing we can never address, because we have so many people who only vote for performance artists who pose for Christmas cards with the family toting the family arsenal. As long as that fetish remains sacrosanct - more important to the country than the body count - we’ll continue to add to the body count. And to our hours of debating everything but the one thing that matters. Our national gun fetish.
[Post edited by hoolstoptheheels at 11/25/2023 08:00AM]