America Is a Gun

 Is this a bad time to come out against gun control? 

This not a not a normal country. It's not  gonna get any better, not with this scumbag pedophile in The White House. 

Another school shooting happened today. These have been happening in schools, churches, malls, theaters- everywhere- for the last several decades. It doesn't matter whether there is a good man in The White House or Trump, these atrocities are going to happen. Last year I probably would have agreed with you if you said we should ban the semi-automatic rifles- AR15's and such. However, last year we were a far more normal country with an old, but wizened president with the hope of a younger, stronger woman on the way. Well, we know what happened there. I would have been onboard with a ban on assault rifles. In a normal country, you don't need one. You just don't. This isn't Somalia, Afghanistan or the Middle East. Not yet anyway. For those people, poor leadership, war and killing is a way of life. They need guns. It sucks, but you have to consider that is the way they live. They don't have many well-intended liberals in those locales. 

We do here, but it's hard to hear them over the cacophony of thoughts and prayers after every mass shooting. Well-intended libs and ill-intended republicans all join in with that totally fucking useless sentiment. Yes, an assault weapons ban would help- as it did with Bill Clinton- but perhaps not as much as you might think. Millions of guns have been added to the nation's arsenal since then. There are a lot of crazy freaks who have dozens of AR's in their possession. No, they won't pass them out in case of civil war. They'll be barricaded in their bunkers, protecting their supply. Trust me though, a buttload of 'regular' people own an AR or two. I get that. I'm a man. Shooting is fun. There are a lot of cool guns out there. We are consumers, heavily influenced by TV and movies. The .44 Magnum was not a desirable weapon until Clint Eastwood used one in his "Dirty Harry" films. With that, they couldn't keep that in stock. Now it's the ubiquitous AR 15. 

I'm not going to pretend to know why a young, white male (the usual suspect) decides to kill classmates or other anonymous children. Adults generally kill for love (hate actually) or money. Everybody is different even if their similarities seem the same. Blame TV, films or video games if you must, but yeah, it's the guns. I wish it wasn't so, but <incoming cliche> it is what it is. 

This is to say we are stuck with guns. The irony of decades of squawking about guns being constitutionally necessary to fight an oppressive regime is, the oppressive regime is here and our 2A 'heroes' are sitting this regime out. They are standing back and standing by. Turns out these fucks wouldn't know an oppressive regime if they voted for one. And they did. They will soon be a big factor in this mess. I have to believe the bulk of these ICEholes are your usual gun nuts. They are biding their time kidnapping landscapers until they get the signal for the shooting war. 

Think about it. Trump is destroying every institution we have. Part and parcel of every dictatorship is violence against the people. What better people to enact violence against the people than people themselves, the worst people among us. If you are anywhere near the internet, you know they are out there, waiting, chomping at the bit, to kill Americans. I always say, "Nobody hates Americans more than republicans." Trump is looking for reasons to set it off and tens of thousands of miscreants are waiting for his call to arms. Don't think so? This happens all the time in this great, big world and it always did. You may think it can't happen here, but you are forgetting the Civil War we held in the 1860's. If you think we are better, smarter people than the ones who went to war to keep people as chattel, you just don't know people. And you don't know people under Trump. 

Yeah, it's the guns. America is a gun. I wish it wasn't so, but it is, and we have to deal with that ugliness. Thoughts and prayers aren't working and it's getting worse every damn day.