I heard this last night from someone I know quite well. I will give you a bit of background since it may help with your putting it into context.
I overheard someone saying "Slavery was legal back when the 2nd Amendment was written and we did away with that!" I did not want to stir up a
hornets nest in the room, since it was a group gathering for a book club and 90% of the individuals there were teachers (the individual who mentioned
slavery was the only individual who was not a teacher or administrator at a public school).
However, the discussion was overwhelmingly the same talking points we've been hearing lately: assault weapons should be illegal, there's no reason
we should have access to them as citizens, magazines should hold less ammunition, and on and on and on.
I honestly can't even put my words together to try to articulate the thoughts that I have after hearing this conversation.
Not one individual in the room brought up the premise of governments abusing their powers or having much larger and more dangerous weapons than the
public. Everyone seemed 100% laser-focused on what happened in the school recently, and didn't even give it a 2nd thought when it came to
governments turning against their own citizens (which we have seen here in America as well).
The innocent people who lost their lives deserve some sort of action to be taken to prevent tragedies like this from happening again. I do think
there have been productive discussions about possible solutions or ways to minimize these types of events, however during the conversation I
overheard, a crucial piece was missing: why is everyone ready to take away freedoms of the public without limiting the power of the government?
The NSA's illegal spying programs, NDAA justifying indefinite detention of American citizens, the government allowing the "Bail-In" provisions to be
written into Dodd-Frank, and many, many,
many other examples. However, the knee-jerk reaction and emotional response after a shooting like
the one recently is focused almost entirely on limiting citizens freedoms without taking a look at the very powers that
should have lost the
trust of the public and who should also be scrutinized.
Perhaps this should have been in the rant forum, and I'm sure this thread will draw comments for and against both sides, and probably attacking the
OP as well but I thought it was worth sharing. Take that as you will and I welcome comments and insights from fellow ATS members. Thank
you.
edit on 23-2-2018 by FamCore because: (no reason given)