Where can terrorists buy guns? Why, the United States! Federal law prohibits felons, fugitives, drug addicts and domestic abusers from purchasing firearms, but it excludes anyone on an FBI watchlist. From 2004 to 2014 suspected terrorists tried to buy guns 2,233 times, according to the Washington Post, and 91% of the time they succeeded.
Apparently, this is an important source of weaponry for plotters in Europe and for all we know it was American guns that caused the mayhem in Paris! Shouldn’t we take a grown- up view and stop suspects from buying arms? Seems to me that if you come over to the US as a EU citizen on a special visa and you are found buying a gun, it is reasonable to add 2 to 2 and draw the reasonable conclusion that the answer is 4. But the NRA and its friends won’t have it, of course, I presume on the basis that, if you do that, you infringe on the constitutional right of Gun owners to shoot wherever they wish.
Ataraxia – peace of mind – grows more distant with every innocent life taken by guns in America.
This will upset a lot of people, but I’ve come to believe that the 2nd amendment ought to be repealed. There’s simply no need for people to have an automatic right to gun ownership in America. People will still be able to own hunting rifles, but pistols would be virtually illegal, as they are responsible for most of the murders. There should also be a training requirement before people should be allowed to buy guns.
The NRA says that Obama wants to take away people’s guns. I wish this was true. If the government were to confiscate guns en masse, although innocent people wouldn’t be able to defend themselves as well, the reduction in the number of firearms would dramatically reduce the murder rate; America’s high rate of gun ownership is partly responsible for its unusually high murder rate in the developed world.
You are, of course, right. Absolutely. The trouble is that there is a frightening number of right- wing, violent, extremist conspiracy theorists, and the end result wouldbe somewhat akin to civil war. What you have here is a situation which is starting to look like a Mussolini moment, with a lot of the conditions of 1930s Italy reproduced in the US, along with a Mussolini- like figure to lead the discontents. Most of the stuff is totally made up, but there is a section of the population simply lapping up every bit of it. Meanwhile , the people concerned are gerrymandering constituencies, suppressing voters they disapprove of, and ramming anti- social legislation through State legislatures, helped by ALEC. All this is the very antithesis of Epicureanism. My wish is to alert readers to the dangers. Americans know no history – studying history ( or any of the arts subjects) doesn’t make money or promote a career in the US – ridiculous but true. Thereby, they unwittingly travel a dangerous road,