Trying to have a sensible discussion on common sense gun law reform with a “gun nut” is a fools errand.
It’s virtually impossible.
And that’s because they aren’t interested in compromise or capable of making an informed and educated argument defending their position.
“You can have my gun when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers” is the mantra mentality that most of these people have.
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I was listening to a discussion on NPR this morning between Rachel Martin and her guest Chris Buskirk, an NRA member who is a conservative talk show host.
He had all his answers down pat, same old crap we hear after every mass shooting about respecting the victims, focusing on the heroes and first responders, not making it political, trying to process how people can do this to people, thoughts and prayers.
Post mass murder 101 for Republicans and NRA folks. Avoid the real issues and deflect to the peripheral items to defuse the fact that gun control should always be front and center.
Then she dropped this bomb on him –
She pointed out that the murderer had modified 12 of his guns with a “bump fire stock” which is a legal way to convert a semi-automatic weapon into a fully automatic one…thanks to the NRA.
Martin asked him if it would be a good idea to make this illegal given the fact that automatic weapons are illegal…and that this modification to his arsenal allowed him to inflict exponentiallymore carnage and death.
Buskirk, a typical NRA member, could not even string a sentence together. He started with trying to say that it was a mechanical issue and not the same thing, it only “simulates” a fully automatic weapon. He said it was above his realm of knowledge.
We all saw and heard the video and audio of the shooting and this was not a simulation, it became a virtual machine gun that sprayed bullets into the crowd at a militarized pace. And the NRA makes sure this gadget is legal, in spite of the carnage it can cause.
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Do you want to know HOW TO BEAT A GUN NUT?
Ask this simple question after a mass shooting —
Do you support background checks for firearm purchases at gun shows…yes or no?
I’ve done this and have yet to get an answer. They will twist themselves into a pretzel trying to avoid answering, deflecting the question and bringing up nonsense in their losing effort to avoid exposing themselves as wrong.
This is a question they can’t win because if they say no, then you simply bring up the fact that anyone, whether criminal or mentally ill, can waltz right into a gun show and buy an arsenal for a future act of mass murder without even being checked into.
If a person says that they support background checks then they are not a gun nut. The door for a meaningful conversation has just opened.
You won’t get this answer from a true gun nut, because this answer flies in the face of the NRA which will not bend on any concessions, regardless of danger to Americans.
Republicans have actually relaxed gun laws at the beckon call of the NRA so that criminals and mentally unstable people can easily get a hold of weapons…all in the name of protecting their 2nd Amendment Rights, common sense be damned.
And America the Great continues on our sickening merry-go-round of one massacre of innocents after another followed by silence, cowardice or stupidity on the Republican side.