The Gun Control “Debate”
Three things about the gun control “debate” we’re currently trying to have in this nation.
First, this from Jon Stewart is still probably the best thing I’ve seen on the subject. His summary at the end:
Now I get it. Now I see what’s happening. So this is what it is. Their paranoid fear of a possible dystopic future prevents us from addressing our actual dystopic present. We can’t even begin to address 30,000 gun deaths that are actually, in reality, happening in this country every year because a few of us must remain vigilant against the rise of imaginary Hitler.
TPM: Jon Stewart Goes After Gun Control Opponents on the Right
Here’s the video:
Second, I heard something just now on the radio in which they listened to an extended clip of the Alex Jones rant (starts at about 7:15 in the above clip) and one of the guests started his response by remarking that he would first have to wipe the spittle off his face just from listening to it. That made me LOL.
Third, and more seriously, the other commenter observed how hard it is to have a real discussion around this issue because of how politicized it is. “You have to be on one side or the other.” Sorry, but that’s more false equivalence. Sounds to me like all of the yelling, all of the extremism, all of the ultimatums and absolutism, etc are coming from one side of the argument. The attitude that the truth in any disagreement must of course be somewhere between the parties and that both are equally responsible for any impasse is so reflexive that it leaves folks unable to accurately describe the present reality in which one side is trying to solve problems and the other side is trying to have a fight.