Republicans Send "Thoughts And Prayers" To The Latest US Mass Shooting In Miami

@LordShadowfire How is the NRA going bankrupt? People are buying up guns at higher rates lately, and those things aren’t cheap. Not to mention the donations they get.

@JP1119 I don't know, but they are literally in bankruptcy court.

@JP1119 I don't have an issue with gun ownership, but it's true, they filed bankruptcy

@pianoplayingsteve To be completely fair, I don't necessarily have an issue with normal healthy people owning guns, either. My thing is more psychological testing.

@LordShadowfire I'm glad we agree there. I dont know every single process that every single state makes gun purchases go through, but I know it isn't as simple as many of the "we should ban all guns ever!" people claim.

I think you should require an ID, proof that you are not unstable, maybe even some sort of license like a driving license.

I don't think people who are not criminals should lose their freedom to use an inanimate object because someone else misuses it. And I will use the slippery slope argument because I've seen it. Not like I suffered under a communist dictatorship (but there is a point there), but when I've spoken to certain people about the issue, it's just "all guns banned!" they cant explain their position, no thought. And then this no thought mindset continues on, and I'm not kidding I had someone argue that literally everything should be owned by the government, that individuals should not be allowed to trade with each other, and that the history of communism doesn't matter because communism means equality. I know it sounds like i'm making it up, but I'm not, there are some very intellectually lazy and otherwise lazy people who wish to put all thinking and responsibility into the hands of the government, even if it means going down a dark path, just so they dont have to take personal responsibility, and it always starts with the guns and they always have the same "take them all!" view. And I repeat I'm not making it up, one of them is my closest friend who is pretty smart other than this area where he literally says that we should bring back communism and that all the history of communism doesn't count.

@pianoplayingsteve
That's exactly why we should ban assault rifles. People that commit mass shootings with assault rifles are not "misusing" them. Assault rifles were designed to kill lots of people as quickly and efficiently as possible. No civilian should have that much power.

@JP1119 I agree. But I wouldn't use the term "civilian". I don't think anyone should have assault rifles. Especially not a tax funded, militarily backed government. Look at the 20th century. The highest death toll was not from one army fighting another foreign army, it was from an armed government killing their unarmed citizens, and the deaths were larger in their millions than from any war.

And with all these narratives coming straight from state organisations about how certain races are responsible for certain atrocities and need to pay, to a point that it is getting eerily similar to Mao's 'Great Leap Forward', I would be hesitant to give in my gun if I was in the US and had a gun. Look at their history yourself, people were destroying statues for representing "han supremacy", people forced to take the knee, stores looted. and then Mao was installed, vowed to "destroy capitalism and traditional values", and then killed millions.

@pianoplayingsteve You must have different people in the UK. I don't know anyone who wants to ban all guns. I don't think I've ever met someone who believed that. We had an assault weapons ban for ten years that expired in 2004, because Republicans couldn't stand to allow it to remain. As noted, the sole purpose of these weapons is to kill large numbers of people quickly, and they do their jobs. Several were used last night in the Miami shooting. We need another assault weapons ban, which worked the first time around. And universal background checks. And other sensible measures. To Republicans, that is a non-starter. Perhaps Democrats will need to pass legislation that is not bipartisan to make this happen. But it is a far, far cry from banning all weapons, which would not even make sense.

@windinhishair Just quickly checked your profile to check that you are from America, which you are, I'm from the UK. It's different here. Just about everything considered "far left" over there, is either state enforced or the culturally dominant narrative.

And as someone who lives in a country where this is the case, please take seriously the slippery slope arguments some on the right make. It might seem like these are exaggerated claims because you still have quite a few of your freedoms. But all the slopes your right wing speakers talk of, we have. Many here really do think all, all, guns should be banned, that's considered a normal view here. People are regularly arrested and charged for having the wrong opinions on twitter, even for criticizing apolitician (sinister!) In Scotland, a bill is being passed to charge people for hate crimes for things they say privately, in person, in their own homes. If you are being attacked by a criminal, certainly if you are being robbed, the police just wont turn up, at all. But at the same time have divisions to deal with "hate crimes". With our socialised healthcare, we have literally hundreds of thousands of people who just claim "depression" to get welfare. We have thousands of ambulance call outs for people complaining of hiccups, headache, sore throat etc, over half the population has the mindset of "sod it,i like food, ill get obese and other people can pay for my heart surgery". I've spoken to quite a few people who want communism, who say that the left, because they are left, can never be "far left", because it's just normal, there is only the "far right" (which is anything right of stalin) and even go so far as to try and make out that there has never been a negative communist dictatorship.I'm not joking about any of that.

@pianoplayingsteve Interesting. I would like to see evidence that people have been arrested for things they said in private in their own homes in the UK. Their arrest record would suffice. A comment on a social media platform isn't private--it is public, so different rules may apply for public postings. Can you also provide evidence of someone being attacked by a criminal and the police refusing to provide assistance? I would like to see the police report and rationale for such an act.

I have no doubt that some people on the dole should not be. That happens everywhere, and diligence is required to ensure people receiving aid actually should be receiving it. In the US, studies have shown that welfare fraud is present but is actually pretty rare, less than 1%.

@pianoplayingsteve Oof. That sounds like a nightmare.

@windinhishair I have no idea how to get police reports.

@pianoplayingsteve How do you know these things occurred as you have stated? What proof do you have? There must be some sort of documentation.

@pianoplayingsteve Yes, I too wish to see documentation.