What is possible
Senator Marco Rubio claims to know, somehow, that restrictions on gun ownership would not have prevented yesterday’s slaughter at a public high school.
Sen. Marco Rubio said Thursday that gun restrictions would not have prevented the mass shooting at a high school in his home state.
“I understand. I really do. You read in the newspaper that they used a certain kind of gun and therefore let’s make it harder to get those kinds of guns. I don’t have some sort of de facto religious objection to that or some ideological commitment to that, per se,” the Florida Republican said.
“If we do something, it should be something that works. And the struggle up to this point has been that most of the proposals that have been offered would not have prevented, not just yesterday’s tragedy, but any of those in recent history,” Rubio added. “Just because these proposals would not have prevented these does not mean that we therefore raise our hands and say, ‘Therefore, there’s nothing we can do.'”
But how does he know that?
Or, to put it another way, what does he think is the reason for all these mass shootings in schools that happen here but not in France or New Zealand or Canada or Norway or the UK or Japan?
Does he think there is no connection? Does he think that the ease of buying an assault rifle at age 19 has nothing at all to do with the ease with which Nikolas Cruze shot all those people yesterday?
The Florida senator had received $3.3 million from the National Rifle Association as of October 2017, according to The New York Times. Following the Pulse nightclub shooting, Rubio made similar comments, telling the BBC that tougher gun regulations would not have prevented the attack.
Why wouldn’t it?
If it were more difficult and more risky to obtain a gun, then some violence-craving people might be put off trying, and others might try and fail. Some might try and find themselves having an unpleasant conversation with the police. Maybe so many would be discouraged or fail that the numbers of shooting deaths would decline sharply, and the option would stop seeming so easy and so attractive. Maybe over time the US could become like other reasonable countries where violence isn’t a constant threat.
I don’t think Marco Rubio knows that that’s not possible.
As I’ve mentioned here before I own a small bore hunting rifle. It’s useful against bunnies and the like. Yes, I read watership down and it made bunnies seem cute, but over here they’re an incredibly destructive pest with no natural predators.
I had to:
Complete an application form to apply for my firearms licence.
Attend a 1 hour gun safety presentation and (correctly) answer over 75% of the questions and all five of certain critical questions (things like “Is it ever ok to point your gun at another person”).
Provide the names of two people I didn’t live with as referees.
Be interviewed by the police at my home.
My partner was interviewed as well – without me present.
My referee was interviewed over the phone.
About a year later I was followed up and had to show the police officer where my gun, bolt and ammunition were stored.
Guess, what. When you want a non-military weapon for a legitimate reason, you don’t have a history of mental illness and don’t sit there raving about killing people and overthrowing the Government or killing people different from you, and your friends and family don’t express fear about you having access to guns… you get to have a gun and enjoy your legitimate recreation/work.
In our media today it’s been reported tht a young man, little more than a child (school aged) had become self-radicalised and decided to set out to kill non-muslims. He caused an incident that passers-by found frightening, but he was restrained until police arrived. He couldn’t get access to guns either legally or illegally. He couldn’t even get access to knives (the report didn’t explain why not). The end result is no one was hurt. Not innocents, not the police, not him. Instead he is receiving mental health assistance, deradicalisation counselling and is being kept under close observation.
Not a bad alternatives to mass ongoing slaughter is it?
‘ ” I don’t have some sort of de facto religious objection to that or some ideological commitment to that, per se,” the Florida Republican said.’
Heavens no, certainly nothing as trivial as religion or ideology. No, it’s for financial reasons. It interferes with your campaign funding.
Well, he probably thinks that it is best to say that there should be no connection, particularly when he is in front of a TV camera.
Anyone who thinks there is nothing that can be done is a coward.
Restrictions to guns would help.
Yeah, because without fast firing assault rifles people would just compensate by throwing rocks that much harder and faster and more accurately…
I imagine they might change their tune if incidents along the lines of the Scalise one were as frequent and lethal…
NRA campaign cash won’t stop a hail of bullets.
So… what’s his proposal? Seriously. I mean, this isn’t the first school shooting. This has been happening for a long time. If he thinks all the other proposals so far have been inadequate, and he agrees that something should be done, he’s had plenty of time to come up with a proposal of his own that he thinks will be adequate. Where is it? What are the details?
What’s that? The sound of crickets? Yeah, that’s what I fucking thought.
Rob, no need to explain, rabbits are demonic. So are sheep. Both very tasty, mind.
Rob,
Very strict regulations indeed. It’s more than 15 years since I’ve had a firearms licence, so I’m very out-of-date. I first got a licence about 35 years ago, there were similar requirements to those you listed but with no direct police involvement. Also membership of a recognised firearm club was compulsory, so I joined the SSAA, Australia’s equivalent of the NRA, to a very limited extent.
My wife and I owned a hobby farm in Victoria, rabbits and other ferals were in plague proportions, firearms were one solution. As with NZ, the English imported their crappy animals into the country and they all ran wild.
I presume the regs in Oz now are similar to NZ.
Not all, RJW. Some became domesticated and even learned to play cricket.
AoS
That’s racist and offensive.
AoS, Ha! To all the posts.
Oh, and RJW @9, yeah I suppose they are strict. It was honestly very easy though. From the time I downloaded the application form to receiving my license was about three weeks and it took up about four hours total. Add another 15 minutes for the storage check a year later. Eight years down the track there’s been no other demands on my time. I will have to renew the license in another couple of years, but that’s a formality.