On Wednesday evening, a rifle-toting gunman murdered 18 people and wounded at least 13 more in Lewiston, Maine, when he opened fire at two separate locations—a bowling alley, followed by a bar. A manhunt is still underway for 40-year-old suspect Robert Card, a trained firearms instructor with the U.S. Army Reserve who, just this summer, spent two weeks in a mental hospital after reporting that he was hearing voices and threatening to shoot up a military base.
While the other late-night talk show hosts stuck to poking fun at new Speaker of the House Mike Johnson on Thursday night, Stephen Colbert took his rebuke of the Louisiana congressman to a whole other level.
“Now, we know the arguments,” Colbert said of the do-nothing response politicians generally have to tragedies such as this. “Some people are going to say this is a mental health issue. Others are going to say it’s a gun issue. But there’s no reason it can’t be both.”
Add Johnson to this
I gave up after Sandy Hook. If the population can’t prevent assault weapons from being sold after such a gun butchers children, then they won’t make their representatives do anything that makes a difference. You have to fix it someday, but I’m not going to hold my breath.
The year of Sandy Hook, the gun lobby increased their “donations” to Republicans from $8 million to $16 million per year, where it remains to this day.
Also, be wary of saying “assault weapons” as it’s vague and used by the pro-gun crowd to undermine discussion – semi-automatic guns are the weapon of choice for criminals, terrorists and domestic abusers and are not necessary for hunting nor hobby shooting.
It’s why they’re strictly controlled in most countries.
Oh God the only time fascists start wanting to be a grammar Nazi.
It’s semi automatic weapons. Just because you can switch out one pin to make it full auto means nothing.
It’s a magazine not a clip!
Just like every word in the world, they’re all made up and become defined by the culture using them.
If I say assault weapons and you understand what I mean, then the word is fine.
Once you get into the legal areas, absolutely everything needs to be defined. Under assault weapon it’ll start listing every type and parameter with strict definitions of what they mean. They like to pretend that’s not part of the bill though lol.
However, there are farm rifles that have been semi-automatic for many decades, such as the mini-14. Also my Ruger 10/22 is an auto loading semi-automatic rifle.
Neither of these would be considered an assault rifle as they do not have a pistol grip.
I think that we should just allow these types of weapons under a owner’s permit, and then make sure that people take a basic training course, mental health and background checks, and make them liable for any harm that may cause through their ownership or negligence with these weapons.
I should also make it way harder to get a concealed weapons permit and restrict pistols more than rifles as most gun shootings are with pistols.
This is similar how Austria approaches gun ownership which in some ways is more lax than the US (they allow suppressors for instance).
Unfortunately rational discourse around gun laws in this country just simply does not happen. People are not motivated for change around these laws if they’re not motivated by emotional response.
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The problem is that the “assault weapon” wording makes it easier for pro gun to dismiss you. The US has a lot of people obsessed with guns. I’d love if the US could just ban guns entirely, but reality is that we’d have to at least start with reasonable baby steps and cannot give them any easy way to get out. By using the “assault weapon” wording, you’re just making it easier for them to dismiss gun legislation cause they’ll claim “it’s too vague” (even if it’s not).
It’s unfortunate that wording has to matter so much, especially in colloquial usage, but it’s such an uphill battle to get even the slightest gun restrictions in place, so we sadly do need to be perfect. And yeah, it’s stupid. It’s dumb that the US can be like it is and people will still defend their guns to the death. But we have to account for that if we want to make anything better.
Within days of Sandy Hook, an ex friend of mine showed me footage he saw on Alex Jones throwing questions into if they weren’t all actors. People will go to ridiculous levels of hypocrisy or mental blindness to ensure they don’t have to actually assess their values and beliefs.
Everyone talks about assault weapons and mad shootings and ignores the vast majority of gun homicides.
All types of rifles combined make up 3% of homicides, and just about 1% of firearm deaths (handgun suicides are about 2/3rd of gun deaths).
That’s the reason the Dems didn’t really care when the AWB expired in the 2000s. Every single objective study of homicide rates, gun murder rates, and mass shootings showed no statically-significant impact of the AWB.
The real danger was easy, cheap access to handguns. A $1000 rifle that’s hard to conceal isn’t nearly as dangerous as a $200 handgun that can hold just as much ammunition and be easily concealed.
But after DC v Heller, it became clear that handgun ban wasn’t going to be possible, so the focus switched back to black rifles.
We have a lot of broken gun laws in this country, but I’m much more concerned with cheap zinc handguns designed to be disposable than I am an AR-15.
Hey I’m not super into politics, but maybe we should look into banning guns ¯_(ツ)_/¯
If you need one for hunting or varmint control there can be a special license for that but you gotta admit we got a little problem with guns in America.
I have guns but if the day comes where they’re banned fuck it I’ll turn em in if that helps us move past daily mass shootings.
i dunno i think we should just pray more. that always seems to work after every mass shooting.
I live in Australia, we have gun bans. We still have guns. It’s not even really hard to get them. There’s shops. It’s just more like getting a really easy drivers licence. It’s not about banning them. It’s more about screening the people who want to buy them, and regulating their use.
I’m in complete agreement though I do believe there needs to be an exemption for people like my parents. Every spring/summer they end up with something between 6 and 12 coyotes in their woods.
Lol I specifically said varmint control, if you live on land that has coyotes or whatever all the power to you.
Look at all this naysaying bullshit. Honestly 99.9999% of people aren’t going to lose their life over having a gun or not. Maybe a few guns will remain hidden or in black market or whatever, but how many more school shootings will it take before we actually try something instead of just pointing out the reasons it won’t be easy and throw up our hands?
It’s disgusting and I’m tired of it.
I think the issue that a ban will take years to effectively cool the possession of assault weapons is not actually an issue worth stalling over. While a lot of people tend to look at a law as “if it’s not immediately 100% effective it is garbage” in reality if you call for a refund based recall it will take a chunk out of the total guns out there. Patience is nessisarily.
Seizures of weapons in illegal transport or market will eventually account for another chunk. Guns are regularly stolen from home break ins so a lot of personal arsonal will find it’s way into black markets. Over time when the things can be reported when used in gun clubs or spotted in the wild you take away a lot of the “fun” quotent of owning the weapons making surrender much more likely. The legal ramifications of finding the weapons in self defense cases motivates from another end. If you can’t use them for self defense then the argument of what the point of having them gets stronger. A lot of people own these weapons in part for the same reasons they do expensive cars - the joy of using them and the cashe of bragging and showing them off. While 2nd amendment stans might hoarde them for ideological reasons they probably are gunna be forced to make them hard to find and make sure they don’t mention them to young children who might narc on them making kids getting their hands on them less likely.
The more effectively useless and detrimental you legally make something over time you do wear away at the trouble and anxiety required to maintain ownership. What the US should aim for is long game de-escalation. If people don’t start the process it just means the payoff is gunna be that further down the road.
How it went is Australia (trust me, we had shitloads of guns, buddy) was, people who wanted to hand in the small selection of banned guns, did, the people who didn’t, didn’t. Then regularly the cops do an amnesty day, where you can hand in any illegal guns, no questions asked. If they change their minds. People still own guns. You don’t ban them all, just the unnecessary ones, and you regulate who can buy them, kinda like getting a really easy drivers licence.
I appreciate your candid attitude but how many mass shootings have you committed? None? Then how does turning in your guns solve this? The state once again failed to do anything when the perpetrator literally admired to be homicidal. Maybe there are gun problems other times, but this fucking wasnt one of those times
Well it’s both. Having access to such weapons when someone is mentally ill is a bad combination. And having mental health going unchecked just makes it hard to capture the rage.
The fact is this issue is not just the guns or the people. It’s both. And everyone trying to separate them is not understanding the true nature of the problem.
That was exactly my point, thanks.
Banning things doesn’t make them magically go away.
well, they’ve already shat on the rest of the bill of rights. what’s one more?
Well when laws are woefully out of date they deserve to be shit on. That’s how democracy and progress works.
I dunno man, if golfing killed 100,000 people a year don’t you think someone would investigate? Why should this sport be different?
As it is, the most dangerous sport in America (mountain climbing) kills 30 people a year.
Are you more free because the GOP refuses to regulate the militia? These people aren’t. Are we more secure? Absolutely fucking not. Go back and read your precious bill of rights and tell us what the point of the second amendment is. Republicans wipe their ass with the bill of rights.
Let’s not let women or black people vote either /s
It’s fine, just because you want a killing machine doesn’t mean you or anyone else is entitled to it. Guns in 1776 were a little different than what we got now. I like guns and I think they’re neat, but the proof is in the pudding. They’re doing more harm than good.
Banning is never the solution. All it does is expand the black market. Those who want guns will get them.
If we have black markets for guns like Australia has them I think we’ll be in a much better position than we are today.
Australias were never gunfho as Americans about guns. American history is very short and not too long ago they used guns to get independence from britian, not to mention the civil war. Some believe that they will have to defend the country again in this lifetime, that’s why they value the 2nd amendment.
I mean… The rest of the world proves that you’re wrong. Like the whole world. They don’t have this problem. America does.
Right? Motherfuckers can’t afford rent or a home, but can shell out 10-15 grand for a black market gun lmao.
The only thing expanding the black market is legal gun sales. Black market guns don’t just fall off the truck leaving the factory.
That isn’t even the issue here. This was an individual who was becoming more mentally disturbed and voluntarily checked himself into a psych hospital. It should not be controversial whatsoever that we enforce laws to remove guns from these individuals until the time an independent psychiatrist clears them.
This isn’t even just because of mass shootings. I’m worried about all the veterans with PTSD and depression who could commit suicide. We need to understand that taking someone’s guns when they’re in that state is helping them and could save their lives.
I will be the first person to protest if they illegitimately do this to people. I’m more concerned about the mental and physical health. Guarantee the return of their guns, or even allow a trusted individual to take them – just create incredibly steep charges if the person with custody of the guns hands them over prematurely and suicide or homicides happen.
None of this should be controversial. It literally helps no one to leave them with the guns. We can figure out a holding process for the firearms to ensure it isn’t abused to take guns away and that people have their property returned. But there should be absolutely no disagreement that people who are actively having mental health crises shouldn’t be near guns until they’ve recovered.
The corollary to your statement is that if we take guns away from people with mental illness, we are removing their ability to overthrow the government. This is a bad thing from the conservative mindset…
We want people to overthrow and kill people who are in the government, right? Right??
I used to never smoke weed because it was so hard to get it just wasn’t worth the effort. Now that it’s legal and there’s a dispo right there, I always have my weed on me. availability matters.
It’ll absolutely reduce the number of guns purchased and owned by the general population. Gun control isn’t an all or nothing situation.
It would almost certainly reduce the number of guns out there, I don’t think anyone would dispute that. Alcohol prohibition reduced the amount of alcohol and the number of consumers by a huge amount. What people would argue, however, is that Prohibition made the alcohol that was out there much more dangerous. They’d also argue that gun prohibition would reduce formerly legal owners by (made up numbers) 90% while only reducing already prohibited owners by 10%. Is that a net gain or a net loss?
The black market might expand, but that’s one more deterrent for new attackers. However, the issue is that in the US alone there are something like 300million guns already in circulation or owner by private individuals. So a buyback program would need to happen as well and I don’t know how realistic that is. We’ve had mass shootings for decades and this government can’t do shit about anything any more as all bipartisan good will has completely evaporated and the discourse has become so toxic.
The fact that card admitted to wanting to do this and nothing was done boggles my mind. The entire state is on their knees until he is caught. Every school has been shut down and the surrounding towns are all still in lock down until further notice. I’m 2h away and they’re debating a lock down for us now because he had plans to go to saco,me and going through that down this morning you can tell they’re geared up and ready for the call
is it just me or does mike johnson look kinda like evil stephen colbert and it really makes me want him to revive the colbert report just to do a parody of him
