Well the final vote hasn’t taken place yet, but it looks like the House Republicans are moving forward to fuck over gun owners. I don’t think that they realize we’re fed up with broken promises and how much support they will lose moving forward.
I caught up with an old friend yesterday – he’s still in California and getting his first firearm. We chatted a lot about training and I was a bit surprised about how well versed he was about things. I shouldn’t have been, as he’s the type to put a lot of effort into critical thought and research before, well, pulling the trigger on something. We chatted about his firearm selection, how CA laws are weird, and how there’s another he was interested in but is very difficult to get over there because those laws.
But the surprise wasn’t limited to his current learning – it really was more because he is a fairly left-leaning, liberal guy and had been pretty much anti-gun the whole time I’ve known him. The fact that he’s come around (at least somewhat) is very pleasing to me – my advocacy for people to be armed and train isn’t limited to just right-leaning folk, I want my more liberal friends to be able to defend themselves and their families as well.
One thing he said did throw me off a bit – he thought the Democrats would be much better off if they stopped their crusade against firearms, and he’s absolutely right. This would attract a lot of the pro-gun centrists who are seen as right-leaning because they vote for candidates that claim to support the Second Amendment, but are much more liberal in their views on social issues. And if they went back to their anti-war roots, they’d probably attract a lot of Libertarian voters as well.
While I believe he is absolutely right, I don’t think it will ever happen – the major parties are just two sides of the same shitty fiat coin. They both profit from our division and don’t actually want to unify the country. They fund-raise off the scary boogeyman of the other side.
The biggest fundraising issues are gun control and abortion – they both rake in cash over people arguing these issues. The Dems raise money saying the Reps want to see your kids murdered in school. The Reps raise money saying the Dems want to take your guns. The Reps raise money saying the Dems want to murder babies. The Dems raise money saying the Reps want to strip reproductive rights. Both sides are being hyperbolic, but have just enough truth to rally their base and rake in the cash.
So no, I don’t think the Democrats will ever back off of their push for gun control, because it is too profitable for them, and that’s the same reason I don’t think Republicans will ever make meaningful change in the gun laws when they have the chance. I’ll admit, I too got swept up in the excitement of thinking there could be some meaningful change to the gun laws, but the Republicans stuck to their money-grabbing game plan and was all fizzle but no pop.
Kinda like a dud round.
Interesting Tidbits
Disney Reportedly Planning Full Reboot of the INDIANA JONES Franchise – “It looks like Indiana Jones might actually be headed for the reboot treatment. According to a recent report from DisInsider, Disney and Lucasfilm are considering a full relaunch of the iconic adventure franchise.” What was I just talking about yesterday? This isn’t the way to capitalize on nostalgia, but the article author has a good suggestion: “Personally, I would love to see a new adventure film or series that follows Ke Huy Quan’s Short Round as an adult. The series could fill us in on what happened to him after the events of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and how his relationship with Indiana shaped his life. The series could show us what became of Short Round, and how he followed in Indiana’s footsteps and became an archaeologist.”
Marijuana to Treat Autism? Some Parents Say Yes – “Some researchers and doctors say CBD shows promising signs as a treatment for autism but are wary of THC.”
Astronomers spot potential ‘interstellar visitor’ shooting through the solar system toward Earth – “A newly discovered object, dubbed A11pl3Z, appears to be moving too fast and straight to have originated in the solar system. If confirmed, it will be the third interstellar visitor ever spotted.”
AI-powered police body cameras are renewing privacy and bias concerns – “The growing use of police body cameras that use artificial intelligence is raising alarms about privacy violations, racial bias and a lack of oversight, according to a report published Tuesday by the R Street Institute, a Washington think tank.”
Off-duty LAPD officer hit, killed man with his car and didn’t stop but googled about it later, prosecutors say – “In the hours after he is accused of fatally hitting Gonzalez with his pickup truck, Coronel drove to his girlfriend’s home, prosecutors said. When she drove him home the next day, he allegedly told her to take a route that avoided the location of the hit-and-run. That same day, is he is also accused of searching online to see if a fatal hit-and-run had been reported in the area, and of driving by the Tustin Police Department’s crime scene investigating the hit-and-run.”
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