This was originally written after the Sandy Hook mass shooting , but I had an experience the other day that reminded me of it. Also, there’s been at least one more mass shooting. The one in DC. First my update below, then the original piece..
In
the US purchases of pseudophedrine are tracked and limited. You have to present a license, which is scanned, swiped or copied and signed for twice in some stores. The medication, which I use a lot of for allergies, has an ingredient that can be used to make meth. So lawmakers felt the best way to limit meth production was to control the sudafed supply. The other day I was told by Rite-Aid I had reached my limit. So, I went half a block away to CVS and bought some sudafed there. How is it this law, which targets people who willingly choose to use the drug, can pass- but something like universal background checks which could limit the death of innocent people… can’t happen. The government limits the amount of sudafed I can but, but allows a 4 day, 24/7 Breaking Bad marathon on AMC which shows you how to cook meth without the use of pseudophedrine.
Below I say that legislation should be brought to the floor following Sandy Hook. It was brought… and it failed. Univeral background checks failed! And had overwhelming support. Following this mass shooting in DC… I didn’t see word of even an effort. What I did see was lots of people grandstanding over Obamacare. None more so than Senator Ted Cruz.
We had a Senator stand for nearly a full day making a bogus effort to defund the Affordable Health Care law. A law that, though it is very far from perfect, will help many, many people. A law that was upheld by the SCOTUS and had a repeal vote fail over 40 times. The point is that Cruz did this rather than talk for a day about background checks. He’d rather stand up there and cite “Green Eggs and Ham” quite inappropriately than to allow congress to go about its business. That even if someone had something to offer in the way of gun control… he wasted a day of everyone’s time for a selfish , grandstanding speech that offered little specifics of alternatives and was packed with misinformation and lies. In the meantime dozens of people across the US died from gunshot wounds or poor/no healthcare.
So f*ck Ted Cruz. F*ck all the lobby satisfying, party catering, corporate scumbag politicians who would rather play politics than make serious, needed change. Take an improv class you pieces of shit.
Carding for Sudafed won’t solve America’s meth problem.
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12/15/12
Yesterday there was another mass shooting. A tragedy in Connecticuit. Though the faces and stories all change, the overarching story and the news machine is all too familiar. For the news stations there must be some formula to it by now. We need shots of people that are shocked. People that are horrified. Someone that saw this coming. People that never expected this. Parents? Roommate? Find them. For this tragedy in particular I think it’s safe to say that no one really expected this. So many children. If anything should come of this it’s finally changing the laws in place- or missing- regarding gun ownership.
I am stunned that you can see youtube clips of people walking into different stores and getting guns without permits and some without even showing ID. It is kind of nuts that people can buy guns without showing ID, but if I want to get a box of sudafed the amount I can buy is limited, they take my ID and basically make a copy of it, and I have to do that every single time. I have a stuffy nose due to allergies. I’m not going to hurl the pills at the speed of sound through someone’s body. I’m not going to hoard mass amounts to cook meth. I have the sniffles. How does THAT law pass so easily, but people can’t agree on gun control? And of the more no-brainer ones- ban on assault weapons. How does something like that expire? Guns have on purpose- to kill. Maybe if the Constitution gave the right to bear decongestants I could be in and out of the pharmacy a little faster.
I don’t believe people need to own guns. But if that’s something that’s not going to change then what I don’t get is why gun ownership isn’t at least treated with the same amount of red tape as buying pseudophedrine or owning a car. With a car you have to have a driver’s license to operate one. If you own a car you need tags. Those tags expire after a certain amount of time. The license expires every few years and in some cases you’ll need to be re-tested. What sense does it make that with an actual weapon- that people use to kill thousands a year- a lot of that doesn’t happen. If you want to own a gun you should be tested periodically. Physically and mentallly. And your ability to own and use the gun should be tested as well.
If new/updated legislation is not brought to the floor of congress very quickly following this- what are they doing there? Fuck the fiscal cliff for 3 days. Don’t let this moment, where swift action is needed, pass. What message does that send to the next person to do this? And the next? What message does that send to the rest of the world? End the war on drugs. Start the war on guns. At least with drugs people getting involved and hurting themselves do so at their own hand. With tragedies like the one yesterday, that lunatic attacked the helpless. It’s the role of the government to protect it’s people. It’s the main role of government. How about you start doing that by limiting access to what’s killing thousands of us a year?
