The Tail End Of Generation Y Steps Up

In just a few days, the youngest members of Generation Y have awakened. They have ended NRA discounts at car rental companies and have probably destroyed Marco Rubio's 2022 reelection campaign. Suddenly, I don't feel so old. The generation ahead of me has done something. Now can it keep doing it? The NRA is acting like they must be stopped. These kids have frightened the NRA. That's something that parents of 20 murdered children could not. 

This might be the beginning of a movement to make gun regulation an accepted and desired policy. And these kids who started the latest push for firearm regulation are off to the best start in US history. They will do more than just make the NRA a lobby group to avoid. Today's politicians will ignore them, but these kids will be running the nation 20 years from now. 

Even before the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre, Amnesty International was set to publish their annual "State of Human Rights" report. In it, they downgrade the USA due to its growing casualty counts in gun massacres. You can go read it here.

Republicans Are Cowards

He's not up for re-election for another 56 months. But Marco Rubio's Senate career virtually ended this week.

Rubio's cowardice was on full display on February 21, one week after the Majory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre. What would you expect from the man who said it was "Florida's turn" for a gun massacre hours after the Pulse nightclub massacre less than 2 years ago? The problem for him and the rest of the NRA darlings is that there's no longer any place to hide on the issue of guns. All the ideologically approved slogans have outlived their shelf lives. Guns don't kill people. To stop a bad man with a gun you need a good man with a gun. Mass shootings are proof that the issue is one of mental illness, not the easy availability of combat weapons. "Gun-free zones" attract gun rampages. And these deaths are the price we pay for freedom. Every one of the shibboleths you hear when these tragedies unfold are finally being seen as the empty, hypocritical expressions of a profit-addicted gun lobby. Their time might be up. Throw the creeps out!

He's Not Listening

"I think the two fundamental issues were that Donald Trump doesn't read anything. Let me accent that — anything. Nothing. If you're working for the president of the United States, that's an odd position because how do you get information to him? That's already a major hurdle. But then there's the second hurdle — that not only does he not read; he doesn't listen. So it becomes from Day One, the crisis of the presidency: You can't tell him anything." - Michael Wolff

Most Firearms In The USA Are Owned By 3% Of The Population

In a groundbreaking study, published in September 2016, The Guardian found that about half the nation's firearns are owned by 3% of the population. In addition, the number of handguns in the US has skyrocketed since Bill Clinton's first term. Our nation is being held hostage by a 3℅ gun crazy minority. The US population has increased, and overall gun ownership has declined since Clinton took office. But we have seen the rise of the "super owners."

A gun crazy three percent, and a craven, virtually worthless Republican party. I knew we were in serious trouble if the Democrats collapsed in November. And they did. And now we are at the mercy of the gun lobby and the GOP.

Gun-related news is part of the background noise in the US. Just this week, Smith and Wesson released the long-awaited second version of their M&P pistol. And in Fort Lauderdale, a possibly schizophrenic young man emptied his magazine in an airport's baggage claim area, killing 5 and wounding 8. Just a normal, acceptable mass shooting. In almost any other nation, there would be a quick reexamination of flight rules and gun policy. Not here. Rampages are perfectly normal and acceptable. New guns need to be sold.