When I first read this article, I was hopeful. Indeed, the first five sentences were on point. This article, which could have been an intelligent point of discussion, falls apart there.
For starters, people will “stop a god damn AR-15 with a pistol” if they can. At a close range, training with a weapon becomes far more important than the weapon itself.
This brings me to my next point: you are literally using a soap box to push an agenda, so maybe pick your words more carefully next time. On to our “2nd amendment humping”: It is literally more important than almost anything, including progressive legislation (which has no correlation with murders, mass casualty events, or anything of the like).
Well over 200 million people were murdered in the 20th century, by their very own government. Do you know what all of those murderous nations had in common? They all implemented common sense gun control, which always left their victims unarmed. We didn’t fight a revolution for nothing, and no amount of emotional pandering will ever make America’s gun owners give up their right to freedom and self-defense.
Also, fully-automatic weapons are already almost impossible to purchase, as they have been for decades. You were referring, I assume, to semi-automatic weapons. Per the National Alliance on Mental Issues, almost 20% of Americans have a mental disorder. Surely even you agree that we don’t need to disarm one in five of Americans to atone for the actions of a handful. And who is to decide who is or isn’t mentally unfit?
The government? Do you really trust Donald Trump to ensure that mental health background checks are done fairly? If mental health is your criteria, there will be a new disorder every week for every marginalized group in America.
Oh, and remember that whole “It is time to drop the politics and have an intelligent conversation” Shtick? Calling your opposition pricks doesn’t really further that. I recommend that the author take his own advice, and “start acting like a damn adult”.
By the way, if you actually want to save lives, here are (just a small proportion) of the things that kill more people than “assault” rifle-related deaths: Smoking, drinking, driving, having a poor diet with a sedentary lifestyle, drug overdose, suicide, and falling out of bed. Stop using bad, emotionally-driven arguments in order to push your authoritarian, nanny-state agenda.
Should you wish to continue this conversation further, please reach out, as Young Americans for Liberty would be happy to host a debate on the issue.
Bradley Foster, Junior, Political Science, 701-205-2499