Mays Street & Old Settlers Park
Failure to Focus
RECEIVED Wed., June 29, 2016
Dear Editor,
“Page Two: Same as It Ever Was,” June 24, was excellent. Nonetheless, it suffers from conflating the issues of union strife and racial strife and gun control (I prefer the term “gun regulation”). The historic confrontations between workers and management are not fair markers for the current issues of either gun control/regulation or radical Islamic terrorism. They are irrelevant, though interesting as hell.
What is relevant is there are 8 million “assault” rifles in the United States and two of them were used in the Sandy Hook and Orlando murders. Both of the scumbags had handguns in addition.
The U.S. had an AWB (assault weapons ban) which existed from 1994 to 2004 whereupon it was not renewed. It was not renewed for two reasons: The first was its 10-year data-based agreed ineffectiveness. The second was the failure to create the Crazy List, which was an integral part of the legislation. States were to prepare a list to be consolidated with other states to form a national database of folks whose ownership of any weapon was a fair matter of public concern. Liberals, the ACLU, and liberal states protested and the list was never completed.
What we face today is the same dilemma – a failure of will but, more importantly, a failure to focus on what could work instead of a series of knee-jerk, feel-good bits of political puffery and buffoonery.
Neither of the Sandy Hook nor Orlando scumbags was on the No-Fly List, but both could have been on the Crazy List. All the Crazy List was to have accomplished was to identify those deserving of a bit more scrutiny. This might have prevented the murders. Why not focus on stuff that might actually work and save lives?
“Page Two: Same as It Ever Was,” June 24, was excellent. Nonetheless, it suffers from conflating the issues of union strife and racial strife and gun control (I prefer the term “gun regulation”). The historic confrontations between workers and management are not fair markers for the current issues of either gun control/regulation or radical Islamic terrorism. They are irrelevant, though interesting as hell.
What is relevant is there are 8 million “assault” rifles in the United States and two of them were used in the Sandy Hook and Orlando murders. Both of the scumbags had handguns in addition.
The U.S. had an AWB (assault weapons ban) which existed from 1994 to 2004 whereupon it was not renewed. It was not renewed for two reasons: The first was its 10-year data-based agreed ineffectiveness. The second was the failure to create the Crazy List, which was an integral part of the legislation. States were to prepare a list to be consolidated with other states to form a national database of folks whose ownership of any weapon was a fair matter of public concern. Liberals, the ACLU, and liberal states protested and the list was never completed.
What we face today is the same dilemma – a failure of will but, more importantly, a failure to focus on what could work instead of a series of knee-jerk, feel-good bits of political puffery and buffoonery.
Neither of the Sandy Hook nor Orlando scumbags was on the No-Fly List, but both could have been on the Crazy List. All the Crazy List was to have accomplished was to identify those deserving of a bit more scrutiny. This might have prevented the murders. Why not focus on stuff that might actually work and save lives?
Jeffrey L. Minch
