from Andy Craig for Congress:
Neither Democratic bans on guns nor Republican bans on border-crossings would have (or did) prevent what happened in San Bernardino. Partisans of both teams should be ashamed of themselves for not even waiting until the bodies are cold, much less the facts known, before jumping on this as an excuse to push their pre-existing political agenda.
The facts we do know, are that gun violence has plummeted over the past two decades. Not spiked, not increased— it’s down by well over 50%, over a time period when gun laws were greatly liberalized at both the state and federal level. You were a lot more likely to get shot in this country during Bill Clinton’s first term than you are today. Petulant guilt-tripping demands to “do something” are just empty grandstanding, when the basket of proposals being demanded (“assault weapon” bans, banning person-to-person sales, etc.) would do less than nothing to prevent any actual murders in the United States.
As for the authoritarianism coming from the other side of the aisle: immigrants and refugees are less likely, not more likely, than native-born Americans to commit violent crimes, including murder and terrorism. The Party of Lincoln has descended into outright, unapologetic collective-guilt bigotry. They are more interested in playing to the cheap-seats with white identity politics than dealing with any of the real issues facing America. Their demonization and scapegoating of Muslims, including Muslim Americans, is loathsome and disgusting. It is dangerous demagoguery of the worst sort, and I refuse to be part of any political party that says and does such things.
The only thing we can learn from this tragedy so far, is what was already clear: Republicans and Democrats alike are unfit to govern this nation. Removing them both from power, would save more lives than allowing either to pass a new law.
Very nice statement. Accurate and concise. Well done!
This was originally posted the day after, I had it drafted for an IPR post but had left it sitting in drafts until paulie just noticed it.