WASHINGTON — Sen. Angus King of Maine was introducing a gun control bill Thursday that he said would regulate the sale, transfer, and manufacture of gas-operated semi-automatic weapons.
King, an Independent, and Democratic Sen. Martin Heinrich, of New Mexico, were introducing the bill together, called the Gas-Operated Semi-Automatic Firearms Exclusion (GOSAFE) Act.
Goddammit, this isn’t going to go anywhere and it’s just going to rile up the anti-gun control crowd.
This is called wasting political capital, and both parties need to learn that term.
As a liberal gun nut, this shit pisses me off. Performative legislation that is certain to be struck down and which takes away from solutions that might help.
And excepting the recent lunatic, does Maine have a gun problem?! I would guess NO.
Accidents and suicides are the problem in Maine, setting aside the recent event.
“Accidents” are often failed suicides and suicides are half the problem. Gods I wish I could think of a workable answer.
suicides are half the problem
The majority of firearm-related deaths are suicides.
In fairness, that asshat was responsible for the SECOND mass shooting in that tiny little town:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Bowdoin–Yarmouth_shootings
Sooner we get to comprehensive health reform and registering firearms like personal cars the better imo, but lemmy isn’t ready for that conversation.
Meh… I’m not ready for registration, and maybe I’ll be proven wrong someday.
Imagine you’re Shalafi. 40+ guns of all sorts and surrounded by half-and-half liberal and conservative neighbors. Everyone knows you’re armed to the teeth. Only have 2 out the safe, and many are in pieces, or aren’t really “guns” (black powder/pellet/BB). But still, you’re an armed liberal.
Some of your neighbors are dear friends, some merely acquaintances, some actively hate your guts. (Never fuck the girl next door guys, just don’t.)
Given the current political climate, how much you willing to bet some of these boys won’t become Brown Shirts in 2024? Maybe come around with a list? A government list you’re on for owning $X. Maybe they’re just “checking” on folks like you, “for your own protection”? It’s the Deep South, so they feel safe going door to door. The black folks on the street are willing to talk to the man flying a Trump 2024 flag, be neighborly. How much resistance they expect?
You loathe being in this state of mind. You’re disgusted your America has come to this. Revolted that the American flag has become a virtue signal for fascists.
But you see where the paranoid conservatives have been coming from regarding registration. All good until the opposition takes the reins. And this time the opposition ain’t trying to merely ban AR-15s. They’ve declared you to be “vermin”, an “internal enemy”, one that must be wiped out. They wish to ban your very life.
You’ll just have to imagine you’re Shalafi.
It’s written such that it does nothing but cause fear. This is essentially a blanket ban, with some exceptions, on every rifle designed in the last 100 years since it explicitly bans guns that dont have permanently fixed magazines, and it doesn’t get smarter from there. This bill is basically a campaign add against democratics.
If Democrats would pull their heads out their asses and cut it out with the ineffective gun laws, just imagine the single-issue voters they would pull.
2008, D.C. vs Heller - Supreme court already ruled that you can’t ban an entire class of guns.
https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/554/570 “1. The Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home. Pp. 2–53.”
…
“The District’s total ban on handgun possession in the home amounts to a prohibition on an entire class of “arms” that Americans overwhelmingly choose for the lawful purpose of self-defense. Under any of the standards of scrutiny the Court has applied to enumerated constitutional rights, this prohibition—in the place where the importance of the lawful defense of self, family, and property is most acute—would fail constitutional muster. Similarly, the requirement that any lawful firearm in the home be disassembled or bound by a trigger lock makes it impossible for citizens to use arms for the core lawful purpose of self-defense and is hence unconstitutional.”
There are some slow learners in the legislature.
And they won’t until the bans in California, Oregon, and Washington hit the Supreme Court and get struck down after years of legal work and millions of taxpayer dollars.
So whiny people are arguing against sensible restrictions. Shocking.
This seems reasonable,and narrowly targeted. Haven’t always agreed with Senator King, but this isn’t about alliances and politics.
Tbh let’s just ban them all and be done with it. Let the civil war start sooner, so it can end sooner. Just typical election cycle bullshit imho.
Can’t ban them all without an amendment, and George Santos shows what it takes to get 290+ congress critters to agree on something.
Yeah cause banning drugs stopped the opiod epidemic
I’d like to introduce you to intentional hyperbole.
