General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsLast February, Trump signed a bill making it easier for people with mental illness to buy guns
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/2/15/17016036/trump-guns-mental-illness
It did not attract a ton of attention at the time (nothing does these days) but about a year ago on February 28, 2017, Congress passed and Donald Trump signed a law revoking an Obama-era regulatory initiative that made it harder for people with mental illness to buy a gun.
Yet despite this effort to roll back even a very modest effort to restrain the ability of seriously incapacitated people from obtaining deadly weapons, this morning Trump tweeted that there were so many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, implying that someone should have done something to report him.
But its Trumps party and Trump himself who have consistently prevented the federal government from doing anything about this kind of situation. The Obama-era gun regulation wouldnt have had a massive impact on gun violence in the US since its estimated that it would only affect about 75,000 people. And disability rights groups had their own objections to the bill so some liberal groups, including the ACLU, joined with the National Rifle Association in urging Trump to reverse it.
But anything that makes it easier to obtain a gun, the research suggests, will likely worsen gun violence. After all, America already has some of the weakest gun laws in the developed world and repealing a rule that made it a little tougher for some people to buy a gun likely makes that worse.
handmade34
(22,756 posts)and now....
eppur_se_muova
(36,270 posts)So ... if he thinks mental illness is responsible for mass shootings, why did he sign the bill ? The ONLY possible RATIONAL conslusion is that he WANTS guns in the hands of mentally ill people SO THAT there can be MORE shootings.
(I'm not saying I agree with his claim of mental illness as being the problem. But if I accept his claim -- as he certainly does -- then following the argument to its inevitable conclusion identifies MORE MASS KILLINGS as a deliberate goal of the current resident of the White House. If that weren't his intention, he wouldn't have signed the bill. No rational person would have.)
((Of course, an alternative interpretation is that he is not a rational person, in which case he must be removed from office immediately.))