Brevity is the soul of wit.

He said, "forget about gun control, how about bullet control? What if a bullet was 5000 dollars?"

It was quite funny, and very true.

a 'tax' on ammo might not be a bad idea.

The bit was funny.

Nt

Let's also take one of Chris Rock's other suggestions very much to heart as well - TAX THE FUCK OUT OF AMMUNITION! Make it prohibitively expensive to fire a weapon. There is nothing at all in the Constitution that says we are the right to cheap and plentiful ammunition. Regulate both gun sales AND ammunition distribution...why is it that we can have laws that govern how much fucking cold medication I can buy in a given time period, but some ridiculously paranoid gun nut can stock pile enough rounds to kill dozens of people at a time??? Why can I be told

A gun with no available bullets for a kill happy rampage is a blunt object.
Last time I checked, no one had ever stormed a grade school and killed 20 kids and 6 adults with a hammer...or entered a movie theater and bludgeoned the patrons to death in large numbers

You want to own a gun?
FINE, but with sensible restrictions on the type and magazine capacity.

You want to shoot it at a gun club where ammo must be purchased and discharged before exiting the premises?
FINE, but with the caveat that the bullets are not allowed outside of the gun club without severe penalty. Stockpiling ammunition in private residences is NOT something that should be allowed legally...

You want to hunt and use a rifle or shotgun?
FINE...but its gonna cost you a whole lot of money, training and licensing to maintain the weapon and you assume 100% liability for damages that may be caused by the weapon while you are its owner.

But, if you get caught with unlicensed ammunition and a firearm, you permanently lose your right to carry.
If you do it again, you go to jail.
If you do it AGAIN after that, then that's a discussion we would need to have regarding success of "3-strikes-and-you're-out"...

As for the argument of whether or not "only criminals would have guns and ammo if you did this", then SO BE IT! That's why we have police....to protect and serve, to keep the peace, to maintain order, to arrest criminals.
We do not have a vigilante force or the posses of the old West to enforce the law. If you advocate for gun rights on the sole basis of shooting criminals, then I sincerely hope you also advocate for anarchy and an abolishing of the police state as well...

That's why we have courts....to adjudicate the law, to enforce compliance beyond just upholding contracts or debts!

That's why we have allowed the government to implement the draconian measures in airports that have us all removing our shoes and using clear baggies to transport hygiene products like mouthwash or shampoo....to, I guess, prevent any 75 year old grandfathers.

And as for the ludicrous idea that your guns are going to protect you against the government, well I don't think any individual stands a chance against a SEAL team or Green Berets or Army Rangers or Delta Force. And even if you DID manage to somehow beat the most intensely training special operations forces in the world, you STILL would not be able to beat a tank or a bunker busting bomb or a simple siege. These nut cases over-estimate their chances wildly, the same way they over-estimate the safety of their guns or their own safety measures to secure their guns.

Beyond those measures, we need a serious re-evaluation of what we do as a society to treat mental illnesses and disorders. There are people who are too dangerous to be free among us. There are parents and schools, siblings and neighbors who are at risk because they do not even know what is wrong, let alone how to treat, improve or control it. Professionals, trained in how to deal with this are needed. It is only through their intervention that such patients can be permanently assisted to humane lives.

We also have a culture that is over-run with death worship. Whether its grisly television and movies or videogames or military invasions and destruction. We sell guns and bullets and restrict access to medicines and doctors. We over pay arms dealers and weapons manufacturers at the same time we under pay teachers, firemen and police. We get what we pay for...

Instead of a world where the heroism and selflessness of the dead teachers and administrators is the ideal, we worship "reality TV" stars like the brain dead idiots of Jersey Shore or Honey Bob-boo...we say its a harmless, guilty pleasure, but its MORE. It coarsens us as a society. It allows the exploitation of human misery to fuel our "entertainment". It makes us more able to raise children who can be exposed to dehumanizing behavior on TV from the cradle to an all too early grave.

I'm adding it to my ideas thread.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022008662

I read some post somewhere where a gun-apologist was going on about how a gun is just a tool.

He's right too! But guns aren't like a kitchen appliance. Guns aren't a screwdriver or an electric drill. But they are a tool.

And Adam Lanza used the tools he had correctly. His tool did its job efficiently. He used it for the job it was designed to do.

Great to have you here - we need you! It's a rather amazing time we're going through at the moment. NEVER did I expect that by now we'd all be sinking our teeth into the gun issue - with the wind at OUR backs for a change. NEVER.

We've been at this for years, meeting nothing but resistance. Our positions were always doomed to be non-starters. Until now. Now, I think we might actually have a chance to get something done. Circumstances of late actually have put the standard group of adversaries with their standard group of talking points - on the run. The NRA is silent, the usual suspects and pro-gun apologists are on defense, treading carefully, measuring their words, and trying to avoid stirring things up, when they show their faces and/or dare to speak up at all. Some of them are even changing their minds, or backing off their rigid refusal to give an inch. And those of us on the other side - are on offense for a change, forging ahead with boldness, and with public opinion finally tilting OUR way. The momentum is with OUR side for a change, instead of it being our side that has to tread carefully and pick our words gingerly and back off some of the positions we really believe in, because we know we won't get anywhere in advancing them.

AND we have a President who's just made it clear, he's throwing the power of his office behind this, too, because he also says enough is enough. I never thought I'd hear a presidential speech dealing so directly with this, and in the way I'd personally want that direction to go. Never thought I'd hear such a thing. Trying to speak about gun controls and tightening restrictions on access and ownership - it was always a non-starter. It was always dead on arrival, stopped cold before it could even get started. Wouldn't even get close to having a fair hearing. More often than not, we wondered to ourselves - why even bother bringing it up? We knew our efforts were born futile, and that we were on the losing end before we even began.

Now, not so much! Whooda thunkit?

The sad part is, though, it took the gun massacre of 20 INNOCENT CHILDREN and several of their teachers for us to get to this point.