I will never, never get gun fanatics. People who are unmoved by 5 year olds shot in the face and killed.

The NRA and it's minions are evil and have a ton of blood on their hands. If per chance there is a Hell they are headed there.

I don't get them either. I don't get Alex Jones. And I won't ever try to get this kind of mentality. These are extremely sick individuals we are dealing with. They love their death toys and they have a very dangerous hobby.

how did they ever rise to prominence? There's millions of nut cases in the US, but who the hell put such people in front of a microphone?

They're the ones that should be tarred and feathered.

Where did it come from? Where did it start? Who started listening to it? When did advertising start on these programs? So many questions. This would make for a good Ted Talk.

Good Wiki on the guy- a big pro-lifer. Looks like he was one of the original shock-jocks.

(snip)
The Washington Post wrote about him, "Suppose a maniac got hold of a talk show. Or need we suppose?" David Letterman said, "I'm always amazed at what people will fall for. We see this every ten or twelve years, an attempt at this, and I guess from that standpoint I don't quite understand why everybody's falling over backwards over the guy."
(snip)
In the 1980s, Downey was a talk show host at KFBK-AM in Sacramento, California, where he employed his abrasive style. He was fired in 1984. He was replaced on KFBK by Rush Limbaugh, who has held the time slot ever since, later via his national syndication.

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The guy was so abrasive and insane on his shows, he got fired almost everywhere he worked.

America's thirst for sensationalism, bullshit and entertainment is killing us.

as is the republican party. Fuck 'em all.

were slaughtered.

The poet summed it up perfectly.

The first minute is dedicated to the idea that "we can't talk about gun control" after an incident. First, no one can stop a national conversation about gun control. Second, we did have a huge national conversation about gun control (led by Biden) and the biggest overhauls to federal gun control since 1968 were on the table. They didn't make it through the Senate, but it happened. He must have forgotten or not been paying attention.

A few years later in 2016, both Democrats and Republicans offered improvements to background checks and no-fly, no buy legislation after the Orlando massacre. Democrats voted against the Republican measures and Republicans voted against measures by the Democrats. The conversation happened, the bills happened, but Congress wouldn't cooperate.

These bills were the results of national conversations and legislative conversations. We are talking about guns and gun violence all the time. Bills are proposed. It's just that he doesn't like how the conversations end that is the problem. And that's his right, but I don't see how he can say we don't talk about gun violence and legislative responses.

The weird comparison of all Americans dead from combat in wars versus civilian homicides with guns sounds impressive at first until you think about the base rate of a 100s of millions of guns across 1/3 to 1/2 of the population.

He compares the US homicide/suicide rates to other developed countries, but we are a lot more like the BRIICS countries that have very diverse populations and histories of official and unofficial violence.

I don't feel terrorized by these mega-mass shootings. They are rare. Horrible and tragic but relatively rare. I know others are the way some people focus on crashed planes.

He says he's not trying to take away guns and yet hokey "Assault Weapons Bans" are on the lips of many gun controls. Weird that.

Most people are for universal background checks and that will come soon. Private gun sales were the deal that gun controllers made with the RKBA types in the 1960s. It is not surprising they are resistant to changing the deal. Universal background checks wouldn't have stopped most of the mega-mass shootings, but that's not important to a lot of gun controllers.

"Can't you hear the children scream" is an emotional ploy. Can he hear them?

Having said all that, no one wants these mega-mass shootings to happen or any unjustified shooting to happen. I hope we can work together to reduce the carnage without reducing the civil liberty protected by the 2nd.

For example, I support treating bump stocks as a special case for free NFA registration especially if this restriction is coupled with lifting the sporting clause for semi-auto imports.

Very complex issues with highly diverse views across the populace.