(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . It's the guns, stupid... [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-26 ...to paraphrase an old democratic meme. And speaking of democratic messaging, this is something we have GOT TO GET RIGHT, finally. Which is not to say Democrats haven’t tried, but which is to say, not hard enough. And don’t let the progressive bubble of this site lead you to believe this is something most democrats get or understand, or care enough to add to their platforms---civilians and politicians. They don’t, IMO. Consider these facts.--NO OTHER COUNTRY IN THE WORLD, suffers the amount of mass shootings we do---civilians on civilians. Not even close. -The United states has a population of 340 million AND over 400 million guns in the hands of our populace, or about 120% of guns to populace. -The second country with highest guns to populace is Yemen, (if you don’t count the Falkland Islands, which I don’t for obvious reasons) with half the amount of guns to populace in the United states, and still hardly a mass shooting. In Europe the amount of guns to populace is anywhere from about 20% to 30%. Mass shootings are rare there. Canada has about 35% the amount of guns to populace and again, mass shootings are rare there. And I could go on an on, but check out the stats for yourself. en.wikipedia.org/... Make no mistake about it, the United States wins this dastardly count, freaking hands down, in what seems to be an insane race to be the most exceptional we can be---in a repeating nightmare kind of way. -The right wing tells us that our absurd amount of mass shootings are about mental illness, video games, and your gramma’s wrongful pie recipe. Just kidding on the latter of course, but the right’s arguments make not a shred more sense than this. EVERY country in the world deals with their share of mental illness, video games, the gnarly thorns of progress, and all the other things the right says are the problem. But NONE of those countries, NONE, come ANYWHERE close to us for our sad winning record of civilians slaughtering civilians with guns. So, the X factor here is, HELLO, guns! And not just any guns, but specifically assault weapons, created to kill many in a minute. When is the last time you heard of a mass shooter using anything but an assault rifle? It’s almost darkly comical these days to imagine a mass shooter trying to pull off the extent of their evil, one trigger pull at a time. Who would ever think Charles Starkweather would end up looking quaint. No, these days our mass shooters are not snipers, but rather out loud and proud. They walk right into whatever place Americans are just living their lives, and let her rip. Over and over again, we go through this as a nation, like some kind of sick calisthentic. And that includes Democrats. What is the solution? Nothing easy. But imo, it starts with this: We start messaging with a vengeance, and we narrow our fight to a laser focus on banning assualt weapons. And we don’t give up between shootings. And certainly not in this next election year. Why are Democrats so scared to take on this fight? We once won this fight, then lost it and now what? I know this is a complex issue that will not be solved easily, but oh man, if ever there was the definition of insanity brought to life... or more correctly in this case, brought to death. [END] --- [1] Url: https://dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/26/2201906/--It-s-the-guns-stupid?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=latest_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/