Friday, August 9, 2019

Preventing El Paso

1) The President should tone down his demonization rhetoric.  Failure to do so is grounds for Impeachment, and one of the best.  It's proto-Fascism, which inspires vulnerable people to do terrible things.  In the fascist playbook, this eventually leads to some kind of response by the target, which becomes justification for all out Fascism.  We do not want to go through this playbook, it's bad all the way and leads to worse.

2) Gun Control Improvements.  Background Checks is a fine start.  Do we still have that Gun Show loophole?  That should be eliminated.  I like the idea of gun licensing.  Restrictions should especially apply to ammunition, which now is sold fairly free of oversight.

It's not clear that any of those things would have made a difference in this case.  The shooter was alienated, isolated, "radicalized", but in no legal way would he be ineligable for a gun license, if such a thing existed, and buy everything he did.  He was not "mentally ill" (our society, however, is mentally ill in a systemic sense, to be discussed later).  He was isolated, angry, and inspired by bigotry.

Guns and magazines capable of more than so many shots* without manual reloading should be restricted to various military, police, authorized state militia.  This, actually, might have been effective, though such things already exist in masse, can be sold by private parties easily if sometimes in violation of law.

(*I'm not an expert, but 6 sounds about right for the maximum.)

So, add to that mass seizure of such weapons already in general circulation.  Now we're getting somewhere.   I'm not holding my breath, but other countries have done this...for ordinary handguns.

NOW, what's an authorized state militia?  Well there are rules and regulations to be a member, including training and regular meetings.  Is that enough?  Could you have an authorized neo Nazi militia, and would that be ok?  I don't know how these things could be properly regulated, but it's worth trying IMO.

3) Gun Liability

Should Gun Companies be liable for illegal deaths?  Gun Sellers?

Along with your Gun License, should you also have Gun Insurance, and how is the coverage defined?

I believe these are very serious concepts, and suited to the seriousness of the issue we are discussing.

If gun insurance cost makes it virtually impossible for less than 25 year olds to buy larger amounts of ammo, or large cartridges, that might be a good thing.


4) Video Games

I have very mixed feelings about censoring Video Games.  Evidence of causality is limited in most cases.  Some age restrictions are appropriate.  This is getting dangerously close to restricting freedom of speech.


5) Social Media

Somehow, this is the current poor kid on the block that the bully always picks on.  Already, websites have been shut down.

Social media is speech and should be beyond restriction and carriers of such speech should not be liable for content.

People spouting off aren't killing people, unless they're simultaneously firing guns.

Censorship is another slippery slope to Fascism.


6) Mental Health

While no mass shooter is a "mentally healthy" individual as it happens, beforehand such an individual can seem fine enough to get a gun license, etc., in many cases, and pass whatever kind of mental health test you can devise that's reasonable.  That is what we have observed in most cases.

Meanwhile, most people with mental illness are possibly even less dangerous than the population at large.  They should not be stigmatized, and in many cases allowed to have gun licenses.  Only certain mental illnesses might qualify for restriction.

7) Drugs

I am not aware of drugs in this case and most others.  Recreational Drugs are unfairly criminalized, discriminated against, etc.  ALL this is essentially political.  If drug abuse were treated as illness to which people could get free voluntary treatment (funded by a tax on recreational drugs) it would be handled much better.

Drug prohibition has been terrible destructive and anti-social at every level, from Plan Columbia on down, a total disaster.  Noam Chomsky calls it the War on Poor People.

Without drug prohibition, we could have a much better society.  Rather than angry young men behind screens, we'd more marijuana and psychedelic "coffee houses" and the like, where people could positively intermingle under their chosen influences.

While at ending prohibitions, prohibitions on prostitution and the like should be eliminated, and replaced with sensible regulations.  This is another way our "angry young man" gets relief, and someone else makes a good (legal) living.


8) Social Health

I think pretty much everyone except a flak (including Trump) can agree we have a sick society.

But what constitutes healthiness and sickness is in vast dispute, so much that some ideas of utopia are another's idea of hell.

That may be part of the problem.

But obviously, we must provide more pro-social opportunities for people.   I've already suggested two ideas that are somewhat different than what one often hears.

I do believe, indeed, this is the thing.

But quite possible, even a healthy society would have reasonable gun restrictions outlined above, along with all the other great ideas I've suggested.  Capitalism limits the ultimate potential in ending prohibitions, but even with capitalism full spectrum of personal choice is preferable to none.

(Even with capitalism, however, pressure free Drug Clubs could be a step beyond Coffee Houses--whose incentive like bars is to sell you more intoxicants.  Likewise, Sex Clubs rather than Brothels.  I was surprised to find in Amsterdam, noted for liberalism, that dancing establishments had to be clubs...though one could often get a one night invitation just standing outside.  Requiring club membership for certain dangerous activities may be part of the best regulatory system.  And having the property not making money purely or if at all from selling drugs, sex, whatever, but rather from club membership and keeping its good name.)

In an unheathly society, we may need the gun restrictions even more.

The primary illness our society is suffering from is late stage imperial capitalism.

The prescription is full bore green socialism.






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