I wanted to comment on a few things I observed and make a few points.
1. The shooting and the weapons: The shooter used a handgun and a Sig Sauer MCX assault weapon. (not an AR-15 as was originally reported). Semiautomatic assault weapons like the AR-15, and similar weapons made by Kalashnikov and Sig Sauer are lightweight, accurate, and, simply put, are weapons of war specifically designed to maim a lot of people in a short period of time. They were banned from 1994-2004. The ban expired because of lack of action by Congress. Since then, assault weapons have been responsible for scores of civilian killings, including last week's shooting in Orlando, and the massacre in Sandy Hook Elementary a few years ago in which 20 first graders were murdered. There is no reason these assault weapons should be legal and available to civilians.
2. Like the Sith, the NRA and the gun lobby only deal in absolutes. All the NRA and Trump (until recently) have been saying is that Obama and Hillary want to repeal the Second Amendment, and Obama and Hillary want to take our guns. Dead wrong on both counts. First of all, an amendment has only been repealed once. In order to repeal an amendment, you need to create another amendment declaring the previous amendment null and void, which requires a 2/3 vote of Congress, and ratification by 38 of the 50 state legislatures. In other words, this is nearly impossible. Although the Constitution has been amended 27 times (the first ten amendments were passed together as the Bill of Rights), only one amendment repealed a previous amendment. Also, President Obama and Hillary Clinton do believe in people's rights to own a gun for protection, and they won't be knocking on doors any time soon. What they want to do is pass some common sense reforms to make sure guns don't get into the wrong hands, and prevent more mass shootings from taking place. If someone can't get on a plane, they shouldn't be able to own a gun. If someone is suspected of being a terrorist, they shouldn't be able to own a gun. Assault weapons are weapons of war, and shouldn't be owned by civilians. However, the NRA and the gun lobby see any restriction, no matter how minor, as a violation of the Second Amendment and the Constitution, and they are a radical organization that refuses to compromise on anything. I am not going to get into the historical context of the Second Amendment, but George Takei made a great point that none of our rights under the Constitution are absolute. Even the First Amendment, which, as far as I am concerned, grants us the most important rights we have as Americans of free speech and expression, is not absolute. For example, you can't yell "Fire" an a crowded movie theater. You can't make threats. You can't give a speech that incites someone to commit a crime. These are reasonable restrictions, because in these examples, you are infringing on the rights of others. Similarly, the Second Amendment should not be absolute, and I think some reasonable restrictions are appropriate and necessary, and are not, as the NRA says, trampling on our fundamental rights as Americans.
3. Donald Trump could not possibly have done a worse job addressing this shooting. Trump's reaction to this tragedy only further underscores how this egotistical, mean-spirited person is unfit to be president. The role of the president after a tragedy like this is to become the consoler-in-chief, bring the country together, and help everyone get through this. President Obama and Hillary Clinton did exactly that. Trump, on the other hand, because the shooter happened to be Muslim, used the deaths of 49 people to further his political agenda, and reaffirm the preposterous argument that we should block Muslims from entering the U.S. First of all, this wouldn't help, because the shooter was born in New York City. Secondly, he was stressing that this person was an Islamic radical. None of Trump's base believes this, but it was determined that this person acted on his own, and became radicalized through Islamic propaganda on the Internet. My personal take is radical Islam may have been part of it, or only just an excuse to carry out this act, but the bottom line is this was a deranged man, and he committed this horrific act because he was a self-loathing homosexual, and killing 49 people was the best way to take out his frustrations (here is an interesting and depressing article on the shooter's background). Banning Muslims and deporting illegal immigrants will not stop mass shootings from happening, nor will it stop acts of terrorism on U.S. soil. Of course, what Trump says, no matter how outrageous, he will still retain the support of his base which consists of white supremacists, racists, Islamophobes, assholes, people who think Obama should be impeached for god knows what even though he has fewer than 8 months in office, idiot "birthers" who think Obama wasn't born in this country (who should have been paying attention to Ted Cruz's upbringing), people who think Hillary should be arrested, and even some well-meaning people who are fed up with politics as usual and want to see a change (Trust me folks, this is not the change you want). This latest blunder has turned a lot of independents and even some Republicans against him, but November is still a long way away, many people still consider Hillary Clinton to be a weak candidate, and it would be in the best interest of Americans to continue to do anything in their power to make sure Trump does not become president.
4. We are finally seeing some movement in Congress on the gun issue. Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut (home of the Sandy Hook massacre), decided to launch a filibuster, and halt any Senate activity until they agreed to vote on gun control. Nearly 15 hours later, they agreed to vote on Monday (6/20) on banning people on the no-fly list and terror watch list from purchasing a gun. These measures will likely fail (update: they all failed), but at least some discussion is being generated. Even some Republican senators, like Pennsylvania's own Pat Toomey, are willing to cross the aisle and vote for certain proposals, like the compromise currently being authored by Republican Senator Susan Collins. Even Trump expressed a desire to talk to the NRA, who are endorsing him, and tell them that he doesn't agree with all of their positions. First of all, unlike that colossal douchebag Ted Cruz, Sen. Murphy filibustered for the good of the country, and not to make himself look good. Sen. Murphy is a young, idealistic politician, and he needs to move up the ranks and become one of the leaders in the Senate, and phase out wastes of space like Harry Reid, who has been in the Senate since the Reagan Administration, and has done exactly squat to help Obama. Maybe, if he proves himself and gets his name out there, he, along with some other young, ambitions politicians like Republican Ben Sasse, could even run for president in 2024. (Or 2020, if Trump wins and the world doesn't end). The sit-in by members of the House also shows how fed up some of our lawmakers are with the complete lack of action on gun control.
5. What happens next? As I said earlier, the proposals up for vote Monday will likely fail. More mass shootings will happen, and the cycle will start all over again. It is up to the American people at the ballot box if they want anything to happen. They need to know which politicians are in the NRA's pocket and either vote them out, or prevent them from getting voted in. The vote on Monday will be very telling as to who stands where. This would mean voting out some longtime representatives and senators like Tom Coburn (Oklahoma) and Pennsylvania's own Jim Gerlach, who are in the pocket of the NRA bigwigs. That is the only way to stop the NRA and the gun lobby. Also, lobbying groups on the other side of the issue, like Everytown for Gun Safety, are beginning to galvanize people and gain power. The majority of Americans want stricter gun control, and we need to elect officials that share our views, and refuse to be bullied by the NRA.
