sycasey said:
The far left should absolutely start coming out hard for a repeal of the Second Amendment, make it a real possibility that is on the table for Democrats (the politicians will move in the direction the base wants them to move). It's the only way to actually force conservatives to the negotiating table. Until now the status quo has been:
Liberals: "Ban some guns."
Conservatives: "Ban no guns and give out some more!"
There's no way to make any progress with that state of affairs. It means the "moderate" path is just "ban no guns," without the extra extreme nonsense about arming all teachers. The liberal stance should be: "Ban all guns." Then the "moderate" path will be "ban some guns" and maybe we can get somewhere.
So that's my stance: take away all the guns. As a populace, we have clearly abused the right to own them. Give me a reason to let you keep your guns.
Dems caving to radical leftists on guns and take an unpopular and unprecedented position will do absolutely nothing to motivate Reps towards "the negotiating table" and play right into the Reps and NRA's hands.
Should they take your advice, Dems will never win a presidency or have a majority in congress ever again, which will also lead to a SCOTUS dominated by justices many of you would view as the anti-christ, leaving Reps and the NRA celebrating Mad Men style, smoking cigars and laughing to each other about how they knew the Regressives would bury the establishment Left in their own graves one day.
No, someone who wants to abolish a constitutional amendment must give reasons. Taking guns away (majority law abiding and use for self-defense/recreation/hunting) and putting them only in the hands of the Law Enforcement that apparently hates blacks never struck me as logical. The only reason why Cops are useful on scene to neutralize danger is their ability to use a firearm, yet this good guy w/gun vs bad guy w/gun is lost upon this dystopian conversation where costs and benefits and variables aren't acknowledged, it's either all guns are axiomatically wrong or an unadulterated access to virtually all firearms is naturally and forever immersed in the concept of freedom. There's a reason why criminals don't hold up people or places that aren't known to be heavily armed. Banks should put all their cash reserves at a police station -- nobody will attempt to steal it without an army of militia men.
Reps are already paranoid about Liberal Dems banning guns. If that were the Dems ultimate goal, the best political approach to achieving that would be to shut up about it, focus on winning elections and gaining strongholds in both branches by championing ideas with mass appeal so you could have a shot at a constitutional amendment, and work towards some of the gun issues that
both constituencies agree on in the meantime. 16% of
Democrat households owns a firearm, and 36% of independents own a firearm.
But it's all moot, because it's political suicide.