Google the definition of terrorism and this is what you’ll see:
ter·ror·ism
ˈterəˌrizəm/
nounthe use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims.
Now consider a slightly more general purpose of terrorism, to instill fear in a population in such a way as to change their behavior to one that is desired. For foreign terrorists like ISIS, the goal is to instill fear and hatred of Muslims as well as undermine the stability of social systems of nations that it sees as its enemies. To fulfill their mission they need to have a majority of Muslims in the US and the rest of the world, polarized against Western society and stampeded into their arms to build their numbers and dreams of a global caliphate.
The ignorant right wingers in the GOP are only too happy to give ISIS what it wants, demonizing all Muslims in addition to Syrian refugees as all being potential terrorists who should be locked out of America and dozens of Republican led states, registered with the U.S. government (you see, Republicans think that dangerous things need to be registered…as long as they’re not guns) even if they are natural born citizens and even sent to internment camps. Republicans couldn’t be following the ISIS script more perfectly (as they did with the Al Qaeda script following 9/11…such fools), they are the perfect oblivious accomplices in empowering ISIS.
However, there is a well-aware accomplice to terrorism in this country that has intentionally empowered domestic terrorism and mass killings of innocent citizens in the U.S. with no evidence of guilt or conscience…the NRA.
The NRA is the biggest sponsor of terrorism in the U.S., they perfectly fit the Google description of terrorism, “The use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims.” This heinous political group operated by and for gun manufacturers (they ignore the desires of the majority of their members to support sensible gun control laws), has pursued and achieved a high level of violence and fear in this nation that has now become common.This year, there have been more mass killings using guns than days of the year, so it’s not just a daily occurrence now, it’s averaging out as more frequent than daily. In fact, with the focus on the San Bernadino mass murders, most people don’t know that another mass murder happened on the same day in Savannah, Georgia in which four people were shot, one of them killed.
The NRA agenda has been to proliferate not only gun ownership, but gun use. They have intentionally been putting guns in the reach of the violently hateful, mentally unstable and terrorists, to build an intense atmosphere of fear in this country. The idea behind NRA terrorism is to make the citizens of the U.S. so fearful about becoming the victim of gun violence and so defeated over trying to reduce it, that even those opposing gun proliferation will finally give into their fear and buy their guns to protect themselves from the growing threat.
Only around one third of Americans own guns and the insanely greedy gun manufacturers drool over the prospects of raising that percentage higher and higher. In fact, on Black Friday, a record number of guns were sold (mainly to those already obsessed with guns…only one third of Americans have guns but there are more guns owned than there are Americans)
To be clear, the NRA (not the members but the organization and the gun manufacturers who own and run it) actually want as many gun deaths as possible to occur. They lobbied for the loosening of gun restrictions and passage in many states of the infamous Stand Your Ground laws that have resulted in greater murders of innocent people. When there have been mass murders, the NRA has been quick to set up celebrations of “The Gun” in the very communities that have just had horrific massacres by murderers using guns. They did this in both the cases of Columbine and Sandy Hook. And let’s not forget their motto about more guns in the hands of more people being the only answer to stopping mass killings.The facts are black and white, the more guns that have been bought in this country, the more mass murders and killings there are. There is no logic or factual basis for their claim that pouring more gasoline on a fire will put it out.
The NRA celebrates mass murders happening more and more frequently…because that’s good for business.
In the aftermath of the Planned Parenthood murders and now the San Bernadino murders, there are once again calls for gun control laws by Democrats and concerned citizens. The NRA doesn’t pay all those juicy campaign contributions to politicians just to stand by at a time like this, they want what they pay for and they’re getting it. Almost universally, Republican politicians have responded to this worsening environment in a country awash in guns by once again, offering hollow “thoughts and prayers” and whipping up NRA-approved fears of Muslims trying to kill us all…so we all better go buy guns.
Of course, you won’t hear from the Republicans that we need to fear the extremists from the religious right who attack Planned Parenthood offices and shoot down innocent people there, the silence from the Right after that attack last Friday was deafening. But thank goodness, in their eyes, that they now have mass murderers who aren’t white and allow them to once again turn on their fear megaphones and broadcast fear at the highest volume to the American people.
Towards the end of the Bush Presidency, there was a lot of nostalgia for George W. and some in his administration who pined for the days just after 9/11 when “the country came together”. In other words, the days when Americans were gripped by fear and looked helplessly to their government to help take the fear away. What always happens when a population can be manipulated by fear is always a horrible outcome. Fear is never the basis for good decision making, usually it’s just the opposite because fear overrides reasoned thought.
If there’s one thing that the GOP and their owners, like the NRA, know well, it’s that the path to having greater power and wealth is to neutralize the reasoning and empowerment of the public, the more fearful citizens are from day to day, the more they can be controlled and manipulated.
Even with the Paris attacks, the GOP and NRA refuse to close loopholes in gun laws that allow terrorists, like those in Paris and very possibly in San Bernadino, to heavily arm themselves legally and mount similar and greater attacks on innocent people. Sorry if this is a bit redundant but I remain incredulous about this, the NRA and GOP support terrorists’ rights to buy as many weapons as they want to have to kill as many Americans as they can. Really? This is the stance of this wrongly self-labeled “patriot” party? Patriots want to protect the ability for domestic and foreign terrorists to buy assault weapons and murder scores of Americans? In the twisted insanity of the current GOP, that makes sense.
The NRA has built an infrastructure of murder and terror in this nation that is ideal and available for any foreign terrorist group to exploit. We’ve clearly seen how domestic terrorists and sociopaths have easily used it to further their own murderous desires so when one hears the fearful chest pounding of cowardly Republican politicians claiming they want to protect their citizens from 4 year old Syrian refugees, it is offensive in light of their championing of AK-47s in the hands of terrorists. Hey Repubs, shouldn’t we ban assault rifles for terrorists before 4 year old refugees if you really give a shit about protecting your citizens from being murdered?
The numerous guns and assault weapons in the possession of the San Bernadino murderers were purchased legally. If a terrorist who is on the U.S. Watch List, known as a possible threat, wants to buy multiple guns and rifles today for an attack tomorrow, he has the protection and blessing of the NRA and the GOP. Is it too much to say that those who intentionally help arm known terrorists are complicit in their murders?
In the span of less than 1 week, we have had multiple mass shootings, two by white Christian Americans and one by a Muslim American and his Pakistani-born wife. Though Republicans somehow gloss over mass shootings when it’s a white Christian, offering hollow calls for more care for those with mental illness (while opposing any spending to make that happen), there is only one common denominator between all of those who commit mass killings…the wide availability of guns designed to kill many people.
By the way, the murderers in San Bernadino had over 4,500 rounds of ammunition stockpiled. They could have had double or triple that if they had wanted. So if we’re looking for sensible gun control laws like outlawing assault weapons and limiting the size of clips, how about also having limits on the amount of ammo someone can possess? The right to bear arms may be protected but the right to buy ammo isn’t. And how about requiring registration for ammo to support limitations on it as well as make shooters have second thoughts about getting away with a shooting?Hunters and law abiding people would be unaffected by this (unless a wounded deer wants to sue them).
What law abiding citizen needs 4,500 rounds of ammo in their house? Sure, the paranoid gun nuts who somehow think they can defeat the U.S. military’s tanks, gunships and drones in the takeover they’re sure is coming, may want them but they don’t need them. And adding onto guns the ability to “fingerprint” the bullets they shoot would help reduce shootings, the technology exists but gun manufacturers don’t want to employ it, perhaps because it may make shootings decline along with the fear motivation to buy a gun.
We are living in the NRA’s version of the ideal America, where mass murders are daily events. People shoot innocent people on the street because laws like Stand Your Ground protect them from prosecution. Gangs have all the guns they need to wage war between themselves within our cities. And terrorists and extremists can easily buy military grade weapons, guns that have no real hunting or self-protection purpose, guns that have a primary purpose of killing many people quickly.
As others have said, we can’t accept this growing gun violence and mass murder as just “the way things are”. It is not, this worsening gun-obsessed culture we’re surrounded by has been designed and promoted by the obscenely immoral gun manufacturing lobby called the NRA. Like the Tea Party, they have an outsized influence for their size (they only had $3 million to spend in the last election) so if enough citizens come together, with Democratic politicians who have the guts to stand up to the NRA, this culture can be fought and overcome. We’ve had some success here in California, some other states like Colorado and New York have too but we need national laws to prevent people hopping over to a neighboring state and coming back with all the weapons and ammo they wanted.
With such formidable opponents, this won’t be an easy or quick effort but standing by as our country descends into more frequent mass murders and killings just isn’t an option.
I watched President Obama’s town hall on guns on CNN last night…Thursday, Jan 7 at 8pm…the very same time that MSNBC was playing the Trump fiasco in Vermont. Hmmmm. One has to give him or his people a lot of credit to be able to upstage the President’s very important town hall. I wonder if a poll was done to see who watched what.
However, what I wanted to say is that the President gave an excellent showing, answering questions and clarifying issues on his executive actions. And yet…and. yet. the conservatives still attacked everything he said, ignoring his explanations about how these actions would not do away with the 2nd amendment, or interfere with one’s ability to purchase a gun for protection. That they were a modest start to hopefully lowering gun violence and saving lives.
Watching the Republicans on the panel afterwards was unbelievable. E.C Cup or whatever her name is, a former detective, and some other guy denigrated and attacked the President and his efforts to curb gun violence as being a personal
vendetta…a conspiracy to destroy the 2nd amendment and take away all guns!
It doesn’t matter what the President says, that is clear. They say he is lying. I find it sad that these people have so much hate for him that they are deaf and blind to the truth. And, that they have so much power.
God help us all if Trump wins the Presidency. And I say that as a Canadian.
The GOP today are like lemmings, all following the leaders of hatred and madness to sail over the cliff of reality. They hate everybody but themselves, which puts them in a small minority, despite the enormous coverage given to that jack-booted Nazi who calls himself Trump. He won’t win, not if everybody votes. But people should think about what would happen to this country if Trump did get elected. Does anybody still remember what it was like when Dubya became president, by Supreme Court decree? Trump getting elected would be far worse, far uglier. Sometimes it seems like Trump is doing performance art, like there’s no way he could be serious. But the GOP mob is buying it wholesale.
Don’t forget, they voted for Dubya. Twice.
As always, you make enormous sense of another senseless mass murder. As a European, never having witnessed a shooting, I don’t feel qualified to say much about this continuing gun violence in America, but am disturbed about the lack of action from Congress on gun control legislation and their enabling of and profiteering from the NRA.
As you say, any Tom, Dick, Harry and terrorist can legally purchase guns and endless supplies of ammunition. Gobsmacking reality.
Read this article in the New Yorker and wanted to share it here.
Great piece, AdLib!
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“Our Shared Blame for the Shooting in San Bernardino”
http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/our-shared-blame-for-the-shooting-in-san-bernardino
Very well said AdLib. It has become so common, gun violence, that sometimes I almost forget what country we are living in when I begin to say how senseless it “has become.” Actually, it hasn’t become senseless, it has been senseless since the 1400’s. No, there was no NRA then, but I’m sure there were groups that were just as hateful.
I stop and think every time we have a mass shooting in this nation back to what life must have been like for the indigenous peoples of Hispaniola as the Europeans with their GUNS were committing genocide against them. I then begin to move along to the Slave Trade those same people began in Africa and then bought to this hemisphere people they enslaved using of course again, their GUNS. My mind is led to the Native Americans of North and South America and again, I have to think of the fact that those same people with their GUNS committed genocide against them.
I guess, this nation has had blood on its hands sense inception. Guns the weapon of choice. I suppose we forget that those who “founded this nation” used their GUNS to revolt against the British. So then I begin to say to myself, maybe this is cultural tradition, inherited by some, perpetrated on others so that a few can continue to rape rob and pillage throughout this nation and the world.
Live by the gun? Well, according to an old saying, if you live by the gun, you will die by the gun. I believe that old saying is true. And, I believe it is true for any country or culture that does so. If members of ISIS, AlQaeda, Boko Haram, the Israeli Army, The United States Army, and others continue to live by the gun, the outcome is inevitable.
Yes, I included the U.S. Israel, and could include many other nations that are at this very moment bombing the hell out of Syria, Iraq, and other nations, nations full of innocent people that are innocently dying by the gun. Yes, we get upset when it is our friends, our neighbors, our fellow citizens, citizens of our NATO allies, but not so much when it’s our “enemies.”
The NRA does a good job of defining the enemy here in this nation. I can just see them along with many of our republican politicians and also some democrats in a secret location discussing the fact that in this nation there is much to fear. First there are too many different cultures that the dominant culture has, for lack of better words, completely defecated upon throughout the existence of this nation. Better have your guns in case they ever decide to rise up. Then, there are those who would attack economic establishments “Occupy vs. Wallstreet,” better continue to allow them to have guns. Why in that last instance? Well just think about it. What would it look like if we were a gun free society and only the police and the military had weapons and we, the citizens unarmed as we are anyway when it comes to those protesting against the powers that be are gunned down in the streets by those same powers. Imagine their not having the ability to say, well we were afraid and were not certain if an armed insurrection was about to take place, that old FEAR excuse again.
Then, there are those who actually see what the government does, and is doing, and are afraid that if they don’t have a GUN, they, the government is going to unleash that terrible terroristic power on us, the lowly citizen who only wants to live in a racist apartheid society where some are declared winners and others are losers/second class/deviants that really don’t belong here etc. What a crazy country we live in, and now with this development in San Bernardino, it appears we have been joined by those who have determined they will fight back in the same manner in which we are fighting against them. Live by the Gun? Die by the Gun. The choice is ours, and it appears having thrown diplomacy out the window, we have chosen to do both of the aforementioned “Live and Die by the gun.”
So whether it is 355 mass shootings in 330 something days, and whether those shootings are perpetrated by radical Muslims, radical Christians, white supremacist, crazed lone gunmen, baby killers, or whatever, we have to stop and think, WHERE DID THOSE THAT ARE COMMITTING THESE CRIMES LEARN THIS. Then we have to ask ourselves, why have we continued to allow the greedy to brainwash entire segments of the population with their “join the club” become a member of the NRA, own all the weapons you want, for hunting, for target practice, for self defense, for mass murder, for gang violence, or whatever you want, as a member, we got your back. We own the politicians who write the laws, as a matter of fact, we actually tell them what to write, so have at it, they won’t do anything to stop you. Just keep paying your dues, continue to protest for us when democrats try to rewrite the laws, keep the manufacturers happy by buying as many guns as you can, and oh yes, by all means, have an extra gun in case life gets a bit difficult and you need to find an exit button….guns are good for that too, you can even use them on yourself.
Yes AdLib, the NRA has blood on its hands, but so does the politicians who continue to enable them and the leaders of government who continue to deal with everything as if it is a hammer and everything else is a nail. It’s time for us to look at the big picture, we need to lock down the NRA, the Pentagon, and those that continue to empower them. This is of course my opinion. Great article!
By the way, an interesting article you might like reading:
“A new bill in Missouri, House Bill 1397, seeks to apply the same restrictions the state’s legislature has placed upon women seeking to get an abortion on anyone seeking to purchase a gun. The state of Missouri has some of the strictest requirements on abortion in the United States, including a 72-hour waiting period as well as mandatory counselling directed by the state itself.”
http://www.inquisitr.com/2609641/house-bill-seeks-to-apply-abortion-restrictions-to-gun-purchases/
AdLib, I hope you won’t mind (and I think you won’t) that I shared the link to this article with a guy who is a former Chair of his county’s Democratic Party in North Carolina and an ardent anti-NRA activist. (Has been for a while.) He has nearly 5000 followers on FB and is still very active in NC politics.
The more exposure this article (and the Planet) gets on this issue, the better. And this is so logical and very well written. Thanks again for getting facts out there in a style that’s rational and readable!
Kes, thanks so much, very appreciated and flattering!
When one wipes away the obvious propaganda from the issue, it is pretty black and white. There is no legitimate argument for all Americans to be able to buy assault weapons and huge clips of ammo as well as an unlimited stockpile of ammo. All of that is intended for only one thing, mass killings. That is not what the 2nd Amendment expresses to any sane person, otherwise, if mass-killing weaponry is covered by the 2nd Amendment, we should all have the right to own drones that fire missiles, grenade launchers, flame throwers, tanks and attack helicopters and even dirty bombs.
I think the way to approach this argument is to point out that even those who are the most vociferous about the 2nd Amendment agree that there are limitations (hard to believe that even the looniest gun nuts would think that everyone in the country is entitled to own a nuke) and so the issue isn’t IF there should be restrictions but where that line should be drawn.
As we sane folks know, there are always limitations to Constitutional rights (like for the 1st Amendment, not being able to yell “Fire!” in a crowded theater, libel and slander, inciting a riot, etc.) so the argument needs to shift to where the limitation should be.
Gun owners can be assured that they will always have a right to their guns…just not guns intended solely for the mass killing of human beings. That is not unreasonable. So again, my initial proposals would be:
1. Ban assault weapons and any other guns that are built to kill masses of people.
2. Limit the clip sizes on all guns.
3. Limit the amount of ammo people can purchase and store and require registration for ammo purchases.
4. Require gun manufacturers to add the existing technology to their guns that both tags bullets with the gun’s ID and requires a fingerprint reader to fire (imagine how many accidental shootings by kids and others and those who steal guns would be prevented).
5. Remove the anti-liability laws that protect the gun industry and dealers from liability when their negligence results in the deaths of innocent people.
I know the NRA-owned Repubs will block all gun control laws but since 90% of Americans believe in better gun control laws, pounding on this could help Dems eventually retake both houses (after a hopefully corrective 2020 election) and be able to put already seasoned legislation through swiftly.
The big problem, and it’s a biggie, is that there are reportedly over 200 million guns already in circulation or possession, here in the US.
What do we do about all of these weapons that have already been sold, borrowed, stolen or presented?
I think your ideas about purchasing and owning ammunition is a very good one, but then, there is always the internet where people can buy huge amounts of ammo, with almost no questions asked.
But it is safe to say that a gun isn’t of much use without ammo.
Ad, I would add that all guns aquired from criminals be destroyed instead of sold at auction. That would be some fewer guns in circulation.
It seems that police department would like to destroy these weapons…said one police chief I saw on tv the other day when they were discussing crime in Chicago, but, the money they earn from sales, fills the need to buy more resources for crime fighting. Are police departments that poorly funded? This particular chief kept the weapons in storage, but he said most departments don’t have space enough to do so.
We certainly seem to be rapidly reaching a boiling point. I like the idea of having to register before buying ammo and to limit the amount of ammo one can purchase.
I would go a step further and outlaw all civilian purchase and possession of military style weapons, and semi-auto handguns. If people want to own guns, they should be limited to revolvers, bolt action rifles and shotguns with limited magazine capacity. Hunters and home defenders seemed to find these guns quite adequate before the introduction of semi-auto weapons.
This won’t put an end to mass shootings, but it sure would lower the body count, by quite a bit.
As far as the RW goes, their reactions to both recent shooting sprees has been exactly as expected. They may not know much about humanity in general, but they sure realize the power of fear.
KT, I think that the NRA has set up the perfect weaponized society so all that Christian/Muslim/Racist/etc. extremists have to do is decide that they want to do a mass murder and they can do so.
Combine that with a concerted effort by ISIS to derange people and things get terrible very fast.
I would support your proposed restrictions on all military type weapons though the Tea Party wackos would go nuclear. I don’t know why anyone really needs a semi-auto gun. If anything, all these mass murders prove that the “good guy with a gun” BS is just that. There was a good guy with a gun in San Bernadino and he smartly took cover against two lunatics firing assault weapons. So more people carrying guns will only end up with more accidental shootings and more rage or fear based shootings of innocent people.
Oh yeah, that’s all the Repubs have now, fear and hatred. Scare as many people as they can that the evil Muslims are coming for them and they need to buy guns to protect themselves and know that racist hatred of all Muslims (like hatred of Latinos, African Americans, etc.) is not just a must but it is what any patriotic American should feel.
Oh, the teabillies would throw royal tantrums. I know that we won’t ever get rid of all semi-autos, but it would be great if we could.
Hunters could still hunt and homeowners could still defend their homes. But, common sense these days seems to be in short supply.
Just one thing I would add KT. I believe we should make gun owners insure their weapons just as we insure our cars. I think we should also require testing upon registration renewal and liability and accountability for stolen weapons that are not reported if those weapons are used to commit a crime. In other words, more responsibility on those who own guns. And also too, I believe ammo should be limited as to what kind can be purchased and how much can be purchased by an owner of a weapon who would have to show license and registration when purchasing ammo. I believe that ammo should be traceable, and the gun owner should be held accountable if their ammo is stolen or used to commit a crime if it is stolen then it should be reported, if not reported, the owner should be held accountable just as any other accomplice would be.
Good ideas,all Monica. And the RW pretends there is no solution…..oh, except more guns, of course.
Monica, those ideas are excellent! I like the insurence part a lot. Ammo that is traceable is also good.
How about destroying guns that the police get from crimes investigated? Instead of selling them at auction. Also a photo Id to buy a gun and ammo. Every time they buy ammo they would be IDed.
Excellent additions Nirek. Especially destroying guns that the police confiscate after a crime has been committed. Those weapons should not go back on the market IMHO.