Australians have the simple answers to American mental gridlock over gun management

[UTUSN]

I haven't seen Meet the Press for a decade+ but just saw a clip of guest former (prime minister?) saying that after a gun massacre in the '90s, Australia enacted a prohibition on the assault type (am sure I'll be corrected), a 28 day waiting period on buying others, and a buy-back program removing a humongous number of guns. He also said, "You can CHANGE the law." And that there have been zero of the massacres the U.S. has been having all these years.

Then this Australian comedian popped into my machine, "shooting down" (so to speak) all the arguments that American gun nuts and NRA use here to fuel the gun mania.

*****PARAPHRASE, from bad memory (the dude is much more cogent and hilarious) : ***

(American gun nuts say: ) "You can't change the Second Amendment!1" - Yes you can, it's an *AMENDMENT*! If you don't know what that is, you don't need a constitution, you need a *THESAURUS*!

They say, "We need them for hunting." Australia is a rural country. We have more dangerous wild animals (and we don't need all that hunting).

(Gun nuts) argue the way slave owners could have done: "You can't take away my slaves - I take care of them, just because that other guy mistreats them why should you take MINE away?!1"

(Gun nuts) say, "I need them for my family's SECURITY!" - No, you don't, if you didn't leave the window open they wouldn't get in. They say, "I keep my guns safely LOCKED UP!" Then what do you need them for?

They say, "It's THE CONSTITUTION!" - We have a constitution in Australia. I don't know what it says. If something goes wrong, we'll check out what it says. Since things are going all right, just let it be.

You don't have reasons for all the gun mania, other than you JUST *LIKE* GUNS.

*************CLOSE PARAPHRASE***********

[Walleye]

1. There's no doubt now. They want the guns to overthrow the United States government

They make no bones about it. So the question is, does the constitution have an amendment to facilitate its own destruction?

[UTUSN]

2. Yip. And speaking of the Constitution,

with all the things wrong with the Constitution (Electoral College, built-in government gridlock, states’ rights, and MUCH more), the biggest thing wrong is starting to be taking shape: The American superstition that it is written by God. That it is just what W. Shrub said, that “it’s just a piece of paper” used to be unthinkable, but even rabid wingnut Mark LEVIN is now saying, “We live in POST-constitutional times.” And with Drumpf having succeeded in overturning all NORMS and trust in INSTITUTIONS, and the Supreme Court exercising dictatorial power and tossing out all the rules, it just might be true. God must have had a lot of time on his hands writing all those bibles and constitutions for every little tribe he cooked up.

*** I took the Oath to the Constitution for two separate missions, and it was a heavy duty thing that made me shudder. The way things are going, it’s what wingnuts are doing to it that makes me shudder.

[Haggard Celine]

7. The more I think about it, it seems that this country

is headed for horrible times, with these white Christian nationalists as the modern Nazis. The cult has just gotten deeper into the rabbit hole and refuse to believe the evidence presented at the 1/6 Committee hearings. It's a lot of people, too. We have at least 35-40% who want to blow it all up. You just can't get to them.

[BSdetect]

8. We are shackled to that piece of paper and it will never be fixed fully.

[SYFROYH]

3. And yet we cant even gwt universal background checks in the table.

I doubt half of Democrats support repealing the 2nd Amendment.

Maybe there is some polling out there on the topic.

[UTUSN]

4. Yip, the MTP Australian guest said it was a Conservative government that made the changes, but with

a NATIONAL CONSENSUS behind it. That can't happen here.

[NCLefty]

5. It just seems like addiction. If you can't give up something that's potentially harmful to you or

those around you, your ass is addicted. 😛

[orleans]

6. i've seen these videos -- thought they were great. and funny.

think i'll throw them up on fb again.

thanks for this post.

[BSdetect]

9. k&r