Most gun violence in the US is not from mass shootings. Some truth and an honest question.

[calimary]

78. Well, seems to me what needs to be done is to address questions like this one head-on.

What's the underlying point of questions like these? That MC Hammer still rules the day? (As in "You Can't Touch This.&quot I'm not trying to put you specifically on the spot, Skip Intro. But this has to be looked at.

I have found in my own personal experience that many of those posing questions like this, thoughtfully bringing up all the reasons why we really CAN'T sort this out, or come to some meaningful answers and implementation, or that this is too big a mountain to climb, are in a subtle way suggesting that this is in too many ways an unsolvable problem. If you present too many hurdles, and they're too wide and too tall and too large and too permanently cemented into place so they can't even be moved, well then, chances are the annoying do-gooders of the world will throw up their hands and give up in discouragement before they even get started.

That's yet another aspect of this multi-headed strategy we need to adopt and push forward if we're going to make ANY headway at all. The mindset.

The MINDSET. The idea too many people still have - that reminds me of the catechism classes I sat through in Catholic elementary school. The priest comes in and initiates the lesson and discussion for that hour. The kids ask questions. And I noticed that my classmates would come up with all kinds of "what ifs" to ask the priest about - that just might force him to go outside the talking points, and sometimes were just plain goofy. "Well, what if you're... and the rule says... but you couldn't... " and so forth. Sometimes they'd really be outlandish and rather ridiculous. Made me think some of these fellow classmates of mine were just farting around to hear themselves talk and to "have the floor" and get everybody to look at them while they were muddying the waters. Part of me wonders if I'm hearing the grown-up version of that. I was on the phone with a girlfriend a couple of nights ago and every minute of our conversation that involved the school massacre, she had some loop hole or exception or reason to present, to make the case that whatever we'd try to do or want to do was just impossible, unworkable, impractical, unrealistic, whatever. I kept explaining that this was a multi-pronged problem that needed multi-pronged approaches and attempts and answers. She still had a "well, what about the Mexican drug cartels and smuggling weapons in and..." ALWAYS a loophole. And I finally got fed up and told her - "okay then. So then I guess we do NOTHING, correct? We just shouldn't even bother, true?" I had to drag her kicking and screaming to the begrudging acceptance of the idea that if you can't have the whole pie, why not try for at least a slice of it? Her mind was SO set, SO pre-programmed to find all the hurdles and stop there, without ever trying to figure out - since they're all way too high, well, hell, what if we tried to go around them, or dig a little ditch underneath them to let us crawl under them. Or could they be moved slightly? Or could we put a step-stool in front of some of 'em? Or one of those bouncy things the gymnasts use to approach the vault?

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!!!! It was like arguing with this series of cartoon trees or obstacles that would pop up in your way as you tried to cut your way through the jungle. And every time you'd cut through one, another would appear, or maybe another several.

When one is talking about sins and all the "thou shalt nots" and that's one's default position whenever the issue is raised, or posing situations that seem hellbent on making it impossible to enact ANY changes or reforms or restrictions, it's just too complicated, insurmountable, a real Gordian Knot, then I think it's fair and reasonable to ask - "what's really going on here? What's the REAL agenda at work here?" And then RESIST EVERY SINGLE GOD-FORSAKEN excuse for giving up and throwing in the towel before the fight even begins.