I have written very little about politics this whole last year. Largely because there is little room inside me now for anything but anger and disgust. The freak show our country has become under Trump is indescribable. I would choke trying to describe even a small part of the mess.
But the worst the absolute worst, has been to watch the shocking (though only too predictable) venom of the right, the NRA and their supporters over the mass student movement, led by the Parkland school shooting survivors, to put an end to the carnage in our classrooms. The students want to include sensible gun control restrictions. This is led to them being called “crisis actors,” “manipulated by the left” and even worse. They’ve even been reliably informed by Rick Santorum that by mobilizing to pass laws on gun control, they’re somehow abandoning their civic responsibilities. Yes, that’s right, because they should be learning CPR for the next attack, while passing laws to prevent attacks is only asking the government to do something for you; their actual civic responsibility is caring for the inevitable wounded. I can’t go on. But the protests will — the last of the millennials, born in 2000, will reach voting age this year, passing the Baby Boomers, to become the nation’s largest voting bloc at 32% of the electorate. Do-nothing lawmakers will have no more excuses left. They will have to change – or be gone.
Thank God for the American Solidarity Party. They have come out with a sensible (and to my mind) overdue statement on the subject, which I hope will become part of the party platform:
The American Solidarity Party is grieved by the loss of 14 beautiful children, 3 heroic adults, and the injuries of 15 more in yet another deadly mass shooting at a school or public gathering space. Our condolences, thoughts, and prayers are with the victims and community of Parkland, Florida.
But we do not propose to only send thoughts and prayers. We have prayed and were led. We have thought and have ideas. We stand in Solidarity with the victims. We cannot understate our frustration with the current major parties that have failed to take any effective measures to reduce these tragedies in the 20 years since Columbine.
For too long, the National Rifle Association and their allies have distorted the political process and cowed major party politicians by spewing their false propaganda that “Second Amendment rights” should block reasonable gun regulations. The Second Amendment, when properly interpreted, allows for reasonable government regulation of deadly firearms. Our Party is on record in its unequivocal support for the Constitution and its Bill of Rights, and we believe that is consistent with Congress swiftly moving to adopt responsible federal gun legislation.
Those reforms should include:
• A robust licensing and background check system supervised by public officials, not reliant on self-interested gun dealers.
• Strict prohibition on allowing persons whose access to weapons poses a heightened public safety risk to purchase, possess, or use firearms, including persons with a documented history of domestic abuse, animal cruelty, or commission of hate crimes, listing as a terror suspect, or specific mental health disorders associated with increased propensity for violence, subject to appropriate due process to remove the prohibition if the person can demonstrate he or she does not in fact pose a heightened threat.
