I'm honestly not sure that we are capable as a society anymore of engaging in an open, honest, rhetoric free, pundit-free, and gamesmanship-free discussion about such a loaded topic. I hope I am wrong. I am afraid I am not.
If we have any hope left at all, I believe whole-heartedly that we must ban ALL politicians from the participating; they are necessarily biased and almost guaranteed to have an agenda from the outset and both are huge liabilities if we are to have any shot at all at meaningful and civil debate. The scariest part of the equation from where I sit is the newly discovered NRA penchant for gauging the public's reaction and biding their time before making public statements following another tragedy. After the Cleveland shooting the NRA could hardly keep it together for 24 hours...and the public had much lower expectations. This week was a test that they passed with flying colors; Advanced SocioPolitical Manipulation of the Masses via Delayed Satisfaction. The public was told that the NRA would make a statement today...and HUNDREDS of MILLIONS of people were on pins and needles in anticipation. They managed, in their silence, to appear reverent, thoughtful, even considerate of the need for families of the dead children to be given time to at least bury their loved ones before the real battle of the talking heads commenced. It was a first in NRA publicity moves that don't make them look like crazies clutching their shiny new guns and antiquated amendment - but rather a public interest lobby with real live humans driving the machine. Of course, the speech today was loony tunes, and they really are human shaped turd monsters, but we should all be paying attention....because it looks as though they've check mated those of us who were still harboring hope for a more moderate and civilized approach to reasonable gun control we can all agree on.
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