NPR had a guy on that had asked a gun question to Clinton and Sanders at one of their townhalls.
His daughter was one of the ones critically injured by the Uber rampage shooter up in Kalamazoo Michigan. Her name is Abigail, and her road to recovery is going to be a rough one but she seems to improving steadily. Good for her.
Abigails father wanted to hear what the candidate would do. And since the driver wasn't known to have mental health issues, and had passed criminal background checks, he didn't want to hear "we need more back ground check and mental health treatment." He wanted to hear something that would have worked to save his daughter from getting shot.
Hills and Bern responded with: "we need more background check and mental health treatment." Mr. Kopf was not happy with that response.
He, later in the interview, said people that CCW are filled with fear. And you, sir? What motivates you? Are you projecting some? You think that I am motivated by some irrational fear and that if I didn't have this fear the world you live in would work much better?
He was also sure that only the police should have handguns. Why do the police need handguns, sir? To defend themselves? Why do they get to defend themselves by crazed taxi drivers, but I cannot?
At least he was pretty honest, in a roundabout way, that he want to ban and confiscate 'civilian' owned handguns. He's a hunter. He also mentioned that. No problem with hunting rifles, apparently.
Two significant quotes from the father of the wounded girl:
ReplyDeleteKOPF: My personal suspicion having seen it where I live is there is a gun culture. There is a culture of fear in our country where people are now seeing their - this is in quotes - right to go around carrying pistols and open-carry assault weapons everywhere out of fear.
(BLOCK: Mr. Kopf, the 9 mm handgun that the alleged shooter used when he shot your daughter was apparently legally owned. He apparently had no criminal history. What could have prevented him from having that gun that you would've wanted to see?)
KOPF: No one should really, unless they have a compelling reason, such as law enforcement, security or stuff, I really don't see a need for everybody to be carrying pistols all over the place. That would've prevented it. He had no justification to have it.
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Yet 'bad guys' will have guns, and if we do not ... we place ourselves in "victim" status. There's obviously no "perfect" answer to the conundrum. The least bad answer seems, regretfully, to be that it's "Every Man For Himself" today.