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Comment by ryandrake | Hacker News Reader

> My belief is that the more we restrict access to guns, the stronger the black market for them. This has proven true with alcohol (Prohibition) and drugs, and I believe, without knowing it to be a fact of course, that it will prove true with guns.

On the political side, it also consistently hands Republicans an easy, winning wedge issue. Gun Rights is a "single-issue voter lightning rod" in the USA. There are lots of people whose political views are left or center-left (on the USA's weird scale of course), yet who hold their nose every year and grudgingly vote (R) simply Because Guns. I've always thought one of the best things the Democrat party could do to improve their chances nationally is to just give up on their gun control stance. That single action would probably boost them 10-20% in many rural/hunting areas that are otherwise democrat-leaning.

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You say this, but right this very moment a bill with more gun control is being whisked through the Congress with the support of 14 Senators, who've already got it past cloture.

Of course, one interpretation is that they don't want to win back the Congress this year.

As for the Democrats, they've been anti-gun too long, too hard for anyone in " rural/hunting areas" which they've also made clear they want to outright destroy if they haven't already for them to try to make a switch for the foreseeable future.

Those of us who are a bit old remember how 7 years of election disasters from the Republicans taking back the Congress in 1994 to Al Gore in 2020 (and no matter what you think about Florida, that the election was even close should tell you something) resulted in a truce that only lasted until Obama's reelection. The party would have to fundamentally transform itself and reverse 157 years of policy (Dred Scott, which Thomas quoted in his decision, or you could start with post-Reconstruction).

Numerous states with significant rural populations and a lot of hunting activity have elected sitting Democrat senators. That includes Colorado, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, and West Virginia. Heck in Michigan the opening day of deer hunting season is practically a state holiday. Those senators tend to be fairly pragmatic about the issue and don't necessarily adhere to the party platform.

So let's just say Dems do that... how do you stop school and other public space shootings?

Since the Democrats are entirely willing to violate white line Constitutional language, why limit it to the Second Amendment? Enforce with extremely severe penalties a complete media blackout on the name and sufficient biographical details of such shooters. The lack of a notoriety payoff will address quite a few.

Reverse or as so many are now saying ignore the judicial rulings that removed force as a tool in dealing with the mentally ill. [Redacted], and I think the above harsh and Un-American actions would all but eliminate the problem, and not for example, not that's it's going to be impossible, simply shift the tool of choice to the much more dangerous one of arson.

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