Surgeon General tanked by NRA... WTeverlovingF!?

[Rhea]

article:
What The NRA's War Against Obama's Surgeon General Pick Is Really About


This unnerves and disturbs me very very very much.

The action alert came after TPM and other outlets reported that Senate Democrats were well short of the 50 votes they needed (after eliminating the filibuster last November for most nominations) to confirm Murthy. One top Democratic aide said the party was eight to ten votes short after members bolted over the NRA's letter last month coming out against Murthy. The White House subsequently said it was "recalibrating" its approach.

 

[Bacillus anthracis]

I called this battle lost when nothing happened after Sandyhook. If Americans couldn't be outraged by the death of 20+ dead kindergartners then there's nothing they won't tolerate when it comes to guns. According to the news, there have been over 40 school shooting since then.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...-school-shootings-since-newtown-new-analysis/

So when a doctor is ostracized for saying that guns represent a public health hazard, is it really that surprising? Some day, probably long after we're dead, Americans will look back on this and wonder what in the fucking world we were thinking. They'll wonder how we wept so publicly over 4500 hundred dead soldiers in Iraq but tolerated 10,000+ murders a year by people with guns.

 

[James Brown]

I'm not sure that anyone who's wept publicly over 4500 dead soldiers in Iraq is also tolerating the 10,000+ gun murders. But I could be wrong.

 

[ImGod]

Seems pretty simple. Like pot and gay marriage the argument is shifting.

Gun crime (and crime overall) has continued it's 30 year decline, while gun and ammo sales are way up, and more people are in favor of looser gun laws.

The 80-90s must have been a sucky time to live.

 

[Underseer]

I'm not sure that anyone who's wept publicly over 4500 dead soldiers in Iraq is also tolerating the 10,000+ gun murders. But I could be wrong.

Ah, I see that you only just moved to Texas and have not yet had the opportunity to talk to other Texans.

- - - Updated - - -

Seems pretty simple. Like pot and gay marriage the argument is shifting.

Gun crime (and crime overall) has continued it's 30 year decline, while gun and ammo sales are way up, and more people are in favor of looser gun laws.

The 80-90s must have been a sucky time to live.

That decline in gun violence tracks with the overall decline in crime which in turn corresponds mostly with the reduction of lead in our environment due to the sort of regulations that make rightists very angy. Not sure what that has to do with a discussion about gun availability.

 

[ImGod]

Seems obvious. There are more guns available (31% increase in sales in 2012, and 7% more in 2013) while gun crimes continue to fall. There are ~300,000,000 guns in the US (~100,000,000 of those handguns). Around 55% of republicans/conservatives say there is a firearm in their house and 40% of democrats/liberals. My guess is a lot of liberals have one but won't come out of the closet, and a lot of conservatives won't admit it because they don't want the government to know. Data and stuff And yet we're at the lowest homicide rate since 1963.

If lead paint was the culprit the surgeon general should focus on that. Focus on poverty and maybe the poor areas of most states/cities will ease up on some more of the violence.

 

[+or-1]

Everyone knows that bullets are good for you?

 

[The Paul]

I'm not sure that anyone who's wept publicly over 4500 dead soldiers in Iraq is also tolerating the 10,000+ gun murders. But I could be wrong.

Ah, I think you mean no one who would be willing to consider taking any kind of action regarding 4500 dead soldiers is also tolerating 10,000+ gun murders.

The right wing is very willing to weep over the tragedy of dead soldiers. They're just not willing to stop killing them.