Here’s the Deal, Joe and Kevin

OK, here’s the deal (as our president likes to say): Biden agrees to cut some spending–not all of what McCarthy is demanding but enough to cut this deal–and McCarthy agrees to a comprehensive assault weapons ban to take effect immediately in response to a national emergency around mass killings. Simply said, the Second Amendment notwithstanding, we citizens, as the mayor of Allen, Texas just said, also have an inviolable right to life, liberty, safety, and the pursuit of happiness. The proliferation of assault weapons violates that latter right that the Constitution guarantees. And before some citizen sues the federal government for that violation, we need to enact quid quo pro legislation that gets assault weapons off the streets and only in the hands of local police. Things have devolved to the point where it’s Russian Roulette to even go food shopping these days. Anyone is a potential mass murder victim. That should not be happening in our great country, and, yes, the proliferation of these weapons are at the heart of the problem.

As a retired mental health counselor, I’ve worked with troubled people of all ages, genders, races, and economic situations. And I can assure you that what determines their capacity to commit mass murder (or suicide) depends not on their mental state but on whether they own a gun or not.

In addition to a ban, the deal should also state that all guns, like all cars, need to require a permit/license to own and operate, an extensive background check, and stringent restrictions on open carry.

And one more part of the deal: abandon this absurd plan to hold the people of this country and the world hostage around denying approval of raising the debt ceiling. You are a responsible political party, House GOP: not five-year-olds throwing a tantrum to get a toy back!

So enough of this crap of using the Second Amendment, which only applied to state militias at the time and front-end-loading long rifles in use at that time, as a rationale for all guns/all the time/anywhere. Applying that Amendment as it reads to our situation today is a mockery of our what our Founders intended. It’s a desecration of the principles our system is based on, i.e, reason, reasonableness, common sense, a caring for the commonwealth which includes all the people, of the people, and by the people, all the time and everywhere.

And based on these Constitutional guarantees of safety and security, I, and I hope others, will work to sue any legislative body that continues to perpetrate a toxic atmosphere where mass murders have become so commonplace that bots will soon replace the need for disingenuous politicians to profess their hypocritical “thoughts and prayers.” Bots and AI will do it for them.

Congress used to work quite well on quid pro quo deals. It’s time for another major one, NOW!