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No matter how trained I might be or those immediately around me might be, I can't imagine any of those settings where my response would be "Yes! I want to see who wins the good guy/bad guy gun debate live and in-person!"pic.twitter.com/JbLr2gHFgs
I spend more time than the average person around well-trained, armed marshals, sheriffs and police. They do a good job. I am at least cordial with all of the men and women I see regularly and I would hope I haven't told enough bad jokes they would use me as a barrier.
Even with those trained professionals around, I don't want to test that hypothetical. Can you say you do? For the vast majority of us the answer is "I'd really rather not be in a place where I get to be the duck in a live action game of duck hunter, even if I'm an armed duck"pic.twitter.com/G0e6E4LW34
Of course the answer here is the best way to stop a bad guy with a gun is to help the bad guy either not be a bad guy, or not let the bad guy get a gun. That's the conversation.
So lets focus our worry, fear, anxiety, political rage, etc on the real conversation instead of some South Park version of "they're taking the guns." It's at least 2 general sets of solutions, we almost all agree on both - hooray!pic.twitter.com/8pBYFHd05b
Solution set 1 - mental health. We have a real mental health issue in this country. We don't know how to handle it. Right now our solutions have been to mostly ignore it, self-medicate, and criminalize it. Those totally don't work. At all. Not even a bit.
Without figuring out how to improve this issue we have a whole lot of problems that aren't going away - from violence in society to those "lazy jerks" wanting food stamps who really have undiagnosed and untreated disabilities. Good news! We have a lot we can throw at this one.
We can... Expand healthcare access Remove barriers to treatment Add universal prek Increase IEP funding Examine how, why, and for how long we jail *insert literally at least dozens of other options here*
We probably *already have* all or most of the money in the system, we just need to move it around to make it more effective.pic.twitter.com/U1Bdr93v4b
Solution set 2 - keeping the guns from the bad guys. We have some laws about this. We need to be examining them and figuring out where the cracks are and how to fill those cracks. We also need to have a long, hard conversation with ourselves about the people we cover for.
You've done it, haven't you? Covered for someone when you knew you shouldn't because you like them and/or need them. We don't need to become a society that taddles on everyone for everything, but we do *need* to stop covering for people we know will hurt others on purpose.
It's going to take a mix of removing barriers, making it ok to ask for help, and to stop thinking we are somehow being the jerks for stepping up. Who hasn't had a moment with a friend at some point in our lives where we realized that needed WAY MORE than an ear and a hug?
We do a lot of shrugging and saying hindsight is 20/20...we have pretty much all had moments where our in the moment vision didn't betray us, but our well-intentioned loyalties did. It's time to stop that.
Some people should not have guns. Some people should not have butter knives. Rights are balanced with responsibilities.
Rights are also balanced with other rights. We need to be able to talk, not yell or threaten, about those rights, responsibilities and how they intersect.
The good news is if we step back, most everyone gets to be right. We need healthcare, particularly mental healthcare. People who hurt others on purpose probably have some mental health issues. Most people aren't the bad guys.pic.twitter.com/xN9urODOuL
What we are doing isn't working. Let's do something different. Let's work together on this. We can save money and lives. We can all stop the bad guys *before* they get the guns and go back to being fine with good guys having guns if that works for them. #
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