According to conservatives, the aftermath of a massive shooting spree is NOT the time to talk about guns?

I get that we in America have a constitutional right to bear arms and own weapons, but since we also love our Declaration of Independence, we also believe that we have a right to life. Now, these don't have to be mutually exclusive, so you'd think that adult conservatives would be willing to try to enter the discussion regarding how to adequately balance individual rights with a collective interest in societal peace and safety.

Gun fundamentalists, however, bifurcate the issue into a black and white dichotomy that's just not appropriate for adults: gun control does not have to mean that our weapons are going to be banned, taken away and burnt or given to our sworn enemies. It just means that, as reasonable adults, we believe that while our right to own arms is important and should be respected, maybe it's a good idea to draw some sort of line about just how far we can take that right. Should we be allowed to own atomic bombs? Probably not. What about fully loaded fighter jets? How about rocket launchers?  Fully automated rifles? We don't have to agree about where the line should be drawn to be able to see that a line somewhere does make sense, and that it does not amount to a full-on ban on weapons.

After Travon Martin was gunned down by George Zimmerman, Fox News thought that maybe we ought to ban those dangerous hoodies because guns don't kill people, hoodies kill people. And now that we are experiencing the aftermath of that horrible "Batman" shooting last week, and thinking about the impact of giving people unfettered access to weapons of mass destruction that they can unleash on unsuspecting populations, the folks at Fox News think that this is not the time to talk about guns... but it is time to ask whether we ought to ban costumes from movie theatres...



Sometimes I wonder if this is just a horrible dream...

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