Democrats Approach Towards Gun Control

[BamaMoose]

So, DUer applegrove seems to think he's got a great article about the MSU shooting and the broader issue of gun control.  Only problem is he's incapable of actually reading and comprehending the reality the article (which is heavily slanted towards more gun laws) conveys.

applegrove (111,469 posts)

In the wake of the MSU shooting, conservatives place blame with liberal prosecutor

In the wake of the MSU shooting, conservatives place blame with liberal prosecutor

Updated: Feb. 21, 2023, 11:47 a.m.|Published: Feb. 21, 2023, 8:04 a.m.

By Matthew Miller | mmiller@mlive.com

https://www.mlive.com/news/2023/02/in-the-wake-of-the-msu-shooting-conservatives-place-blame-with-liberal-prosecutor.html

"SNIP.......

The editorial that ran last week in the New York Post wasn’t understated.

The headline read, “MSU shooter Anthony McRae was armed thanks to Soros-aligned, far left prosecutor.”

The argument it laid out, while getting some of the factual details wrong, was that former Ingham County Prosecutor Carol Siemon, in her push to reduce racial inequities in the local justice system, allowed McRae to plead guilty to a misdemeanor rather than a felony after a Lansing police officer found him carrying a concealed handgun in 2019.

Had McRae been charged with a felony, the Post’s editors held, he wouldn’t legally have been able to buy the guns he used to kill three Michigan State University students and injure five others last week.

.......SNIP"

Applegrove;

don't let them dazzle us with details of the small picture. The big picture is Conservatives have promoted gun crazy culture for 43 years. That is why there are so many guns, legal and illegal, on the streets.

See Supreme Court lax laws on responsible gun laws:

https://apnews.com/article/politics-mississippi-state-government-delaware-california-massachusetts-3983cecfd1107c263d5309ec0d80a966

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100217676500

The Supreme Court "lax laws on responsible gun laws" refers to the Bruen decision that only said that limitations on individuals' 2nd Amendment rights had to be based on an objective rationale.  The Court (in Bruen) didn't rule on specific weapons regulations.  They only stated that all individuals (absent some legal disqualifying reason) had equal rights under the 2nd Amendment.  Seems to me that all Americans should be fans of equal protection under the law.  But for Dems that rule doesn't apply if guns enter the equation.

As far as his "gotcha" article about the MSU shooting he neglected to post this portion:

Siemon ran as a progressive when she was first elected in 2016. She was open about the fact that she wanted to reduce racial bias in the justice system, " to provide a greater range of options to hold people accountable for the harm they cause while reducing, incarceration,” as she put it when she announced her retirement last year.

But specific initiatives cited in connection with McRae didn’t go into effect until 2021. Those include a decision not to pursue most charges that stemmed from pretextual traffic stops and not to charge based on the state’s felony firearm law, which automatically adds two years to the sentence of anyone in possession of a firearm while committing a felony, unless the gun was actually used in the crime.

Siemon, who retired on Jan. 1, said in an email that she had no personal knowledge of McRae and didn’t know which prosecutor in her office had offered the plea deal. She also said such offers are “typical.”

“Even had he been incarcerated or convicted of the original charge, guns are so prevalent in our society that obtaining one is way too easy,” she said.

“Without locking up forever each person who may possess an illegal firearm (this is thousands each year in Michigan alone), how do we as a society better identify dangerous people and propensities to reduce gun violence?” she added.

Better solutions would be meaningful gun control, she said, and a greater focus on poverty, mental health and “a myriad of other social factors.”

So the liberal prosecutor comes right out and says that her office avoided charging people with the gun laws that are already on the books, because they might have a adverse effect on minority criminals.  Her rhetorical question about "identify[ing] dangerous people and propensities to reduce gun violence" is easily answered with a simple response: "The one's committing felonies with a gun in their possession are the dangerous people with a propensity towards gun violence".  They come right out and say that they aren't interested in restricting criminals' access to guns.  They only want to go after law-abiding gun owners.  I would be thrilled if any politician, any legislator, any judge, any President came out with a simple statement: "No new gun laws until the existing ones are actually enforced".

[RuralNc]

racial inequities

Anytime I hear or see those worse, you know your in for a real treat. Meanwhile, I fail to understand why the laws are not followed. Either, you did the crime, or did not. Period.

[ADsOutburst]

don't let them dazzle us with details of the small picture. The big picture is Conservatives have promoted gun crazy culture for 43 years. That is why there are so many guns, legal and illegal, on the streets.

A classic "Don't look at us!" response from the left.

[Karin]

Only 2 recs and 2 replies.  I wonder if deep down they realize these Soros DA's were a bad idea.  Here's the first brilliant, coherent response:

TreasonousBastard (41,992 posts)

1. Yet more proof the right wing is just a bunch of...

empty chamberpots.

Michman kills the thread:

MichMan (8,743 posts)

2. Police were called out to his house when he was shooting at targets in his back yard

In a residential neighborhood and took no action. He could have been charged then.

"Without locking up forever each person who may possess an illegal firearm (this is thousands each year in Michigan alone), how do we as a society better identify dangerous people and propensities to reduce gun violence?” she added."


I dunno, One way might be to address neighbors complaints about people shooting in residential neighborhoods. Clearly not legal. Wonder why the police did nothing about it. No citations, nothing.

[CollectivismMustDie]

It's funny (not 'funny haha')...but there once was a time when we incarcerated people until they were no longer a threat to the society they were deliberately separated from to protect that society...and when returned to society, those who returned, returned with their rights intact...including the right to own a gun.

When we were operating that way, we had far less gun violence and far less overall violence, than we do now.

The way we do things now is to let them out before it's safe for society for them to be let out, and when they reoffend, the same elements that are responsible for letting them out blame the evil gun.

Almost like that was the goal to begin with - to rearrange the equation so that the gun can be blamed. And by sheer coincidence, the same people that are for this new way, for blaming the gun, are the ones that were against guns all along, or carrying the water of those who were.

But we're not supposed to notice any of that.

[Old n Grumpy]

Instead of making more ineffective gun laws, let’s prosecute the ones that are on the books. That’s all that needs to be done committed crime lock them up.

[BamaMoose]

It's funny (not 'funny haha')...but there once was a time when we incarcerated people until they were no longer a threat to the society they were deliberately separated from to protect that society...and when returned to society, those who returned, returned with their rights intact...including the right to own a gun.

When we were operating that way, we had far less gun violence and far less overall violence, than we do now.

The way we do things now is to let them out before it's safe for society for them to be let out, and when they reoffend, the same elements that are responsible for letting them out blame the evil gun.

Almost like that was the goal to begin with - to rearrange the equation so that the gun can be blamed. And by sheer coincidence, the same people that are for this new way, for blaming the gun, are the ones that were against guns all along, or carrying the water of those who were.

But we're not supposed to notice any of that.

Absolutely correct.  It seems like the gun-grabbers are politically motivated to get gun violence numbers as high as possible in order to justify draconian gun control measures.  They like to think they're just 10 bodies, er...um...whoops, meant 10 dollars away from swinging the general public's views on the 2nd Amendment.

[Old n Grumpy]

The only reason they want our guns is because it’s keeping them from creating a dictatorship. You saw them trash our rights over the covid fiasco.