54 Comments

It is not about the right to own a gun anymore. It is about the right to be judge, jury, and executioner. It is about the right to murder without the encumbrance of due process. True gun owners would want to protect their guns with background checks and safety laws. This is legal mayhem and should not be tolerated.

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Thank you Steve for continuing to keep this story out in front of Republicans. We need to shame them into actions. Thoughts and prayers are no longer acceptable. We need national gun reform. Republicans can no longer hide behind the 2nd amendment. We need to keep the pressure on Congress to finally do their job and stop offering up our children as targets downrange. It is no longer acceptable to wear a AR15 lapel pin. They should be forced to wear bloody photos of all the child victims of gun violence around their necks until they give us meaningful gun legislation.

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As barbaric as this may sound I truly think the only thing that will change this and change it FAST is for all media to do the horrendous but necessary job of showing what an automatic weapon does to a child's body. I don't think we have the courage to do this but I do believe, just as with George Floyd we had to literally see the impact of murder with our own eyes, just as the Vietnam war had to be seen on tv during the dinner hour for enough people to say enough.

Show the carnage done to a small child, just as Emmett Till's mother insisting on an open casket for her dead son, "I want the world to see what they did to my baby".

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I’m concerned that we are bludgeoning ourselves in an effort to reach those folks that we are trying to change. They are not moved by efforts to understand or empathize. The sooner that is out of the way, it clears a path for another approach. I don’t know what that looks like but it’s with some kind of action. Legislative. We are well beyond lobbying.

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America loves its guns more than its children.

"Pro-life" my ass.

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Agree. Where’s the sanctity of life for a child who could be next to be gunned down in school?

And now fox is running with a trans conspiracy theory, instead of focusing on the school shooting.

Thoughts and prayers are no longer acceptable from politicians.

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A coalition is needed. Guns and hunting are integral to rural heritage and culture. But ar15s are not needed to hunt. Vegans and responsible hunters and all in between need to unite to protect our children.

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Until people recognize they have a civic responsibility to the common good that goes beyond their own “rights” nothing will change. It’s a desire for the shared value.

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What will it take to convince these politicians (all of them) that something drastic has to happen to stop these shootings?

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I don't have words and the ones I had, are lost. This is all just too much; the rot of what is being tolerated in this country and by Republicans is outrageous.

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It is intolerable. Why can’t we protest like the Israelis.

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Too many people would fight to the death to protect that stupid, irresponsible gun right. And in the process, they'd take as many of the innocents, & of us, as possible, down as well.

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My response to those defending an inanimate object intentionally designed and specifically manufactured to maim/kill another life-force instead of protecting and defending the life, liberty and safety of their fellow citizens, is supporting terrorists and terrorism.

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"terrorism" -that's what this is. Thanks.

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I've been yelling myself hoarse about this all time, but it's time.

We are cushioned in our fifedoms and insular areas and we mean well but we are soft, we are soft in the ways of civil disobedience and protest, we are soft in anti-complacency.

But now we are raging and we need to be fierce and we need to NOT rely on they vote or our legislature but get out collective a$$e s out there and demand an assault weapons ban.

Who will participate?

Trying to nail down all the organizing entities- Shady Hook, Moms Demand Action, etc, and identify a day and, and, and.

Thoughts?

We need champions to rally.

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I'm in. We need an organizer. You're 100% Right On. Thanks. I live in Montana. Some of my own family buys and sells these AR15s and they think they're so 'cool'. Love is cool. Protecting our children is cool (It is a must and now.) Kindness is Cool. I am NOT afraid to make some noise and show up for gun reform, anywhere!

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As Americans, in this country's ongoing catastrophic gun situation, "we are all hostage." Well put.

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Steve thank you for your empassioned

Talk about guns & death in America

AR 15’s are weapons of war FULL STOP

Happy for you and traveling the world and sharing your life and the cultures around our world .. I’ve experienced all the islands of Japan ..Sri Lanka …India … China .. the view of Niagara from Canada side is exquisite … Enjoy …gratefully:) Marsha

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author

Marsha,

We’ve missed your commentary. Glad to have you back!

Steve

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Steve you bless my life with your

Beautiful soulful educated writing

Keep up the work…you keep all of us motivated to do whatever we can to help … you enrich my life:)

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Marsha -you're truly a gift to this world and to many of us here on The Warning. Wow, your traveling sounds amazing! I hope we can all raise our Voices to protect OUR children! Lisa XO

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Lisa Beardsley ..I’m blessed to have travelled the entire world many times..

Helps that I’m healthy can single hand 35ft sailboat, Padi certified scuba

Windsurfer(sailboarding rocket boards) was a Juilliard dancer…rode thoroughbred privately owned horses in Central Park twice a week ..I’ve lived the most exciting lifetime and

I’ll be eighty in May but have friends from every decade… I’ve loved each decade ..Have one son and two great

Grandsons, TWO Best Friends

ANAM CARA soul friends actually you would enjoy the book…. My late husband was my treasure and I was his prize …we teach people how to

Love us by loving ourselves! Marsha

Lucky cause feel ageless🌹🌹🌹

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Life! Beautiful!! XOXO

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Janet R as this evening is ending your

Thoughtful response was a blessing

Thank you, Marsha 🌹

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Marc Bergeron as my evening is ending you were so very thoughtful to

Respond with an act of kindness truly

Grateful..thank you 🌹Marsha

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Helen Stajninger you are quite

Remarkable and your warmth

Was reassuring in this sad mess

We are living through our grandkids

Are not growing up safe & secure…

We must keep working for change🌹

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Bobbi we don’t take care of keeping

Children, fed, housed, clothed or safe

From AK-15 shooters but we make sure women who need abortions to save their lives cannot get help😢

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Kdsherpa you’re amazing and kind

Thank you 🌹Marsha

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You make a valiant effort with your rational appeal to reasonable non gun owners and responsible hunters and enthusiasts to band together to demand that this murderous behavior be eradicated and these weapons of war be banned..

However, I personally do not believe it will be enough..We both know too well that elected Republicans in Congress and around the country are responsible for the proliferation of these tragedies..They are addicted as thought it were heroin, to the money pouring in from the gun lobby on behalf of the NRA and manufacturers..They all know just as you and I do that banning these weapons of war is not an infringement on the 2nd Amendment..They have taken a side for protecting their money stream and against the American people and their children..

You would likely argue that they are who the people want to be represented by..I suppose you would be right..

As repugnant as this sounds, they must be made to experience the pain and senseless loss themselves, if anything significant is going to move the needle..They certainly were not moved by the January 8, 2011 shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, where 19 were hit and six killed..A 33 round magazine helped to achieve that..Perhaps if on June 14, 2017 Rep. Steve Scalise had not survived that day on the baseball field, perhaps had the gunman taken out more Congress members that day on the baseball field, these people would have begun to see this horrific reality in a much different way.. This we cannot know.

However, what I do know is the U.S is the only place on earth that this kind of thing happens on such a scale..And that it is the Republican Congress members who stand in the way of any REAL legislation that has the teeth to make significant change..

Just as you said Steve, it is going to happen again and again and again..And the Republicans standing in the way, just do not give a shit..

I wonder if it is wrong to presume that the constituents who keep putting them in Congress don’t give a shit either..

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It’s not wrong. The masses who vote for these thugs have overdosed on the kool-aid that’s being poured down their throats.

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Yes, a disconnect to be sure..from critical thinking..What they are connected to is the fear that their representatives create out of whole cloth..Fear to keep them in line..

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Yeah, Janet there's a photo of her and her family at Christmas posed in the same way. I just can seem to be able to post it here.

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Posing with guns for a Christmas photo is so unfair to the children and entirely anti-Christian. This is so terrible and heart-breaking.

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Mar 29, 2023Liked by Steve S

Absolutely on the mark. I’m a Benefactor Level Life NRA member, and confirm that it no longer is a firearms safety organization, but a right-wing political lobby infiltrated by Russian money laundering. Look it up, it’s true. I have recently joined another organization that has replaced the NRA as the firearms training and safety advocate of both non-firearms views as well as responsible gun ownership sponsors.

https://www.97percent.us/

We have got to solve this awful tragedy now. The 2nd Amendment doesn’t say anyone should have unfettered access to a firearm. Law enforcement and military screen and conduct periodic training to safely handle forearms, why should that same standard apply to civilians?

I hafe owned an AR-15 rifle for as long as I served in the U.S. Marine Corps where I carried the automatic version M-16. I had to qualify annually to demonstrate proficiency, and was screened for mental health or other disqualification to have access to those powerful weapons. Responsibilities of ownership include safeguarding forearms so they cannot be misused by others.

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Steve--i was really struck by your feelings when you were in Canada--that you felt safer. It is truly sad that this is where our minds now go. Where am I safe? Where is the nearest exit ? Who is near me and do they look dangerous? I feel very sad and angry because as you said so much of this gun violence could be prevented. We are being gaslit on a routine basis by these cowards and grifters who only care about lining their campaign coffers with filthy NRA dollars.

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