{"id":1837,"date":"2022-05-26T13:00:50","date_gmt":"2022-05-26T13:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bikingwithmike.com\/?p=1837"},"modified":"2022-05-26T13:00:50","modified_gmt":"2022-05-26T13:00:50","slug":"may-26-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bikingwithmike.com\/?p=1837","title":{"rendered":"May 26, 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I noticed yesterday when listening to Governor Abbott in Texas he referred to the weapons procured by the shooter as \u2018long guns\u2019 rather than \u2018assault rifles.\u2019\u00a0 I assure you the use of this language is by design.\u00a0 In a previous post I referred to a book that I read during the down time with my knee, Gunfight: My Battle Against the Industry That Radicalized America, by Ryan Busse, who is a former executive for Kimber Firearms.\u00a0\u00a0 The use of the term \u2018long guns\u2019 to refer to \u2018assault rifles\u2019 is part of the strategy by the NRA and their acolytes to make these types of weapons less controversial and thereby more acceptable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s not kid ourselves.\u00a0 AR-15 style \u2018assault weapons\u2019 and high-capacity magazines have no purpose other than to kill as many people as possible in the shortest amount of time.\u00a0 Lumping assault rifles together with \u2018long guns\u2019 is like lumping Ferraris together with my 2010 4-cycliner Ford Ranger pickup.\u00a0 They are two completely different things and have two completely different purposes.\u00a0 Long guns usually refer to hunting rifles, e.g., 30-06 deer rifle with a scope or a shotgun for bird hunting.\u00a0 No one hunts game or goes bird hunting with an assault rifle!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Likewise, I use my pickup to haul stuff from Home Depot or take loads of junk to the dump.\u00a0 It is utilitarian by its very nature.\u00a0 No one in their right mind would pull up to Home Depot with their Ferrari, load it up with bags of gravel and soil and haul it home.\u00a0 I don\u2019t ever recall seeing a Ferrari in my many trips to the dump.\u00a0 That is not what a Ferrari is designed for.\u00a0 No one in their right mind would argue that.\u00a0 So, the idea that you can lump assault rifles in the same category as long guns is pure bullshit and is simply meant to make something that is unacceptable in virtually every other industrialized country in the world palatable to the American public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is very clear that the current Republican politicians will not take any action or will continue to block any bills introduced by Democrats having to do with any type of gun control legislature.\u00a0 The solution, therefore, is to elect new politicians who will actually do something to curb the gun violence in this country.\u00a0 The majority of Americans, in poll after poll, support many commonsense gun-control measures.\u00a0 And yet, we as a country, continue to elect politicians who refuse to address this epidemic.\u00a0 One can only conclude that in spite of all of the prayers and condolences that are routinely offered after each of these incidents, reducing the epidemic of mass shootings in this country is not a sufficient enough concern to motivate people to elect politicians to address the issue.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It seems more important to many people to elect politicians who vow to restrict access to abortion, enact voter suppression laws, legislate against transgender and LGBT rights, fight against any effort to address climate change and place the blame for all of the ills in this country upon immigrants.\u00a0 As long as that is the case, we will continue to just offer prayers and condolences as more of our citizens are needlessly slaughtered.\u00a0 \u2018We the people\u2019 could solve this problem, but \u2018we the people\u2019 have chosen not to and believe there are other more pressing problems than the continued massacres of innocent children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the famous words of Pogo, \u201cWe have met the enemy and he is us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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