After the Marysville-Pilchuck High School shooting, Goldy quite rightly said that now is the time to talk about this, including in ways that are politicized. It’s happening and if we can’t talk about reasonable solutions for dealing with these things as they happen, they’re going to keep happening.
But the other question is when the fuck would be the time we talk about them?
I’ve mentioned on this blog before that I had a roommate who was murdered.* It was the better part of a decade ago, and shit still sets me off about it sometimes. I mean I literally cried about it this weekend (and writing this post), and certainly part of the reason I’ve been thinking about it more now is it is the gun debates in the air. But they’re still worth talking about, because they’re the only way we figure out policy.
Shit sets me off sometimes. It was pretty close to where I was working, and for at least a year I would drive past where it happened at lunch or after work even though it was a little out of the way. One time I stopped my car and got out and had actually ate just looking at the building, but usually I just drove past. A couple years ago, I had jury duty and they asked the jury pool about crimes that had been committed to people who we knew. I told the story, as I’d done before without incident, and I don’t know if it was the judge saying “I’m so sorry” because sometimes strangers saying that is more of a problem than people I know, or because I woke up early and it was just a stressful day but I just couldn’t concentrate the rest of the day. I have a cousin who I love very much but who is a big ol’ NRA person and sometimes I argue with him about these things, and it’s super draining.
And so I’ve been reluctant to get involved in this particular debate beyond some snarky posts because, as important as it is, it also sometimes seems like just a big ol’ chance to feel like shit. I have some family who are pretty actively volunteering on the campaign, and for a while I thought I should too, but I just can’t. And I don’t know if there will be a right time for the family and friends at SPU. And I don’t know that there will be a right time for people whose families have just been victims of street crime or suicide with guns. I don’t know that there is or that there will be a right time for me in the future, but I’m still glad we’re having the debate because it’s the only way we can prevent the next one.
* And just like last time, any attempt in the comments to figure out more than I want to say about it, will be considered off topic and deleted.
“* And just like last time, any attempt in the comments to figure out more than I want to say about it, will be considered off topic and deleted.”
Geez Carl, you have PTSD bad, you’re even starting to think like Pudge.
People get triggered by reminders of events in their lives. I once had jury duty and the judge asked if any of us had ever experienced a bombing or terrorist attack. One young woman went completely to pieces. She began sobbing and became so hysterical she couldn’t speak. After about 5 minutes, the woman sitting next to her spoke up: “Your honor, she was in the World Trade Center when the planes hit.” She was assisted out of the courtroom by court personnel and I think they called medical assistance for her. I don’t know if you’ll ever get over it, Carl. Probably not. There are World War 2 vets who still can’t talk about their experiences. You can learn how to manage it, and for some people that’s about the best you can do.
@1
Moderating is appropriate; the original @1 was pretty ugly.
I-594 couldn’t have possibly affected the Marysville school shootings, since state laws don’t apply to Indians living on reservations. Not only that, but Tulalip tribal laws allow Indian children over 14 to possess and carry firearms on the reservation, without parental supervision. If an Indian child under 14 has a firearm without an adult present, their parents can be fined a maximum of $250.00 (no jail time) by the tribal court. Over 14, not a problem at all on reservation.
So unfortunately, it was perfectly legal for Jaylen Fryberg’s parents (or some friend, etc.) to give him the firearm, so long as it was another Indian on the reservation. If that had been done off-reservation, a transfer to a minor under 18 could get five years in state prison. And of course, even if I-594 passes, it cannot require Indians transferring firearms on reservations to do background checks.
So if you want to prevent future such problems, then you should contact the Tulalip tribal board, and the governing authorities of other Indian tribes, and urge them to pass laws prohibited children under 18 from owning firearms, or possessing them without adult supervision. Some tribes do have laws against children under 18 having firearms, but most tribes either set the age limit at 14, or don’t have any age restrictions at all.
And if you think I-594 is a wonderful idea, then you can urge each tribe to adopt laws for firearms background checks similar to what I-594 would enact. It just takes a majority vote of the tribal board. Pretty much ZERO tribes in America have firearms background check ordinances …
Richard,
I-594 may not have prevented this particular shooting, but then it was never about this shooting. It is about closing a gun loop hole that in 16 other states has reduced gun deaths by a third.
@4 “Total American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) alone population: 2.9 million or about 0.9 percent of the US population.
Total AI/AN population in combination with other races: 5.2 million or 1.7 percent of the US population.
I voted for closing the loop hole. . That means that 98.3% of WA still has to have better background checks. Works for me.
@3 Yeah, on second reading, it was a cheap shot and I probably should have picked a different example. My bad. Bad rabbit! Very bad!
@5
The firearms murder rate per capita dropped in the USA as a whole by 49% from 1993 to 2010.
http://www.pewsocialtrends.org.....c-unaware/
So if the states that adopted universal background checks showed a reduction of one-third in firearms murders during the same period of time, that is significantly LESS reduction than the national average.
@6
We still have several dozen Indian reservations in this state. If the tribes have much laxer gun laws than the rest of the state, they could be a great place for black market gun sales. Granted, a federally licensed dealer on a reservation has to do background checks anyway. But an ordinary tribal member could advertise firearms on the internet, and not have to do background checks. (The purchaser, if non-Indian, would still be in violation of I-594, but they would already be committing a much more serious crime if legally ineligible under state or federal law.) I don’t see the tribes endorsing this sort of behavior, but I don’t see them passing laws against it any time soon either. Certainly not if they think it is okay for children to have guns.
“So if the states that adopted universal background checks showed a reduction of one-third in firearms murders during the same period of time, that is significantly LESS reduction than the national average.”
Richard, apples and oranges. Not that it matters. Looks like I-594 will get easily over 60% of the vote. Incidentally, I-591 less than 40%.
http://blog.seattlepi.com/seat.....27672101=0
And as to the tribes, after this last shooting you might find them willing to enact tribal laws in line with the state.
I suppose we could set up Customs Houses & Border Patrol posts on all roads in or out of reservations to intercept alcohol going in and fireworks, cigarettes, and guns coming out …
That would be a nice little project for Republicans when/if they take over the legislature.
And we also need to quarantine anybody entering the state from Texas.
The Ebola thing you know.
@12 I agree on quarantining Texicans, not because of Ebola, but because we don’t want them importing their Republican horseshit into our state. (They’re all horses’ asses, and all horses’ asses are full of shit, no matter what they’ve been eating.)