P1FD | Gun Control: What's the Point?

The Gun Control debate has reached a Mexican Standoff caused primarily by many people’s inability to think rationally on the subject. And when they do, advocates on both sides use vitriolic, divisive language to whip their troops into an emotional frenzy and send them off, ironically, to war. To move things forward, we must first ask the question that has to date gone unasked: “What should the outcome of gun control legislation be?” After all, how can we chart and navigate a course through these politically treacherous waters if we don’t even know where we’re going? Only then can we plug the coordinates into our Legislative GPS and begin the journey. Then, we must find a way to maintain our collective composure as we engage in civil, transpartisan conversation -- most likely the more difficult task. The weekend after the Sandy Hook Massacre I appeared on Egberto Willies’ Politics Done Right and pled for the nation to take a timeout. A cooling off period to allow sanity and reason to make recovery before entering what was always an emotion-fueled debate -- even without the Newton tragedy. A month later, I blogged about how violent the debate had grown (http://www.partyrecon.org/?p=963-REMOVE, linked above). And now, four months later, in an attempt to push Gun Control back to the top of the legislative pile, the President and his willing assistants in the press are doing their very best to stir up those emotions once again, clouding peoples judgement and making rational conversation virtually impossible. It’s time the Coffee Party fulfils its mission and bring transpartisanship,civility, and reason back to the negotiating table. Let’s agree to explore, rationally, every single possible solution aimed at making ours a safer society.