{"id":81974,"date":"2022-06-06T14:43:24","date_gmt":"2022-06-06T19:43:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=81974"},"modified":"2022-06-06T14:43:24","modified_gmt":"2022-06-06T19:43:24","slug":"81974","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=81974","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Like actors have any claim to authority.
\nHow does; No<\/em><\/strong>, work for you Matthew?<\/p>\n

\n

McConaughey calls for background checks, waiting periods, & more.. but don’t call it “gun control”<\/a><\/p>\n

No, the actor and native of Uvalde, Texas wants you to think of his laundry list of proposed new laws as \u201cgun responsibility<\/a>\u201d instead.<\/p>\n

To his credit, Matthew McConaughey doesn\u2019t call for an outright ban on any firearm in his\u00a0USA Today op-ed<\/a>, but there\u2019s still plenty of talk of \u201creasonable compromises\u201d and \u201ccommonsense solutions\u201d in demands for a host of new gun laws that he claims will \u201cimmediately reduce the gun violence tragedies that have become too common in our country.\u201d<\/p>\n

McConaughey lays out four new measures he wants to see in place: universal background checks, a ban on sales of modern sporting rifles to adults under the age of 21, the establishment of \u201cred flag\u201d laws in all 50 states, and an undefined waiting period on all sales of semi-automatic rifles.<\/p>\n

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Integrating gun safety training, safe storage proposals, and bolstering school safety are also beneficial, but are not government-only solutions. Companies, private organizations, and responsible gun owners have a big role to play.<\/p>\n

I want to be clear. I am not under the illusion that these policies will solve all of our problems, but if responsible solutions can stop some of these tragedies from striking another community without destroying the Second Amendment, they\u2019re worth it.<\/p>\n

This is not a choice between guns or no guns. It\u2019s the responsible choice. It\u2019s the reasonable choice. It\u2019s a quintessentially American choice:\u00a0Where I have the right to be me, you have the freedom to be you, and we have the responsibility to be US.<\/p>\n

To find common ground on this issue, both sides are going to have\u00a0to\u00a0answer the call\u00a0and\u00a0reach for the higher ground of our collective responsibility.<\/p>\n

Business as usual isn\u2019t working. \u201cThat\u2019s just how it is\u201d cannot be an excuse. The heinous bloodshed of innocent people cannot become bearable. If we continue to just stand by, we\u2019re living a lie. With every right there comes a duty.<\/p>\n

For ourselves, our children, and our fellow Americans\u2014we have a duty to be responsible gun owners. Please do yours and protect the Second Amendment through gun responsibility.\u00a0It\u2019s time for real leaders to step up and do what\u2019s right, so we can each and all just keep livin\u2019.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The simplest argument against McConaughey\u2019s recommendations are that each and every one of his proposals are already law in the state of California, which, according to the FBI, had the\u00a0highest number<\/a>\u00a0of active shooter incidents in the country last year. If he truly believes that his \u201creasonable\u201d and \u201cresponsible\u201d measures will have an immediate impact, he should at least be able to explain why they\u2019ve failed to do so in the Golden State.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the fact that many people don\u2019t actually view this measures as \u201creasonable\u201d at all, especially once they start to look at the fine print. Universal background checks typically poll well, as McConaughey himself noted, but when voters actually have a chance to approve them, the results aren\u2019t anywhere close to the 80-90% support shown in public opinion polls. Maine\u2019s voter referendum in 2016 failed to get 50% of the vote, for instance, while Nevada\u2019s referendum that same year squeaked by with 51% of the vote. Since then Maine\u2019s violent crime and homicide rates have continued be among the\u00a0lowest in the nation<\/a>, while shooting and homicides have continued to\u00a0increase in Nevada<\/a>, particularly around Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

Southern\u00a0Nevada<\/a>\u2019s largest law enforcement agency, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, handled 185 of last year\u2019s killings, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.<\/p>\n

Homicide Lt. Ray Spencer, in a recent interview, attributed the busiest year since he began heading the unit in 2018 to easy access to guns. He cited loaded firearms found in nightstands and cars.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe access juveniles and criminals are able to get to firearms is concerning,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s probably the biggest reason on what\u2019s driving our homicide numbers is that guns are so easily stolen and accessible.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Criminals will find a way to illegally get ahold of guns even in states with \u201cuniversal background checks\u201d on the books, and because there\u2019s no way to proactively enforce the law requiring private person-to-person sales to go through a federally licensed firearms dealer, these laws have little-to-no deterrent effect on preventing or reducing violent crime.<\/p>\n

In his op-ed, McConaughey acknowledged that \u201cthe need for mental health care, school safety, the prevalence of sensationalized media coverage, and the decaying state of American values are all long-term societal factors that must be addressed,\u201d but claimed that we \u201cdon\u2019t have the luxury of time\u201d to deal with those underlying issues. Why not, if they\u2019re actually going to be more effective at preventing these types of attacks than the gun control solutions he\u2019s offering? I\u2019d argue it\u2019s much more reasonable to address our mental health crisis and school security than passing gun control laws that are all too often ineffective, unconstitutional, or both.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t fault McConaughey for reaching for what he believes are \u201creasonable\u201d responses to the horrific murders in Uvalde, but a gun control solution to this issue only takes us further away from but both realistic\u00a0and<\/em>\u00a0reasonable strategies to stop these kinds of killings; better enforcement of the laws on the books (including violent crimes), improving access to mental health treatment (both in-patient and out-patient options), and ensuring that our most vulnerable are protected from attack on school grounds while recognizing the right of the people to bear arms in self-defense.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Like actors have any claim to authority. How does; No, work for you Matthew? McConaughey calls for background checks, waiting periods, & more.. but don’t call it “gun control” No, the actor and native of Uvalde, Texas wants you to think of his laundry list of proposed new laws as \u201cgun responsibility\u201d instead. To his … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rkba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=81974"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81975,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81974\/revisions\/81975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=81974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=81974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=81974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}