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Only in America


The Fish
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It's jarring when you hear someone you respect defending gun rights. Turns out Killer Mike is very pro-gun, and he never struck me as the gangsta rapper type, with his policeman fatha. He went way down in my estimation when I realised.

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I listened to him on Scroobius Pip's podcast and he seemed a sound and very intelligent bloke. I don't know much about him, but aye that is a surprise based on what I listened to on that.

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I listened to him on Scroobius Pip's podcast and he seemed a sound and very intelligent bloke. I don't know much about him, but aye that is a surprise based on what I listened to on that.

I'll have to hunt that out. Cheers.
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I'll have to hunt that out. Cheers.

No worries, it's actually quite a good podcast at times, although I'll be honest I've been deleting without listening for a while now as he's had no one on I wanted to listen to.

 

The Killer Mike one was around the time of Ferguson iirc, so I'm sure they were mostly talking about that.

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It's jarring when you hear someone you respect defending gun rights. Turns out Killer Mike is very pro-gun, and he never struck me as the gangsta rapper type, with his policeman fatha. He went way down in my estimation when I realised.

 

The clue was in the name.

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The most shocking stat in that article is this:

 

 

The Gun Violence Archive, a not-for-profit organisation that compiles data on gun violence in the US, says 559 children aged 11 or under have been killed or injured in the United States in gun violence so far this year.

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A good speech that is going to count for fuck all. Now if they could find a way to tie the NRA to terrorism then maybe they might have a chance.

Had a great chat with an American last night about this. Obama can only do if people petition their senators and they have to do this in the small population (I.e. Rural) states to get it through the senate. The House of Representatives can only do so much which is why Obama was imploring people to contact their state representatives as this is the mechanism they have to change the law.

 

I think I've got that right. Despite watching the first two seasons of the House of Cards, I've never fully understood the US's legislative process.

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I'm not so sure I follow what you're saying. The rural states are the most likely to be opposed to gun control I'd imagine. I thought Obama was trying to get the public to contact their senators and congressmen to counteract the fact that it is the gun lobby who tend to shout the loudest when this debate is raised. As with politicians anywhere, if they're in a tight race they'll go where the votes are, the problem is that if they shout too loudly then the NRA will fund their opponents in the next election.

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Yes, not sure I remember exactly how she explained it. I think to go through both Houses, it has to pass the Senate which has equal representation from each state no matter the size. She said Obama was imploring people to contact their Senator, not their Representative which are voted for in different elections. Hence to pass the Senate, they need the gun loving rural states to get on board. In what I think is a particularity of Senate voting, if enough people petition the Senator, they have to do something under State law. Or something.

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Bills have to be separately introduced into both houses and when passed are merged into one bill and sent to the president. I get what you're saying though about smaller states having a disproportionate influence in the senate given that they have a much smaller electorate and are therefore more susceptible to change their minds by direct petitioning. The senate is where Obama's gun controls failed after Sandy Hook and back then the democrats had a majority, I can't see them having any more luck this time around with a Republican majority in the run up to the general election.

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Had a great chat with an American last night about this. Obama can only do if people petition their senators and they have to do this in the small population (I.e. Rural) states to get it through the senate. The House of Representatives can only do so much which is why Obama was imploring people to contact their state representatives as this is the mechanism they have to change the law.

 

I think I've got that right. Despite watching the first two seasons of the House of Cards, I've never fully understood the US's legislative process.

Need 2/3 of the house to pass it to modify the constitution...Never gonna happen.

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Putting the onus on the public to do something isn't going to work. For every person that writes to their senator demanding something be done, the NRA have someone else who can write a letter demanding their rights not be infringed.

 

According to a March 2013 CNN/ORC poll, 55 percent of Americans thought there, "should be only minor or no restrictions at all on owning guns."

 

In the same December 2014 poll conducted by Pew, 57 percent of Americans said gun ownership in the United States protects people

 

That majority could drop into a minority, I think those opposed to gay marriage were in the majority until very recently but that crumbled rapidly after Glee came on telly. But it suggests the support is moving the other way rather than trending down.

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