I would like to talk about sensible gun laws. Mathew McConaughey has addressed this very issue to our federal lawmakers, asking them to honor their moral obligations instead of party affiliations. We all want gun laws that make sense and make it very difficult for sick people to obtain military style assault weapons. Current laws are putting responsible gun owners in a very very bad light.
This is not about the Second Amendment
This is not about taking guns away from people,
This is not about asking people not to have safety measures for themselves or their families.
Congress must appreciate the difference between "gun control” and “gun responsibility” in the wake of the gruesome mass shootings over the past two decades. As an elected official, I have taken an oath to defend the United States Constitution. The Second Amendment is part of the U.S. Constitution, and I respect that.
We all know that overwhelming majorities, 89%, of all citizens—Republicans, or Independents or Democrats—support sensible gun control laws that would severely restrict mentally ill people from buying or obtaining guns by any means. I also believe that the County Council and I, as elected officials, have an obligation to speak up for the safety of our children and against senseless violence in our society. This is not freedom that we love, this is anarchy.
I don’t think our founding fathers could have imagined a scenario like this from the simple phrases, “right to bear arms” and “well-regulated militia.” We must hold every citizen accountable for the underlying responsibilities of owning a gun. And such intent must be honored by all lawmakers whether at local, state, or federal levels. We must enact sensible gun control laws.
I intend to bring a resolution to this effect to the council in coming weeks.
Comments by Readers
Paul Sorensen
Jun 15, 2022The article by Satpal Sidhu above, is exactly correct, and needs to be acted upon. I would hope that all of our elected representatives could read it and follow his advice. We as sensible people, must also get rid of the wasteful, time consuming, constricting process of the “fillibuster” in the Senate! This is the most damaging act that produces nothing but anger and hate, leaving the issues high and dry with no change in policy. Why try to change any thinking on a subject, if the end result is merely discarded by fillibuster! I wouldn’t worry so much about the second amendment as so many are debating, but more so the wastebasket that the “fillibuster” pruduces! The amount of time and trouble that good people put into resolutions and such, is being dumped down the drain! This must change!
Dick Conoboy
Jun 17, 2022Satpal, et.al.,
I had some expectation that my article here of 2 Jun on the topic of the 2nd amendment and the Constitution would engender some discussion of the absolute insanity of the 2nd Amendment and the oxymoronic “responsible gun owners” or “gun control” tropes as if possession of a device made specifically to kill made any sense whatsoever in the 21st century. Is there no longer any cognitive dissonance in the American psyche?
Only one person who commented on my 2 Jun article understood the larger questions I raised about the Constitution and its deep faults. I ask that readers return to my article and read it thoughtfully as it speaks of a document in desperate need of updating as is afforded by Article V. This Article recognizes the need for changes and does everything but call out for revisions. I am baffled by the fact that nobody wishes to talk about deeper issues. Are we so bereft of ideas and imagination?
Jon Humphrey
Jun 17, 2022I’ve been fighting for gun control since the Sandy Hook incident. I have a friend who was a teacher there. In my comments on Dick’s article I expanded on how militarized police help to strengthen the argument for ridiculous weapons, how the founding fathers obviously did not think through technological advancements when they said “arms” (probably imagining a musket at best).
HOWEVER, Satpal you and all of our elected officials have sat on hundreds of millions of dollars, even during a pandemic, allowing the lives of average Americans to become harder and more difficult everyday. Especially for families. You intentionally allowed every aspect of American life to become harder for American families and called it progress.
You, and most other elected officials, refuse to use your great power and influence to give us real reform. The latest “gun bill” is a total joke. Here is a short list of what it STILL DOES NOT cover from TYT Network:
1. Expanded background checks.
2. Assault weapons ban.
3. Higher minimum age of purchase.
Basically, it’s NOT useful. It’s the same game you play with every issue you “work on.”
So Satpal, it’s very hypocritical to hear powerful, well connected, well monied, people like our elected officials talk about how we “need to speak out.” You know what, we’ve been speaking out. We’ve been demanding change. You simply ignore us or worse, give us fake solutions and pretend it’s progress.
Dick is a hero for his article. You, and your buddies in the Corporate Democrat Neo-Liberal Hypocrite Party, need to start doing your jobs.
Time for you to speak out in your rich kid circles, you to push, you to give us results too or make room for people that will. Way to pretend to be progressive though without actually doing it. It’s the classic Whatcom Democrats play. (slow clap) “Let’s say we care about (insert issue here) for years without doing anything. That let’s us appear to be progressive while taking donations from special interests. Confuses the hell out of the voters too.”
We’re on to your game. You have no intention of real progress. You just want to appear to be progressive. Well, actions speak louder than words. You have power, use it.
And this time, mabye don’t start with asking Lockheed Martin drone Rick Larsen about it first. Our best candidate for gun control is Jason Call.
https://www.callforcongress.com/
What has Shewmake already done to Jason even though he’ll save lives? Pathologically lied about him. So make sure you get her checklist before writing back. Got to keep the lies of the party straight after all if you want their support.
Dianne Foster
Jul 02, 2022Jon,
As you know, I detest everything about Sharon Shewmake, especially her foul-mouthed bullying of anyone who disagrees with her. I’m interested to know what lies she said about Jason Call. I’ve been working nonstop on his campaign, and I was the former “PCO of the Year” for Whatcom Dems in 2008. It’s very hard to challenge candidates so well funded by predatory corporations, but Jason is doing an incredible job with people power.
Jon Humphrey
Jul 03, 2022Yes, Jason is amazing! Sharon does to Jason what she does to everyone that doesn’t agree with her. She submits anyone that donsn’t agree with her for “disciplinary action” based on false claims of bullying, etc. Basically while Sharon herself mansplains every topic to everyone and in her arrogance believes she is an expert on literally every topic, as soon as someone disagrees with her she cries and plays the victim, as abusive people often do. If successful, the people she submits for this process can be kept from being allowed to speak during sessions allowing Sharon to further protect her corporate donors by removing balancing voices. This is again why the strong liberal women I know find her to be a a total joke and do not feel represented by her. They wonder why she can’t seem to speak for herself and always seems to be reading from scripts in the few public appearances she makes. We all know why. Because she doesn’t speak on her own behalf. She speaks on behalf of corporations. It’s sad with so many better candidates out there, like Jason, that the 42nd chose to run such a poor candidate again. In fact they didn’t just choose to. They made it clear to better candidates that they shouldn’t run against her. Currently the SHewmake Cartel is even stooping to attaking journalists and non-profits to get their way just for not agreeing with them. So the parties have given us another choice between a giant douche and a turd sandwich to vote for and yes, it was intentional. Btw, the Shewmake Dems. have been violating my free speech rights and pulling comments from here to attack my volunteer work in the community. I’m sure this one will make it in there too. So even though my work litearlly involves giving out free computes to the poor and near-homeless, etc. the Dems. are trying to remove that work to protect Sharon’s point of view. So in other words they will attack the people that have it the hardest to get what they want. Time to write in candidates and run independently.