The head of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives says he fears that a drumbeat of mass shootings and other gun violence across the United States could make Americans numb to the bloodshed.

The head of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives says he fears that a drumbeat of mass shootings and other gun violence across the United States could make Americans numb to the bloodshed, fostering apathy to finding solutions rather than galvanizing communities to act.

Director Steve Dettelbach’s comments to The Associated Press came after he met this past week with family members of some of the 18 people killed in October at a bowling alley and a bar in Lewiston, Maine by a U.S. Army reservist who later took his own life.

He said people must not accept that gun violence is a prevalent part of American life.

  • athos77@kbin.social
    329·
    9 months ago

    We keep trying, but the courts and legislatures are packed with 2A nutters who believe that “a well regulated militia” means there shouldn’t be any restrictions on gun ownership.

          • maynarkh@feddit.nl
            4·
            9 months ago

            The founders of the United States didn’t want a permanent military.

            One could say the US drifted just a tiny tad bit off the original vision then.

          • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
            31·
            9 months ago

            Ok so why is it a right? Seems to me you are describing basically a volunteer fire department and if that is the case clearly 90 years old aren’t going to be part of it. I don’t know any other right that you lose by being too old.

              • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
                33·
                9 months ago

                Cool. Now I am just going to point to the blind. Got some anecdote from history about a blind soldier?

                Also if they aren’t frontline I am a bit confused about why they need a gun. I have done a bit of work on some Navy stuff as a civilian and a rifle wouldn’t have help me much in that task.

                Can you name another right that vanishes based on physical fitness?

    • DaDragon@kbin.social
      123·
      9 months ago

      To be fair to those legislators, that amendment is fairly clear with its ‘shall not be infringed’ statement. The only way out of that issue is to pass a new amendment invalidating the old one.

      • FaceDeer@kbin.social
        105·
        9 months ago

        No, that’s not being fair at all. The amendment in full reads:

        A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

        A full half of that single sentence is talking about “a well regulated militia” being the justification for allowing people to keep arms. There have been decades of flim-flammery ignoring that completely and trying to imply that the intent was to say “Militias are good for national security given how we just went through a rebellion that depended on them. Oh, and on a completely unrelated note, everyone should be allowed to carry portable machine guns and concealed hand-cannons the likes of which were never even imagined in our time.”

        This is a nutty interpretation.