Go back roughly 15 years: In 2005, California had almost the same rate of deaths from guns as Florida
or Texas. California had 9.5 firearms deaths per 100,000 people that
year, Florida had 10 and Texas 11, according to data from the National
Center for Health Statistics.
Since then, California repeatedly has tightened its gun laws, while Florida and Texas have moved in the opposite direction.
California’s
rate of gun deaths has declined by 10% since 2005, even as the national
rate has climbed in recent years. And Texas and Florida? Their rates of
gun deaths have climbed 28% and 37% respectively. California now has
one of the 10 lowest rates of gun deaths in the nation. Texas and
Florida are headed in the wrong direction.
David French has imagined how the gulf between the states might lead to a fictional CalExit via Joe Matthews:
It was gun violence that finally drove California to secede from the United States.
A series of mass shootings culminated in a savage, Columbine-style
attack on a Sacramento-area school that killed 35 kids and two cops. The
shooters used semi-automatic rifles and pistols with large-capacity
magazines—weaponry that had been illegal in California until the
conservative majority of the U.S. Supreme Court threw out the state’s
gun control laws. Californians raged that the justices—and the federal
government—had effectively murdered their children.
That anger soon spiraled into a cold civil war, with California’s
elected leaders openly defying federal officials and laws by outlawing
most guns, and imposing a mandatory buyback. An authoritarian Republican
president retaliated with an economic blockade of the state. After
right-wing militias invaded the state and used Facebook Live to
broadcast their massacre of California Highway Patrol officers enforcing
state gun laws, California’s governor declared her intention to depart
the Union, subject to the result of a referendum by voters. ...
Doesn't seem so farfetched after Uvalde, does it?
1 comment:
Anonymous
said...
I see no way this nation can continue for long. The right, particularly the Dominionist religious factor is not interested in compromise or democracy... just power on their own extremist terms. It is exactly like trying to engage in democratic dialogue with ISIS. It is past time to prepare ourselves for this in order to defend what regions remain committed to this ideals of equality and an open democracy against what is an inevitable and ruthless armed onslaught by the radical right. The radical right already demonstrated in January of last year that they are prepared for violent overthrow of legitimate government if they don't get there way. My main concern os that there is no armed militia in the side of democracy to defend our way of life against those on the right who follow no rules and use the flag and Constitution and, yes, religion only when it serves their people. Sadly, I am convinced that we are wasting time and resources in trying to persuade or engage in dialogue with an intransigent and single minded extremism on the right and should be putting that time and those resources into planning for an inevitable conflict. If I were a young and without family commitments I would be out of the US in a moment.
1 comment:
I see no way this nation can continue for long. The right, particularly the Dominionist religious factor is not interested in compromise or democracy... just power on their own extremist terms. It is exactly like trying to engage in democratic dialogue with ISIS. It is past time to prepare ourselves for this in order to defend what regions remain committed to this ideals of equality and an open democracy against what is an inevitable and ruthless armed onslaught by the radical right. The radical right already demonstrated in January of last year that they are prepared for violent overthrow of legitimate government if they don't get there way. My main concern os that there is no armed militia in the side of democracy to defend our way of life against those on the right who follow no rules and use the flag and Constitution and, yes, religion only when it serves their people. Sadly, I am convinced that we are wasting time and resources in trying to persuade or engage in dialogue with an intransigent and single minded extremism on the right and should be putting that time and those resources into planning for an inevitable conflict. If I were a young and without family commitments I would be out of the US in a moment.
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