In all the hoopla around school safety and gun violence, one group of citizens has been unrepresented: mentally unstable gun owners (MUGOs). While victims of gun violence get undue sympathy, support and, yes, news coverage, MUGOs have almost no voice. Fortunately, House Speaker Tim Moore and the NRA are determined to change that.
Radical Democrats in the legislature proposed legislation that would allow the courts to take guns away from people who are a danger to themselves or others. The so-called Red Flag bill was similar to measures supported by RINOs like US Senator Marco Rubio and passed by liberal GOP-controlled legislatures like the ones in Indiana and Florida. The legislation, also known as Extreme Risk Protection Orders or Gun Violence Restraining Orders, would allow the courts to temporarily remove fire arms from MUGOs if family members or law enforcement could show these people might cause harm to themselves or other people. In other words, this legislation would take guns out of the hands of potentially violent offenders, violating their rights by preventing them from becoming violent offenders.
Fortunately, Moore takes the NRA and their campaign contributions seriously. He understands that the right to bear arms trumps the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Murders and suicides by MUGOs are a small price to pay for a truly free society. Moore knows that a gunshot to the head is not the scene of a tragedy but the sound of freedom.
So as soon as the proposed legislation hit the floor, Moore sent the bill to die a lonely death in the Rules Committee. Moore is one of those Republican leaders that understands there’s nothing the government can do to prevent gun violence and we certainly shouldn’t try. He also knows that the wishes of the NRA should be sacrosanct. Moore, MAGA and MUGOs: an emerging American tradition.
Thomas Mills is the founder and publisher of PoliticsNC.com. Before beginning PoliticsNC, Thomas spent twenty years as a political and public affairs consultant. Learn more >
And in the fervor of doing the good thing and attacking the problem at its source, we ban knives since Julia has obviously dipped into the Chardonnay a bit too much to be a responsible Chef.
It is and always has been my belief that the purpose of criminal law was to sanction bad behavior. Behavior which ran counter to an enlightened and informed society. To punish those that engaged in activity which the society they reside in has deemed unacceptable. Criminal law too has likewise been reactive to the offense. After all, with few exceptions how can you have a crime without the act and the accompanying intent?
But in this debate, we seek to restrict, limit, or remove the implement by which the injury is committed. We seek this on the basis of the inherent deadliness of the implement and the lack of any worthwhile use for it other than that fact that people desire to possess them. There are those that either are or portend themselves to be more; more enlightened, more insightful, more educated, or more evolved than others who hold a different perspective on this matter.
Now, this new acronym MUGO is a complete contradiction in terms. I find myself asking how anyone that is Mentally Unstable can be a Gun Owner. And why, since apparently this is such a group among the population, do they need not what appears to be some sort of Mickey Mouse law to shield them and their owner/possessorship, but does so while totally ignoring the fact that these people don’t need gun ownership, they need intense counseling, therapy, chemicals to help bring them back into balance, and in many cases, in-patient commitment in order for the treatments to work. But no. We need these people out walking around among the population. We don’t regulate or check on whether or not they’re getting their meds. We don’t ensure they are not slipping back into mental illness; but we are trying to guarantee them gun rights of ownership/possession. That might just sound circular in reason but conceptually is two different things.
First, if you are mentally unstable, you should not be able to possess a weapon. I’m not convinced you should even have a driver’s license. Is that punishing someone because of an illness? No, that is protecting the many against the few. I recognize that not all people who are mentally unstable are a danger to themselves or others. But I’m not likewise convinced they should be trusted until they prove themselves unworthy of it. That’s known as an “ounce of prevention…” and since we are dealing with a disease, the shoe seems to fit.
Second, you are addressing the problem at its core and not the implement used. Ban guns. Go ahead. Do you think this will stop or cease? I assure you it will not. While assaults with firearms will begin a decline, assaults and mass killings will grow with other mechanisms of injury. I’ll give you the following real-world example. In Gaston County this week, a man drove his vehicle into a restaurant and killed his daughter and daughter-in-law. He was a former law enforcement officer. His daughter a deputy. His son a LEO. His daughter in law a nurse. He had surrendered his guns to his son in the months prior to this assault because he recognized his illness in himself. He chose another path to destruction. The point here is, until you address the root cause which is mental illness, you will not stop the perpetuation of mass murder no matter what we as a society decide to ban.
School shootings. We have managed to create a ‘target rich environment’ with schools. Open, inviting, indulging. School security has to be both static and dynamic and it can’t start at the front door. It has to be adaptive and one size certainly does not fit all. No, this is not a “new normal.” No, we are not numb to the fact of acceptance of this type of insanity. I’m fed up with it. I’m sick of seeing lives and futures torn apart simply because we refuse to address the illness behind the disaster.
I could care less about the NRA; I’m neither a supporter or member. And yes, in agreement with Jay, it’s about money. I understand too that there are many who are regular to this blog that think the 2nd Amendment has outlived its original intent and purpose. Perhaps. But right now we have a President in name and title that thinks the same thing about the 1st Amendment and if his true intentions were known, probably the 4th, 5th, 6th, 14th,19th, 20th, 22nd and probably a few more besides. You can’t use surgical precision when all you have is a shredder. You are also dealing with a Congress that has little regard to withhold, counter, or deny this madman and his whims.
So yes, it’s time for action. The problem is selecting which action. The path forward isn’t easy nor is it brightly lit. We must tread carefully.
This column sounds like a skit from Saturday Night Live – like the impersonation of Julia Child who slices her arms and bleeds to death while making a chicken dinner.
Conferring victim status upon Mentally Unstable Gun Owners (MUGOs) as a priority in the midst of schoolyards awash in the blood of our children begs the question: “Are you serious?!” Wouldn’t the more appropriate concern for the MUGOs be whether or not they are receiving sufficient mental health therapy and not worrying so much about how they feel about their Uzis or AKs?
The morbid obsession with gun rights which arises out of an incomprehensible contortion of the language of the Second Amendment leads us to regular episodes of insanity. The children who murder our children with their parents’ guns are not members of a “well-regulated militia” and neither are their parents, with few exceptions.
The NRA has become an organization that supports terror, terrorists, mentally unstable individuals and enemies of the United States. The NRA was a conduit for Russian money to the Trump campaign and to our leaders in the North Carolina General Assembly.
For decades, the NRA told Washington that guns weren’t the problem. Crime was the problem. They suggested that until criminals were eliminated from our streets, guns would be misused. Congress took that prescription and embarked on a long, expensive failed attempt to eliminate gun violence by locking up millions of Americans, mostly poor people and minorities. We excelled in locking people up. Just 4% of the world’s population, the United States maintains a quarter of the world’s prisoners.
We have to ask ourselves if it wouldn’t be cheaper and more effective and wouldn’t we save more lives if we confronted gun violence directly? The obstacle standing between a horrific public health crisis and a solution is the power and influence of a malignant terrorist organization. The business of selling guns and ammunition trumps public safety everywhere, every day.
The madness has a root cause. Our politicians want their money.
Nice try, Thomas. But, as you know, satire just doesn’t get through to North Carolina’s Republican legislative leaders. With no sense of humor or self-effacement, they wouldn’t know humor if they stepped in it.
And, irony? Forget it. Trump has killed humor and his
sycophants mope along behind him.
When you have lost these traits and you govern as if what you are doing is forever, the next election will certainly come as a surprise.
Yet, I want more satire–keep it up.