Several

[selenak]

Like I imagine a great many people I've spent the last few weeks admiring the Parkland teenagers and the way they refuse to let the massacre at their high school be followed by the usual resounding nothing (other than "thoughts and prayers", and "it's too early", of course). The lunacy of the US gun laws has never failed to baffle and infuriate me for decades, specially since it's gotten worse, not better, at nearly every turn. Which is why I found this article on the NRA lobbyist behind Floriday's gun policy - which was subsequently adopted in at least two dozen US states - both very informative and deeply disturbing. It explains the precise why and wherefores, so take a deep breath and read.

Meanwhile, the Tories continuing to demonstrate delusion and incompetence on Brexit - save the occasional John Major, and if you'd told me in the 80s that John Major would turn out to be the embodiment of sanity and common sense in the Conservative Party... - but that particular lunacy at least doesn't come with regular mass slaughter (yet). Still, this article says it all.

Since the real world continues to make so little sense, it's always a relief to turn to fiction. I was happy to see that ssrconfidential will be running again this year, bringing us Agent Carter stories: this is the post with the time table.

Comments

[chelseagirl]

There is a fundamentalism towards the US Constitution that is puzzling, and a strange guns = freedom mentality among some, far from all, of us that makes the whole thing exceptionally difficult. Some of my friends are predicting this will be the new antiwar movement and that we'll see youth activism as we haven't since the Vietnam War era.

[selenak]

The most interesting thing about this "guns = freedom" cult I've learned in recent weeks is that it was NOT the NRA's original position - that in the 1930s, its leader actually was pro gun control. Presumably decades of successful brainwashing caused by profit of guns ensued?

I so hope for Never Again being the new anti Vietnam War movement, I can't tell you.

[chelseagirl]

The association of the second amendment with individual gun ownership rights is a relatively recent development. Unfortunately, now that the gates have been opened . . .