oldmanfan

I like your ideas on this. I do think we have to decide, as Scalia suggests in Heller, what arms we as a society deem appropriate for ownership. I am fine with people having guns, but question the need for guns where you can shoot potentially hundreds of bullets in a minute.

Both. I have been told both. Black folks are scared of the police; police are scared too. That situation needs to be fixed and that's what should be focused on. I have been pulled over maybe half a dozen times in my life, a few times for speeding, a couple times for something wrong with my car, a couple times because I was late updating my registration sticker. In each case, I had one police officer pull me over, come up to my window (which I had already rolled down, and ask me for my license and registration if needed, or to tell me what was wrong with my car. Not one time in such a stop have I ever had a police officer order to me to exit my car or get loud with me. each interaction was pleasant and we each were polite with each other, even when I thought I didn't deserve a ticket. If you look at the incident the other day, either for the soldier who did not have a license plate showing (which he did upon further examination) in the one in Minneapolis, there were multiple police officers who showed up, and the individuals were ordered out of their cars for something that have not have. The question is why. Why are the police scared in such situations, and why are blacks scared to comply? Rather than talking past each other, real conversations need to take place. I am a big proponent of law and order. The problem isn't the law part, it's the order part that has to be worked on.

No. Because the people I talk to are just driving along in my town, and get pulled over for no reason. Again, I am not a black man. Black men and women have a different perspective. So do the police. It would behoove everyone in our society to step back and look at things from another's perspective. If I'm a police officer I am worried every night I go out on shift if I'm coming back home the next day. If you talk to back men and women, they say the same thing when they or their child goes out that night.

Well, here's a first person account. I have black friends whom I've talked with about this issue, and they also report being followed and such. I try to put myself in the other person's shoes, and not try to suggest they don't have different shoes.

I agree in part. But I am also not a black man. And from speaking to those who are, they feel that even if they do so they are in danger. You and I may not agree with that, but I don't walk in their shoes. I look at this latest incident and compare it to six months ago when I was pulled over for not having a front headlight working. The policeman walked up to my car window. kindly informed me that I had a light out, and I thanked him and told him I'd get it fixed. He thanked me and we were done. Would that same encounter happened if I were black? I don't know. I do know friends of my daughter that are black report being followed and/or pulled over for no reason.

This incident defines the word tragedy. To the larger issue, there is simply no trust on either side anymore. The black community has no trust in the police; they feel they are at risk every time they encounter a policeman. And the police have no trust that they won't get ambushed. I don't know how you get trust back.

I doubt this goes through, but both sides are guilty of playing politics with the court. Ted Kennedy started the entire issue with confirmation hearings with Bork, and they've gotten to the point of being ridiculous at this point. McConnell invented his nonsense with the Garland confirmation and lack thereof. The politicians have turned the third branch of government, the branch that theoretically should be free from political crap, into just that.

I agree , but again what the black community sees is that even if they did just comply they might still get shot. I might think that’s crazy but I’m not black. If you or I drive a car where the license plate isn’t visible we get pulled over, the police see it in the window and tell us to have a nice day. The black soldier the other day has guns pointed at him. Go spoil the new grandchild!

First Longmire is great. My wife and I watched the entire series. Second, I don’t experience what you describe because I’m not a cop. What you describe is why I am pro-police; they have an impossibly difficult job. But I be am also not a black man, and those black friends that I talk to feel they are in a no win situation when stopped by the police. They feel they are at risk of getting shot by the police because of their skin color. You may not understand that; I don’t. But just as I am not in the position of the police, I am not in the position of a black man. Also, you and others assume that the person in question was on drugs. That in itself shows some bias; that the black man must be on drugs. The kid that was shot the other day I don’t think was pulled over for that. But when you have 4 officers surrounding one guy, and they can’t subdue him without using a weapon, that to me indicates that more training is needed. You, I and another person may have more difficulty subduing someone; several trained police should not.

I am all for law enforcement. I am pro-police. But someone needs to explain why you have multiple police officers around one guy and they can’t take him down or subdue him without resorting to a taser. There needs to be better training of police in physically and emotionally handling such events. And how a 20 some year veteran cannot tell she’s not holding a taser? Friends that are black tell me they are afraid. They are scared if they sit in the car and try to comply they’ll get shot, if they obey and exit they’ll get shot. That has to change.

nope.

The other thing I’d look at is ammunition. Simple math tells me that if you have a magazine that can shoot 10 bullets vs. magazines that can shoot 100, I can do ten times more damage with the latter. I am not a gun guy so I would need input on this being possible.

I like the idea of a federal study. I think that formal studies of effects of gun types, amount of gun violence, etc. have been discouraged

That would have helped. But one of the unique features of Covid was the asymptomatic carrier status,

In Thr Heller decision Scalia indicated that you have the right to bear arms but the type of arms you can carry could be regulated. Maybe we should listen to him.

No. Once we knew about the fact that you could have asymptomatic carrying for a couple weeks, we could have all gotten behind masking and distancing. A lot less people would have died.

I helped take it off the rails so I apologize. MLB will normalize and stay about the same I suspect. Some hardcore people might leave and pick up some hardcore on the other side of the aisle. With time feelings will subside.

Probably true. Many viruses are. But it took research to confirm.

Again it is moot. No one claimed a mask mandate at a federal level. You are erecting false straw men you can knock down to try and make yourself look smart. It didn’t work.

A mask mandate is not unconstitutional and they never mandated one federally. States did, and governors have executive power to do so. And the we we are endowed by our creator line is from the Declaration and not the Constitution. Your level of stupidity regarding the constitution is stunning. As far as Trump abdicating responsibility the list of things he should have done but didn’t is too long to detail here. We could start with him knowing it would be severe but then told Americans otherwise.

I hope so. But there’s a reason that provision was put in. Same for taking overall responsibility from the Secretary of State. Bottom line is they made a law to address a non-existent issue.

I don’t like the legislature being able to potentially disenfranchise voters by overruling county officials.

I truly hope that when a Republican legislature sees long lines in a Democratic county that they will open more polling places. But of course they could have done that last election but you still had very long lines in counties that are primarily Democratic. Color me skeptical. I want everybody to be able to vote. I would make the same comments if a Democratic legislature did this to highly Republican counties. Can you say the same?

Where do most of the black voters in Georgia live is the question to ask. In the counties in and around Atlanta and other cities.

Over 50%. Now, quit being such an insufferable a-hole.