President Joe Biden and several activists have ramped up their demands that the LEGAL AGE for purchasing guns be increased from 18 to 21 and that assault weapons be BANNED altogether..
An idea whose time has come. Again. You see, we once had such a PROHIBITION on assault weapons. It was enacted in 1994 following a mass shooting the previous year on a schoolyard in Stockton, California, that claimed the lives of five children and injured 29 others, including a teacher.
Ten years later and the Repugnantcan Party had taken firm control of Congress and the ban was allowed to expire quietly, though President Obama attempted, without success, even after Sandy Hook, to renew the ban.
Now, with people like Ted “Cancun” Cruz, John “Weed Killer” Kennedy, Steve KKK. Scalise, Clay Pigeon Higgins, and scores of like-minded mental giants, no one is talking seriously about a ban. In fact, no Repugnantcan in Congress supports even raising the age limit for purchase of a kid killer. That would include, of course, every single member of our congressional delegation of the Repugnantcan stripe: Sens. Kornpone Kennedy and Bill Cassidy, and Reps. Scalise, Higgins, Mike Johnson, Julia Letlow and Garret Graves.
But really, who truly needs and assault weapon? I’ve said here before that if you need a 30-round clip to take out that buck, then you should consider another hobby. Hunting just ain’t your strong suit. And that goes for Betsy Devos and her grizzly bears in the classroom and for Cassidy’s feral hogs, as well.
A reader correctly pointed out that AR-15s are technically not “assault” weapons, but are semi-automatics that require one to squeeze the trigger with each shot. But they are capable of accommodating 15-, 30-, 42-, and even 100-round clips, which makes them a bit more deadly than your typical bolt-action.
Assault weapons are designed for one purpose and one purpose only: war. They are killing machines intended for the military to use in times of war. Killing human beings. They were not designed to be placed in the hands of a bunch of well-intentioned, but ill-trained citizens. And if my reader will pardon my impudence, when they’re used to slaughter innocent children at point-blank range, they are “assault” weapons in the truest sense of the word.
(Another reader questioned my courage in the case of a school shooting while noting that I had never served in the military and that in the end, he would have my back. Well, he was wrong about my military experience. While his apparent role model Trump did not serve, I did. Maybe he got us confused. But I also seriously doubt I could really count on him in a crisis, his boisterous, puffed-up claim notwithstanding. But that’s another argument for another day.)
I just can’t understand why politicians are dancing all around the real issue: keeping these weapons out of the hands of the nut cases. Yeah, I know if you ban them, only the gangstas, the bad guys, will have them. But you have to start somewhere and I suggest making the penalty for possession an assault weapon severe enough to at least make them take notice.
If they’re banned altogether, it would be much more difficult for the likes of the Columbine shooters to obtain the weapons through a “straw-man” purchase the way they did 23 years ago. Eric Harris was 18 and Dylan Klebold 17 when they went on that rampage that left 15 dead, including themselves. The Parkland, Florida, shooter was 19, the Sandy Hook assassin was 20, and the killers at Buffalo and Uvalde were each 18.
Those ages have prompted knee-jerk reactions like arming teachers and raising the legal purchase age for an assault weapon from 18 to 21. Arming teachers is pure insanity; the last thing we need is a Dodge City shoot-out in a room full of hysterical children and is raising the minimum age for legal purchase really going to help?
No!
Harris and Klebold were both under 18 at the time their weapons used at Columbine were purchased. The simply had a friend who was 18 make the buy – from an unlicensed gun dealer – for them. Do you really believe an 18-year-old wouldn’t have a 21-year-old friend who could purchase an AR-15 for him?
Let’s take a moment to examine the mental maturity of the average male.
We’re all blessed with something called the frontal cortex. That’s part of the brain and as the name implies, it’s at the front of the head – and it’s the very last part of the human brain to reach full maturity, generally in the mid-twenties.
Not 18, not 21, but the mid-twenties, as in 25 YEARS OF AGE.
And what is the FUNCTION of the frontal cortex?
Some pretty crucial responsibilities there: self-control, emotional control, self-monitoring, voluntary behavior, problem-solving, intelligence…
There are two frontal lobes – the left and right hemispheres. Both lobes are the home of our personalities with the left lobe being the most dominant, working on such mundane tasks as logical thinking and analytical reasoning.
Our brain develops in a back-to-front fashion. The rear part of the brain starts to develop first, and the development moves from the rear to the front. The Prefrontal cortex is developed last. It is why teenage till young adulthood is critical as in this time frame, the prefrontal cortex is still developing, and our experiences, social interactions, and learning can impact the development of this region.
And again, the frontal cortex does not mature until the mid-twenties.
In some cases, never. An online story in today’s Baton Rouge Advocate tells of a 66-year-old man in Walker, in Livingston Parish where I call home, who was arrested for threatening, not once, but twice, to shoot a Florida Vietnamese-American US representative.
Charles T. Germany, who resided in trailer 31 at a mobile home park, twice called the office of Rep. Stephanie Murphy and, believe it or not, left voice messages saying:
“Yeah. Um, emergency response would be nice. You democratic buffoons. What are you doing to our f****** country? What the hell? I swear to God. If I could get up there, I’d kill every one of you. Y’all the stupidest mother******* on this planet. What the f*** is wrong with you? Don’t you see what you doing to this country? That buffoon you got as a president, which he got elected very wrongly and you know it, look at his son. What the f*** are you doing in our country? I’ll kill you myself, you b****.”
And:
“Hello? Some congresswoman. You Joe Biden f****** piece of s***. F*** you!”
Of course, he got a visit from the black SUVs in short order, as well might be expected.
Like I said, some frontal cortexes take a little longer to mature.
Louisiana Voice 
What cn we do to make an impression? Can we get every single person who feels as we do to write, call, and email our idiotic Congresspeople and beg for the laws? And even if we do would it make a difference? I am very frustrated and feeling very impotent in the face of the Republican united face of resistance to ANY sensible laws. Even if they don’t do the right thing and ban them, it WOULD help to raise the age and make it a little harder for unfinished frontal cortexes to just walk up and buy them. I am so fed up with “They’re trying to take away our guns!” GRRR!
I’m convinced that this batch of Republicans is incapable of acting in a way that doesn’t put our country at risk or doesn’t benefit themselves and only Republicans. Time and time again they do things that lack any attempt to show that they care about Democrats, or, for that matter, Republicans. Republicans vote for these morons simply because of party loyalty even though the Republicans enact policies that hurt them.
Excellent. Thank you Tom. This madness must stop.
As Stephen Winham often says here the best way to effect change is to vote these politicians out of office. And it’s not as if it isn’t possible, Most people thought Vitter would defeat Edwards easily. But how do you reach people who get literally ALL their information from propaganda media? And because of it really do live in an alternate reality. I’ve talked to people I’ve known for years until I am blue in the face and never scratched the surface of their convictions. They have abandoned all intellectual honesty in pursuit of their prejudices. If anyone has ideas I would love to hear them. Otherwise I’m afraid it’s going to end violently.
I too would love to know how to “deprogram” or provide them with “cult exit counseling” but as long as they are glued to the media propaganda media you mention and until ex 45 is gone, I, like you, have no confidence these people will ever change. It is like talking to a concrete wall.
Elected officials typically place great importance on poll results. However, every poll I’ve seen shows a majority of the population favor law changes for the purposes of stricter gun control. If financial support from gun interests does not explain the current disconnect between polls and federal Republican policies, that pretty much leaves raw partisanship, i. e., the fact (which has been clearly demonstrated on every policy from health care to Supreme Court appointments) that Republicans oppose pretty much everything Democrats favor – simply because Democrats favor them.
The most recent poll I’ve seen on gun control [Politico, conducted May 20-22 this year] shows, among other things, the following with regard to the percent of U. S. registered voters who believe stricter gun control legislation is very or somewhat important:
59% of all voters
83% of Democrats
52% of Independents
37% of Republicans
So, Republicans in Congress are clearly out of sync with everybody but Republicans on the issue of gun control and it should spell trouble for them. They don’t care about the rest of us, but they are counting on getting re-elected by their Republican constituents. Why? Because they can count on their votes, but don’t think the rest of us can vote them out of office. We have the power to do so and it is critical that we use it. Apathy was never the right approach and it is much less so now.
Agree with Mr.. Winham. The Repugs can still count on their team of shallow thinkers. Remember, Woody Jenkins promoting the AR 15 using a state employee from the Coroners office saying the AR 15 was good for home defense, you could even get a light for it. Flash back a few years and little Woody was waving a baby doll fighting the baby killers, Abortionist, wait, maybe we should have A life size Woody doll (would be short like Woody) holding a baby doll at each public school entrance, would be lot cheaper, no more taxes, and would be just as effective as Sen Lambert’s suggestion for well trained teachers with Guns. I will never give up but as a Believer, it is getting hard to love my enemies, but I will, I just do not like them. ron thompson.
Based on this logic a young man should not be allowed to serve in the military under the age of 25. I know several young men under the age of 25 who are very responsible and have normal brain function. These .00000001% who have committed these horrible crimes have more issues than slow brain maturity.
Personally, I think we should send the politicians off to the military first. Maybe then they’d be a little slower to initiate senseless wars.
You can throw out your pointless arguments all you like, but it does not change the science regarding the development of the frontal lobes. That information is a scientific fact based on extensive research and not some kneejerk, opinionated retort.