Crowning Trump king

....is that the gun control lobby is pointing at a few mass casualty events involving the Armalite platform, and then to get significance, they change the definition to include a lot of events NOT involving the Armalite platform.

Come on, Tom. I've been following gun control arguments for over four decades. In the 1970s, the concern was "Saturday night specials." In the 1980s and 1990s, it was inexpensive semi-auto pistols like the MAC-10, and in the 1990s and 2000s, it was the SKS and Kalishnikov. (in the 1940s and 1950s, it was sawed off shotguns and the like, in the 1930s, it was the Thompson, etc..)

All through this time, gun control advocates hitched their wagon to the fear of the month, and as soon as one gun was proscribed, criminals went to a new one. Maybe it's time to stop playing "Gun Control Whack-a-Mole" and start addressing root causes for crime like family breakup (or lack of formation), unwed parenting, the drug trade, and mental illness.

Put differently, if the AR platform is so much more lethal than, say, the Thompson or Kalishnikov platform, that comes as news to many of the armies of the world using the AK platform. A few mass casualty events involving a certain gun does not in itself equate to a need to infringe on the rights of millions of Americans.

Ken S wrote: The different viewpoints about guns even in this thread illustrate that there are intelligent people on both sides of many of the political issues we fight about in this country. That was my main pushback to one of the comments earlier in the thread stating that a person who votes third party or for Biden should reckon themselves unfit to consider politics.

yeah, that was me.

Re: Guns.

Yes, I view Trump's position on gun control as superior to Biden's. I acknowledge that some here disagree.

Re: Border/Immigration

It is simply not reasonable to suggest that Biden's policy is anything but horrible and far inferior to Trump's. Ken, your original suggestion regarding this was, "Immigration policies: We can both build a wall/protect our borders and make immigration more accessible at the same time." Yeah - ok. But what you're describing is FAR closer to Trump's overall policy that Biden's.

Re: Police reform. "Defund the police" is HORRIBLE policy. Even the Dems have recently been lying and saying, "I never said defund the police."

Re: Character - Ken, you said, "I'm not by any stretch in love with Biden and don't think he's a good president, but it's my opinion that he is a far better person than Trump."

Dave added:

Willing to subvert the law and democratic process? Yes. Calling on people to find and change votes in his favor. Having supporters setup gallows on the front lawn of the Capital for his own Vice President to be hung. Whether he actively supported them or not, he is ready to pardon all of them.

He just jumps from conspiracy theory to conspiracy theory. He is so focused on some kind of Biden Conspiracy with Ukraine and Hunter's laptop.

??? "Some kind of conspiracy with Ukraine." Hunter gets paid millions by oil business in Ukraine. An official in Ukraine sees corruption and wants to investigate. (VP)Biden tells Ukraine that US aid is dependent on that investigation going away, which happens. Later, Biden channels millions billions to Ukraine. This isn't "some kind of conspiracy." It's corruption!

??? The laptop - This hit the news prior to the 2020 election. Biden and the corrupt FBI lied that it was Russian collusion. That was a lie that gained traction because it echoed Hillary's claim that Trump colluded with the Russians to win the 2016 election, which also was a lie manufactured by Hillary's team.

Trump tried to get the corrupt press to look at the laptop, but they told him that it absolutely was Russian collusion and not real. But it was. Those lies alone were enough to make the election legitimately "stolen."

Dan,

Your reasoning for stating "that a person who votes third party or for Biden should reckon themselves unfit to consider politics" comes across as a partisan political junkie that has watched way too much Fox News, Newsmax, or OAN, which often paints the Democrats and policies in the worst light possible. At the same time, I also recognize that several of the policies of the Democrats are in fact anti-Biblical and demonic (i.e. Abortion on Demand). On several of these points such as Police Reform and Immigration, there is much more historical context and variety of opinions among Democratic leaders and policy makers that you choose to ignore in order to parrot the straw man lies that conservative pundits love to tell.

For instance, let's look at Police Reform and Defunding the Police. First, the term "Defunding the Police" needs to be specifically defined. Are you talking about stripping the police forces of the funds in order to abolish the police because they believe they are inherently racist? There are about 10% of Democratic Congressmen and women that have and still use the term "Defunding the Police." such as AOC and the rest of the squad, Jamaal Bowman, and Cori Clark in this way. The Police Abolition Movement among the far-left is evil.

Or are you talking about reallocating resources and the police force so that Police don't have to be mental health social workers as part of their job description? For instance, in most urban communities, some of the police resources and manpower are used to deal with mentally ill (i.e schizophrenia, severe bi-polar) and drug addicted homeless that loiter, panhandle, or urinate/defecate in public. Can social workers handle some of these issues in partnership with the police so that you don't have mobilize nearly as many police officers to deal with these petty crimes? I know several Democrats that initially used "Defunding" language for this reason until they realized that they were being associated with the police abolitionists.

There is also a segment of those who initially used Police Defunding to refer to demilitarizing the police of its upkeep of military and tactical war equipment and armored personnel carriers that it received from the Department of Defense after the first Iraq war. In my 30+ years of living and doing urban ministry in drug/crime infested neighborhoods, I can confidently say that there is absolutely no justification for police departments and their SWAT teams having armored personnel carriers. I've personally seen multiple VICE squads in my neighborhood take down armed drug dealers and even arms dealers without military issued equipment such as this and were very effective. The problem is that conservative media pundits and politicians broad-brush everyone into a "police-abolitionist" view of "Defunding" and cherry-pick their statements and beliefs back in 2020, when it was actually a smaller minority of Democrats that embraced police-abolitionist "Defunding" view. By the way, because I believe that community policing is the best, time-tested strategy of reducing crime in urban communities, I believe in increasing police budgets in order for community policing to be successful.

Sadly, behind some of the conservative criminology ideology (secular) are some of the worst theories of justice and punishment that have little or no Biblical warrant. The unintended consequences of the broken-window theory or even deterrence theory have created a nation of over criminalization and mass incarceration. I feel bad for police because they are asked to enforce too many laws that have been created.

By the way, having listened to Trump since he announced his presidential run last year, he is promoting executing drug dealers as part of his platform (extreme deterrence theory) He makes up statistics such as the average drug dealer kills 500 people in their lifetime as justification for dealing with America's drug problem. (There is no social science study that's been conducted that tracked drug dealers and murder rates over a lifetime). It's another way of dehumanizing a segment of the population for political gain. It's unconstitutional, anti-Biblical, and untruthful, but MAGA folks eat it up. Much of my ministry has been discipling fatherless drug-dealers for the past 20 years. Many have repented of their old ways and are now strong Christians impacting their communities for Christ. If Trump becomes the nominee again, when he is calling for woefully unjust execution of several people that our ministry is currently reaching out to with the gospel, are you telling me that I am not fit to consider politics if I vote 3rd party again rather than Trump?