Guns. They are the most important issue among U.S. citizens today. Those citizens want something done tout suite. Yes, citizens are stuck with a weaponized and intergenerational Congress but that ain’t all. Read this clip from Politico:
“When Texas resident Zackey Rahimi asked a federal appellate court to review his conviction for violating a federal law that prohibits those under protective orders for domestic abuse from owning guns, he made a sweeping claim: that the law violated his Second Amendment rights. That argument was bogus, a three-judge panel said last summer.
But now, the same court agrees with him — and has vacated his conviction after invalidating a federal law that barred alleged domestic abusers like Rahimi, who stands accused of assaulting his girlfriend, from possessing firearms. Advocates said the law, which can no longer be enforced in Texas, Louisiana or Mississippi, was crucial in keeping victims safe.
So what changed? In a word: the Supreme Court.
Just two weeks after the denial of Rahimi’s appeal last summer, the nation’s highest court decided its first major gun case in a decade. In New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, the court’s 6-3 conservative majority held that individuals have a broad right to carry guns outside their homes, striking down a New York law that required them to show cause in order to receive open-carry permits.”
Once an individual makes it to the Supreme Court, they are untouchable for life. Further, they are appointed by a weaponized, intergenerational Congress. In the foreseeable future, there is no chance the nation would allow or survive a Constitutional Convention. There is only one action that will loosen the SCOTUS pattern of depending on antique conditions that were relevant in 1776: push for Congress to rewrite the “appointed for life” clause so that all judges, from every level of court, are subject to term limits, perhaps twenty years. (Incidentally, mariner has advocated tenure-based term limits for Congress as well).
As to the issue of guns on the streets, paper trails (record checks, etc.,) will never work – they are too easily circumvented and will lead to an active black market. The most promising approach would make retailers and parents of minors liable for criminal abuse by customers to which the retailer sold firearms. This tactic was attempted recently against the gun manufacturers but, of course, failed in our Plutocratic Congress.
However, this idea of imposing liability on those who deliver unsociable products is popular now as Congress has been forced by public opinion to address privacy and security in the tech industry. Europe is way ahead of the U.S. in using this method.
Never vote for anyone older than 55. Times are changing too fast.
Ancient Mariner
This perspective pretty much describes the situation for virtually every developed nation. In the United States, the U.S. Census Bureau released estimates showing the nation’s 65-and-older population has grown rapidly since 2010, driven by the aging of Baby Boomers born between 1946 and 1964. The 65-and-older population has increased by over a third during the last decade.