"NRA? I don't even know the NRA!"

Trump frames gun violence as a mental illness problem and says "I think we have to start building institutions again." pic.twitter.com/aiJ1N98HFb

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 15, 2019

So much for pushing gun control legislation.  Didn't really expect that to last much longer, did you?

The overwhelming majority of people with mental illnesses don’t hurt anyone. The overwhelming majority of gun violence is not caused by mental illness. The problem isn’t that mentally ill people aren’t locked up. The problem is guns. https://t.co/CgaziT8JvE

— Jill Filipovic (@JillFilipovic) August 15, 2019

 

It works this way:  mentally ill people shouldn't have guns.  People who shoot as many other people at once as they can are mentally ill.  We know that because they just shot a lot of people.  They shouldn't have had a gun.  Gun owners are trustworthy, stable, mentally healthy people; until one of them shoots a lot of people at once.  Then they are mentally ill, and shouldn't have had a gun.  But only then; never before then.

It's people who are the danger; not guns.  Or, if you want it straight, no chaser:

The gun is not a mere tool,” writes Garry Wills, or “a bit of technology, a political issue, a point of debate. It is an object of reverence. Devotion to it precludes interruption with the sacrifices it entails. Like most gods, it does what it will and cannot be questioned. Its acolytes think it is capable only of good things. It guarantees life and safety and freedom. It even guarantees law. Law grows from it. Then how can law question it?”

I can go around and around and around in these circles for far too long a time.