OT- Active Shooter In San Bernardino, CA.

**BigPlayReceiver** · 12-07-2015, 10:48 AM

Originally Posted by JohnBKistler

Although each "problem" or "need" should be evaluated on its own merits, I would tend to agree with your opinion.

The problem is that we as a country have not had a true "What's the proper role of the federal government?" conversation since at least the Eisenhower administration (or maybe Goldwater's failed campaign). Reagan, for all his "small government talk" increased the size and scope of the federal government.

The result is you have a Republican party that doesn't know how to make the case for a limited federal government, and very few candidates that have walked-the-walk in their career. Far too many (Bush 1, Bush 2, just about any Republican Senator) talk-the-talk and then once they get to Rome, it is "Do as the Romans do."

You also have an entire generation of media pundits/reporters that are more-or-less raised on the alter of ever larger federalism. The result is you can't even have a meaningful political conversation about how to spend limited resources within the federal government. Anyone even attempting to start such a conversation is demagogued.

For example, If I say, "Do we really need a Department of Education?", I will immediately be accused of wanting to take money out of the school system or not caring about the school kids.

Well, no. Perhaps I want to take the money budgeted to the DoEd and distribute it among parents as vouchers and let them choose where to spend it. Or maybe I just want to redistribute it among the states and let local politicians decide. But you can't even have that conversation these days.

(I have a lot more thoughts on this subject, but my hands are getting tired of typing and I have some things I need to go do....)

Yup. This pretty much nails the state of professional/national political discourse in these United States.

**BigPlayReceiver** · 12-07-2015, 10:53 AM

WaPo: We've had a massive decline in gun violence in the United States here's why...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...ampaign=buffer

TL;DR - There are multiple reasons that may be causations or correlations.

**lovefootball** · 12-07-2015, 06:17 PM

Originally Posted by BigPlayReceiver

WaPo: We've had a massive decline in gun violence in the United States here's why...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...ampaign=buffer

TL;DR - There are multiple reasons that may be causations or correlations.

SMH, using a report from up to 2013 is not making me feel any better. The others were up to 2014. I'll wait for the 2015 report, you know, this year and all it's shootings, LOL.

**darb72** · 12-07-2015, 09:41 PM

Originally Posted by lovefootball

SMH, using a report from up to 2013 is not making me feel any better. The others were up to 2014. I'll wait for the 2015 report, you know, this year and all it's shootings, LOL.

The years are always a little behind. We'll probably get 2015 around 2017 or so.

My question is what do gun-control advocates want? California had a Brady rating of 81, and the shooters in San Bernardino purchased at least some of their guns legally. Then there were the pipe bombs. Amazingly enough, most of the mass shootings occur in states run by Democrats. California, Maryland, etc...http://timelines.latimes.com/deadlie...ting-rampages/