It Appears That Gun Control Legislation Will Take Place After Parkland, Florida School Shooting.

This writer believes that the hand writing is on the wall and that Trump and the Congress will support gun control measures as follows:  (1)  Raise the minimum age to 21 from the current 18 to purchase firearms.  (2)  Strengthen the laws concerning background checks and purchases.  (3)  Ban the sale and use of bump stocks.  Trump, the republican party, the NRA and the gun lobby will all support those changes because banning assault style weapons will not be part of their plans.

Some democrats will support those three changes also but will also push for the ban on assault weapons because that is where the real problem needs to be addressed.  A 21 year old is just as capable of buying and using an assault type weapon as a 18 year old so nothing changes there.  Tightening gun laws will not stop the legal purchase of assault type weapons so there is no relief there and banning bump stocks which converts a rifle or gun into an automatic weapon was not used in the Florida mass school killings so it will not stop such future shootings.  Bump stocks were used by the Las Vegas shooter according to police last year in the record killing of 58 people and Trump and the republican party were silent about it until now.

The NRA and gun lobby will fake their displeasure but make no mistake help write the changes congress makes like they always do.  Their main interest is protecting their warped ideology that any type firearm should be allowed to be purchased and since Trump and the republican party receive the great majority of their campaign contributions, the NRA and gun lobby will be satisfied with the changes.

The best answer to the mass killings would be to ban the assault type automatic and semi-automatic weapons from the streets of America that are killing machines.  That is why they were created, to inflict the greatest amount of damage in the shortest period of time.  Any thing less than a ban is window dressing and the mass shootings and killings will continue.


This commentary written by Joe Lorio

Cal Thomas: A Journalist Who Should Hand Up His Writing Pen

The conservative journalist in a Times Picayune opinion column titled, "Boldly going like no President before" Thomas finally admits that the Reagan administration never cut spending, quite a statement since Reagan left office over 30 years ago and the fact that Thomas' party is still proclaiming Reagan did cut spending.  The article makes no sense because Thomas proposes that congress does what he says they never do.

Conservative journalists follow the line of empty commentary because they can not find any thing positive to write about when republicans control the White House and the congress.  After 13 months in office the Trump White House is a good example of a lack of accomplishments so the people are exposed to Thomas latest opinion which is full of holes on reducing spending.  He also blames congress for Reagan's failure to cut spending using the words " congressional intransigence.

But you might know since the article was about reducing spending Thomas could not bring himself to inform his readers that the Clinton Administration that followed a republican administration and the Obama administration that followed a republican administration did reduce spending on a percentage basis and did a better job than the republican administrations before them. (covered in a recent commentary here in PolitiDose)


The reading public really deserve all the facts regardless of their political orientation.


This commentary written by Joe Lorio