2011 Project Left Platform: Gun Control

This is Part 1 of a series of the Project Left 2011 Platform; A new plank will be added to the 2011 Project Left Platform each Thursday:

How Do Conservatives Answer Violence? With more violence of course.  Politico reports that since the tragedy in Tucson, Arizona; Gun Sales in Arizona have rose 60 percent.

"But he said it might indicate that some Americans fear tougher gun control laws in the aftermath of Saturday’s attack so they want to stock up now.

“What it shows is maybe gun owners in Arizona and these other states feel that there’s going to be some change in the law, which is what I hope our elected officials” are working toward, Helmke said. "

Now to me, this is just plain frightening.  That people's response to a major tragedy is to go and buy guns, but not because they fear for their lives, but because they are afraid the government is going to take their guns away.  This great conspiracy that the government is going to take every ones guns really got started a couple years ago by none other than Glen Beck. In an interview from May of 2008 with Chris Cox from the NRA, Glenn implies that if Obama is elected, guns will be taken:

"COX: Well, compared to those two, he looks a lot better than those two. Now, we’ve had a couple of high-profile disagreements with Senator McCain and our members and gun owners all over the country know it. But our number one goal needs to be making sure that Barack Obama doesn’t end up in the White House or that Hillary Clinton doesn’t end up in the White House because that’s the worst possible case for — worst-case scenario for gun owners in this country.

GLENN: We have tonight on television, I’m going to do another segment. I have the governor of Louisiana that, I mean, he was instrumental in getting the bill passed –
COX: That’s right.
GLENN: To where you can — to where the government cannot go door to door and collect your guns.
COX: That’s right."

So, we can see that Glenn Beck has been spewing his "Government Gonna Take Your Guns" Conspiracy since before Obama became President.  But it is not only him, there is also Sarah Palin.  These conservative gun control freaks have already caused many deaths, like 3 police officers in Pittsburgh who were shot by someone who feared "Obama's Gun Ban".  Or Dr. George Tiller who was shot and killed after Bill O'Reilly called him a "Baby Killer".  Then there was the Pentagon Shooter who was said to have "loved conspiracy theories".  Then in Wyoming, the Department of Revenue had to shut down collecting taxes at gun shows because of dangers posed to tax collectors from the gun show attendees. 

We can see that the Conservative Gun Lovers are causing a lot of problems, but they don't like violence, they want it to end, yet they have a picture with themselves with a gun.

It's clearly evident that America has a big problem with guns, as you can see we are about 7x higher than any other developed country in terms of total deaths involving firearms.  So, what can we do about it? I think the best way to instate new government reform is through small steps.  So, first we need to reinstate the assault weapons ban from the Clinton Administration.  Then we need to make it so that all who want to carry concealed weapons have permits that are may issue instead of shall issue; with the hope that one day in the future concealed weapons will be permanently outlawed.  Then we need to stop the ones who come up with the conspiracy like Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly, and Sarah Palin, by exposing the lies they are constantly saying and convincing their advertisers to pull ads.

Therefore, the first plank on the 2011 Project Left Platform is Gun Control, through the reinstatement of the Clinton-era Assault Weapon Ban and through may issue concealed weapon permits.