Permanent or temporary change?

I was wondering yesterday how soon the collective angst with the Newtown massacre would ebb? Each time one of these awful events happens, the media and its personalities tell us what to think, when to think it (if ever), and when we can get back to normal because it stops being relevant.

I decided that the only real hope for permanent change is for those of us who support reasonable (my definition of reasonable) policy changes, such as banning assault rifles and high capacity clips along with 100% background checks for all purchases, to stop discussing change with a side who will never support anything less than full, unfettered access to any and all weaponry. Including the NRA in the discussion is a guarantee that nothing will change. The NRA has mastered the art of riding out the storm, saying all the right things until we lose our focus and give up.

Like-minded individuals need a counter-balance to the NRA. An organization that will collect and spend, dollar for dollar, against the will of the "let's make every American a militia so we can stop the next Stalin" coalition. This organization has to enable the political viability of elected officials to speak for reasonable change, just as the NRA has quite successfully done the past several decades.

Today I donated to Gabby Gifford's new PAC http://americansforresponsiblesolutions.org/. I hope her efforts are just one of many attempts to counter-balance the NRA's influence. The NRA and the pro-gun-at-all-cost factions win if we stop caring. It's up to us to let that happen or not, they don't get to decide that and we don't get to blame them if we let our outrage simply go away.

Just in case my one reader sees this post and wonders: I am all for gun rights. I think individuals should be allowed to purchase and use hunting rifles, shot guns, handguns, etc. I even think that folks should be able to own assault rifles, but I would limit the accessibility of these to secure shooting ranges. You can own an AR-15 but it stays at the range. I would also require every weapon owner to be appropriately trained. I often hear the "drunk drivers kill innocents so let's ban cars too" argument as a reason to let this continue. Most states require annual safety inspections, all states require every driver to have a license (including those who bought a car at a car show), and every state requires some amount of insurance. I'd go on but I've already given this idiotic straw man argument too much credibility.

Enable change. It's up to you.