San Francisco Strikes Again
When my wife and I were taking our daughter Valerie to visit prospective colleges we took a tour of San Francisco State University. During a stroll along the streets downtown afterward, she told me, “Daddy, I don’t think I like this city,” to which I replied, “Well that means you don’t like cities. Outside of Paris or Prague or New York, you’re not going find more fun concentrated in one place.”
Looks like San Fran has come through again, as its Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a resolution Tuesday declaring the National Rifle Association a domestic terrorist organization and urging other municipalities, states and the federal government to do the same.
From local radio station KQED: The resolution calls out the NRA for inciting acts of violence and spreading “misinformation and propaganda” and encourages the city to assess and limit contracts with vendors affiliated with the NRA. It stops short, though, of putting in place any enforcement mechanisms or new regulations. “The NRA conspires to limit gun violence research, restrict gun violence data sharing and most importantly aggressively tries to block every piece of sensible gun violence prevention legislation proposed on any level, local, state or federal,” said Supervisor Catherine Stefani, who sponsored the measure.
This is a country divided on so many issues. Ironically, however, common sense gun safety regulation isn’t one of them; as often noted here, 93% of American voters are in favor of things like universal background checks for prospective gun owners. Insofar as this is something on which we can (virtually) all agree, perhaps it’s time to make it happen.
One can argue about what precisely a “sustainable society” means, but it certainly includes the notion that it has the right to protect itself from mass slaughter.
