Rick; I suppose it's fair to ask what don't they chip away at? Can you think of any area of daily life that has not been invaded by the Leftist Democrat demanding that we speak, act and think as they dictate?

That aside, gun laws will not solve the problem because it's not a gun problem; it's a people problem. Not just in the U.S. but worldwide. Leftists, however, must keep it focused on the instrument, the GUN as the doer of evil. The minute they acknowledge the human aspect they lose control of their strategy. This is why we see thousands of graphs and charts and statistical analysis bent and twisted like Cony Island pretzels (hold the mustard) to portray the U.S. as a nation of homicidal maniacs specifically because of the numbers of guns they have or have access to. Purposeful creation of a frenzy. Take away the guns and they will become 'normal' people. It's all about the gun.

And what is the scope of the 'problem' really? The total number of gun deaths in the U.S. including suicides affects approximately 0.0093% of the population. Homicides affect approximately 0.0042%. If gang and drug-related homicides are carved out the number becomes 0.0012%. This is not to say that these deaths are unimportant; no less so than an innocent person (gang bangers excluded) killed by a texting or drunk driver for example. But where is the perspective or balance in the all-out assault we are witnessing?

And how does this stack up to other, much more real and significant issues, issues that are solvable incidentally, that seem to not attract the attention of leftists? For example 11 million children under age 10 going to bed hungry every day in the United States. Just to keep it in perspective that's just shy of 4% of the population. Is it that there is not as much political collateral and glitz to be gained as in taking guns away from right wing nuts? Or is it that starving kids don't represent the same level of threat as a gun owner? Make your best guess.

In the end, though, I suspect this problem doesn't want a solution anymore so than racism, border security or middle east peace.

Linda; the sad truth today is that we are dealing with an entity in the Progressive Leftist Democrat Party that has now demonstrated their open contempt for our constitution and attendant laws. They have fashioned the constitution, its amendments, and the law generally into bludgeons to force their agenda of flooding the country with guaranteed Democrat voters. They can no longer depend on African Americans and need to fill that gap.

You will see the Leftist rationalizations here on OPP and elsewhere defending the rights and freedoms of people who come here without portfolio, so to speak and then live off the fat of the land under the protections afforded them by political and emotional manipulation of the system. But in the end, that's what it is ... rationalization. Collective central dictates and the worker bees buzz.

America ... is merely a concept ...

Blade; Very well said and true. I came to maturity in the era you speak of and I have often said today's Progressive Leftist ain't your daddy's Democrat; referring of course to the more moderate Democrats you remind us of. My view that the Democrat Party has stopped America from being what it could be is a view from a thousand miles up so to speak. Looking at the history, objectives, and behavior of that party for 150 years I see a stake in the ground with a rope tied to our ankle. For me, our greatness should not be in fits and starts or episodic. But so long as there are Democrats that's how it will be.

Much of what you cite occurred during the peak years of the Greatest Generation; inventiveness, productivity, and widespread prosperity. But let us not forget that the Progressive Democrat Party was not asleep at that time. That this is also the era that saw them use the hard work of Americans (I believe it it virtually impossible for a Democrat to be and 'American') to create the most insidious Leftist communist social welfare debacle known to man; the Great Society; the incentive to be ... nothing.

Lest we forget ever; Democrats are slavers by nature. They have simply progressed passed chains of iron to chains fashioned from emotion and economics.

But in the end, you and I and millions upon millions agree that America is GREAT. It always has been and always will be in spite of these people who for some inexplicable reason wish to be enslaved, who work diligently to hand over their individuality, for the promise of a perfect life that very, very ironically, cannot begin to exist without the very American spirit defined by our constitution.

What he said exactly is "We're not going to make America great again. It was never that great." Continuing, "We have not reached greatness. We will reach greatness when every American is fully engaged."

I find it ironic that a man who foments disengagement through the promotion of the socialist/communist nanny/welfare State is preaching about full engagement. Engagement in what? Certainly not productivity. So what, welfare?

On its surface, this is typical America Hating Leftist rhetoric. Cuomo is not recognized as a bright man but he is very representative of the Progressive Democrat Party today. And he walked into it as he usually does, opening his mouth to change feet, with his limited understanding of the language and the general population in a feeble attempt to muster votes from the Leftist Proletariat by doing the popular Leftist thing today, attacking Trump. Do you want to talk about ignorance? Does he not know he already has the Leftist vote? So who is he trying to convince?

I believe the governor will be disappointed when he sees how many of his followers pull the other lever in the voting booth.

I find, however, that I must agree with the governor as I have for decades on this single issue; America is not that great - yet. America has not yet had the opportunity to spread her wings and truly soar because the Democrat Party has prevented that for 150 years.

J; not being a religious person I did not know this. I assume the 'sheep' in this case are the good or pure of heart, not the weak.

I sometimes forget the God part of all this. Your reminder here certainly serves to strengthen the constitutional argument.

The utopia of false pretenses aspect of all this fascinates me. Barack Obama and his minions believe America can be transformed into a Europen model of socialism. I always ask which one? There are about 30 countries in the EC and none share the same model of socialism. And none are remarkably successful; many in fact survive on the edge of collapse or are outright dismal failures. None has a population greater than 70 million, two or three of our states. None is geographically larger than Texas much less Alaska. And all of these people are born into collectives. Europeans understand from birth that they are subjects of the state; that the state is the master and the state will provide for them.

Americans are free-born and with the exception of those that have been successfully indoctrinated in our Leftist education system over the past 40 or so years, don't cotton to the government in their daily lives. That notwithstanding how do the Leftists see supporting a population of over 300 million on the third largest continent on earth with an emasculated, cowed proletariat and a dismally broken down infrastructure? Who will produce when Elizabeth Warren successfully 'nationalizes' all free enterprise thereby removing all incentive to produce? When the capitalism motive is strangled once and for all.

I wish any one of these Utopians could explain how it all works ... I am not holding my breath though; since they have failed to do so since man fell out of the trees.

Its a pointless question of little value in the argument. There is no such legislation and never will be. That is not how Leftists work. They are insidious; like slow-growing cancer. Historically the process of reducing or eliminating a right or freedom begins with small bites. A good example is the first amendment, hated by the Leftist Democrats. Over many years legislation is introduced and promulgated to the law that prohibits or outright criminalizes certain 'speech' spoken or written. This is further strengthened by the liberal application of Political Correctness - a primary weapon of the Leftist movement to shut down first amendment rights as defined in the constitution.

It will be the same with gun control. Over the course of time, you take little bites until one day they all wake up to find that that right and freedom has been fully compromised - by law.

"all there doing is trying to regulate who gets to own a gun"

Aside from the grammatical mistakes do you truly not see how blatantly ignorant this statement is with respect to the nuclear argument? Do you even have a clue that the core element here is WHO IS 'THEY?'

Allow me to pose a scenario; THEY - whoever 'they' is, decide that anyone who cannot read for comprehension or articulate complete thoughts with proper spelling and grammar at say grade 8 level is not eligible for firearm ownership. Such a test would be included on the background check application. Does this work for you?

And, for your edification and in the event you have never handled a real military weapon; military STYLE is NOT military GRADE. My grandson has a water gun that is military style. Of course, this means nothing when the objective is to disarm an entire population.

As for 'doing nothing' please explain this to me; How is it that the majority of schools in this country REFUSE, even as an interim measure of protection, to install armed security and other screening at our schools? Yet none of these administrators nor our elected and appointed officials can define the magic 'NEW LAWS' that will prevent such events. Can you provide some insight into this seeming bovine stupidity? Who exactly is 'doing nothing'?

MANIFESTING??? What a load of Leftist tripe!!! The right as you put it is not alone in heightened concern for the breaking down of the constitutional system of government by Leftists, specifically the Democrat Party; through outright violation of the laws of the land both civil and constitutional. By the open, in-your-face weaponization of offices of the highest power - weaponization against ALL the people, an example set by Barack Hussein Obama, designed to instill fear and intimidation for the express and expressed purpose of unseating a duly elected official because he cannot be bought; because he threatens the progress of the Leftist agenda to destroy the constitutional republic ...

The threat to all of us, conservative or not is the open aggression on the part of the Leftist Progressive Democrat Party to neutralize our VOTE now and going forward through massive abuse of the power of elected office.

We didn't elect Pence president ... we elected Trump. The Democrat Part has finally crossed the line to reveal who they really are; violent, and very desperate Fascists. And Americans generally really don't like Fascists.

Carol; Contrary to what many think Leftism is not a disease; it is a behavior derived from right-brain dominance. Leftists are not sick, they are a species. The fundamental trait of the species is arrangement around itself of everything such that life proceeds in a prearranged order of perfection, the mythical Utopia. Insects are very similar. The only way to accomplish this is to create a collective that is single-minded and highly controllable and destroy any that cannot be controlled. Thus the psychotic drive to eliminate the (deviant) individual (that would be us). This species only lives to control all life around it. They cannot help it any more than a bee cannot make a comb or a boa cannot constrict.

So your question is actually its own answer. While George Orwell was ahead of his time he could not even imagine the horrors that would beset mankind at the hands of this species.

And if we continue to underestimate them, if we continue our apathetic ways of thinking 'this-can-never-happen-in-America', they will prevail.

In Nazi Germany under Hitler, SOME citizens were allowed to own firearms subject to law that was handed down at the whim of the dictator. Many of these were Nazi-sympathizer land barons who hunted on their land. How many Jews do you think we're allowed guns? How many known homosexuals? How many non-party individuals? Any idea? Any idea who Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, Maxine Water or Elizabeth Warren might think about who should or should not have guns? I'll bet white males over age 16 would rank high on the should-not list.

The countries you cite are forms of dictatorship. Where there is no codified CONSTITUTION there can only be a dictatorship regardless of how its described. However, I'll cut you some slack in that they existed as such before guns. Englishmen and Australians are not free men. They are SUBJECTS OF THE CROWN; the operative word being SUBJECTS first, citizens after that.

But significant in the face of your foolish argument, British and Australian citizens NEVER had the CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT to bear arms. They never had the right period. WE DO HAVE THE CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS which cannot be taken away at the WHIM of even the highest authority.

Furthermore, both countries have proven the fallacy of gun control ... note Englands non-firearm murder rate and the failure of the Australian gun registration program ...

As I said to Mike; I don't believe a shooting war is going to happen. The anti-American forces you talk about number in the tens of millions and their weapon of choice is the voting booth.

In an armed conflict, it is a generally good strategy to throw more lead than the other guy. Same applies here except its votes.

The time for firearms will come sometime in the future after the Leftists are successful in destroying the underpinnings of America; when people, including those who blindly followed the degenerate Left, are completely disillusioned, hungry and desperate. Think old Soviet Union or modern Venezuela.

Even though we are armed to the teeth it is unlikely we are talking that kind of civil war. Trump is waging the war we need to press right now. The war of free Americans against the establishment; the establishment being not only the far left culture but useless Republicans, self-proclaimed independents who stand for nothing and don't give a crap centrists who stand idly by while the Leftists wreak their havoc. The real test will come when those millions of people you cite have to stand up and be counted - again. If conservatives lose in November it's over with. The stranglehold the Leftist have on the system and indeed a significant portion of an indoctrinated population will be impossible to break.

The civil war began 10 years ago. Barack Obama was not installed to preside over the business of the United States; that was always a front. He was a catalyst; strategically placed to energize or 'switch on' a Leftist movement that has been tearing at the soft underbelly of this country for 6o years, preying on our inbred empathy and apathy, and which was deemed matured and ready to be unleashed in all its fearsome evil on this country. And he was galactically successful. Nakita Khrushchev is pounding his shoe with glee on the lid of his casket.

A necessary even fundamental emphasis of this transition is the demonstration of lawlessness that we see unfolding. At the very top levels of government, there is today an outlaw mentality that reaches down into the system and inspires this deviant behavior throughout the Leftist ranks. Standing in stark evidence to this over the past years and currently is Obama's habitual, flagrant dismissal of the constitution, a demonstration of civil disobedience from the high office to inspire followers, the PLANNED corruption of the DOJ the FBI the IRS the EPA and others, the usurping of our healthcare for strangling control of the population, open borders to swell the voting ranks ... and most insidious the methodical corrupting of the federal court system (circuit and appeal) where hundreds of Leftist dupe judges have been quietly installed and have effectively rewritten constitutional law. Look at the number of fed bench appointments that are being blocked by the Democrat Party today.

The foregoing notwithstanding I believe the people of this country do not understand that the so-named Muller Investigation, an illegal, corrupt venture in the guise of pursuit of law and order, is intended as the killing blow to the free republic called America. It lays the groundwork for the all-important elimination of individual freedoms starting with the democratic vote to which we are constitutionally entitled. What the Democrat Party is saying through Rober Muller is 'America, your vote does not count unless you vote with us' ... Count on this ... 'the Russians are coming' will taint every election going forward; the groundwork has been laid. I am certain history will someday see Robert Muller as the man who drove the stake into the heart of America ... and enjoyed it.

Will it come to bloodshed? Who knows. For my part, I believe that never having had to defend their freedom on their own soil most people here don't know how to fight even if they wanted to. And wanting to is an issue. Too many have been indoctrinated over the past 40 years in our corrupted public school system and Leftist collages and universities; people who have been taught that America is not good. They are lost to the cause of the Democratic Republic.

I for one know what I will do, without hesitation, if and when the time comes.