Thread by @CSweatpants

In light of our first Pacific Rim style "double event" massacres yesterday, it's worth stepping back and asking what will solve this accelerating problem?

Because if the underlying problem doesn't get solved, we're going to have a triple event day before too long.

Setting aside (briefly) the white supremacy of the redhat auxiliaries who've now targeted black churches, synagogues, and now Latino shoppers, we have to start with the guns.

As in: how do we get them out of the hands of these kinds of dudes?

The answer, undeniably, is federal legislation.

State and city guns laws don't do shit because there's always a redder state nearby where any idiot can stock up, drive two hours, then sell off. (Hello, Chicago and northwest Indiana!)

And, equally undeniably, federal legislation is impossible without Senate reform, specifically nuking the filibuster and going to a simple majority system.

So all those Democrats who are running for President: what's the word?

Because you can tweet and issue statements and make speeches, but if you're against nuking the filibuster, you're against gun control.

There is no third option.

Google was unhelpful in finding me a list, so let's go through them one at a time. Remember:

Pro filibuster = Pro massacres

First up, @MichaelBennet. According to Politico, he is Pro-Massacre:

politico.com/story/2019/06/…

Google doesn't have a clear answer for whether or not @JoeBiden is Pro-Massacre. He defended the filibuster for a long time in the Senate, but supported removing it for judicial nominations during the Obama Administration.

huffpost.com/entry/joe-bide…

@JoeBiden (Incidentally, that there isn't a clear, easily located answer from Biden on this is yet another serious indictment of the political press and their click/ratings based reliance on shallow gossip.

But I digress.)

@JoeBiden Up next, @CoryBooker is Pro-Massacre, but seems conflicted about it and at least aware that it's probably a bad look:

huffpost.com/entry/cory-boo…

Our next contestant is @SenGillibrand, whom I normally think of as a very sharp pol even if her Presidential campaign has been less than successful so far. Sadly, she is Pro-Massacre:

theintercept.com/2019/01/24/pod…

Both Vox and the Hill call @KamalaHarris "conflicted" on it, but the only citation is a NYT tweet from February.

Is it really possible no one has asked her outright? Jebus, the press is an incompetent disgrace.

vox.com/2019/4/5/18296…

This shambling, dissembling non-answer shows that Minnesota's @amyklobuchar is Pro-Massacre, but at least seems to recognize that she has no real argument for being so. Maybe she'll change her mind?

C'mon, Amy. Jump in, the water's fine!

crooked.com/podcast/2020-a…

And now we come to the big fella himself, @BernieSanders. Maddeningly and extremely disappointingly, he is Pro-Massacre.

Bernie, I love ya, buddy, but this is awfully meek, especially for someone as combative as you.

thehill.com/homenews/senat…

@BernieSanders Finally we get to my girl, @ewarren. She is unambiguously Anti-Massacre, which is a big part of why she has my vote and my (admittedly meager) donations.

washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/0…

The full list:

@MichaelBennet - Pro-Massacre
@JoeBiden - Unclear, but should be asked
@CoryBooker - Pro-Massacre, but conflicted
@SenGillibrand - Pro-Massacre
@KamalaHarris - "conflicted"
@amyklobuchar - Pro-Massacre
@BernieSanders - Pro-Massacre (ugh)
@ewarren - Anti-Massacre

@MichaelBennet @JoeBiden @CoryBooker @SenGillibrand @KamalaHarris @amyklobuchar @BernieSanders @ewarren And there you have it.

There are eight (8!) Democratic Senators running for President. On the (very solid) theory that federal legislation is needed to stop recurring and increasing gun massacres, only one of them is actually anti-massacre.

#ElPasoShooting #Dayton

@MichaelBennet @JoeBiden @CoryBooker @SenGillibrand @KamalaHarris @amyklobuchar @BernieSanders @ewarren Last but not least, we need to remember who will be opposing federal gun legislation.

This is where the redhat racism comes back in. Because the gun nuts who wants military caliber weapons on the street aren't Democrats.

The people who do the killing, who listen to racist, right-wing propaganda about Jews controlling things and brown people swamping the United States, are acting as a kind of uncoordinated terror arm of the Republican Party.

Republican higher-ups may cringe and wince when the edge cases go off like yesterday, but those same politicians and media folks know that they need people like the shooters to vote for them and buy their books and listen/watch their shows.

In conclusion, the soonest we can do anything about this is sixteen-months from now in January 2021.

And we'll only be able to do something if there's a Democratic President, a Democratic Senate, and no fucking filibuster.

In the meantime, expect more gun massacres.