A friend sent Gloria Steinem’s solution to gun safety:
“How about we treat every young man who wants to buy a gun like every woman who wants to get an abortion:
1. Mandatory 48-hour waiting period, parental permission, a note from his doctor proving he understands what he’s about to do, a video he has to watch about the effects of gun violence…
2. Close down all but one gun shop in every state and make him travel hundreds of miles, take time off work, stay overnight in a strange town to get a gun.
3. Make him walk through a gauntlet of people holding photos of loved ones who were shot to death, people who call him a murderer and beg him not to buy a gun.”
If we really cared about the right to life, this is what we would do.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Yes. Yes. Yes. My wife woke up this morning after listening to the news and repeated this to me. She was livid. I watched a movie “Happy” and they asked the director, “Would you ever move to the United States?” She said, “Oh, no. The US is far too violent for me.”
LikeLike
Why should these people be afraid of the law? With so many loopholes…being so easy to acquire any type of gun…when YouTube can teach you how to build a bomb? SICK, SICK, SICK.
LikeLike
I agree with Gloria Steinem’s comments. As the Superintendent of Schools in Newtown when the Sandy Hook massacre occurred, I believed that the horror of that shooting of little children would bring about rapid change in gun laws and went to Washington DC to add my voice in advocacy, only to be abused by conspiracy folks for years after. Some legislators came up with dangerous solutions rather than consider instituting criteria for gun purchases, like arming teachers. How many more children will die or be traumatized by this violence in what should be a safe haven for them before we see our elected officials care enough about our children to pass laws that protect them. There is so much debate about protecting the unborn, why are we not protecting our born children with the same passion?
LikeLike
Thank you for fighting the good fight for sane gun laws, Dr. Robinson.
LikeLike
Thank you for your work, Dr Robinson. I too like many assumed the Newtown horror would wake up the legislature. That incident more than any other brought home to me the insidious, disingenuous, minority-majority loudmouth nature of the Tea Party voted in in response to Obama’s election, that foreshadowed the election of Trump & the MAGA movement. I would like to think we’ve made a little social progress since then. But now as then we are looking at 90% Americans & 75% NRA members in favor of some restrictions, yet in the same period we’ve seen grossly-negligent loosening of restrictions continuing (since before Newtown) in many red states.
I’m hoping that two widely-publicized mass shootings within 10 days, one specifically targeted at blacks and the other another senseless Newtown-style targeting of young children– both committed by 18-yo’s with easy access to assault-style weapons and high capacity magazines– will result in some legislative action. Each time our govt fails to respond, we lose more faith in the democratic process.
LikeLike
The difference is that access to abortion is a woman’s issue, and gun ownership is largely a man’s interest. Lots of insurance plans offer ED coverage which is hardly medically necessary IMO, but “under federal law, no plan is required to cover abortion. States can enact laws that bar all plans participating in the state Marketplace from covering abortions, which 26 states have done since the ACA was signed into law in 2010.”
LikeLike
We are all horrified by the massacre yesterday. The dilemma is we really don’t have a short or even intermediate term solution to prevent most future events like this. A sheriff was interviewed about this issue yesterday, and what he said was both realistic and depressing. He noted that there are more guns in private hands than there are people in America: 400+ million. He said that even if all new gun sales were ended immediately, those 400+ million guns would be out there for many decades, even if the federal government and every state outlawed their possession.
The big problem is the gun culture that is bedrock belief for a large percentage of Americans – most current gun owners won’t surrender their guns, and many of them will sell those guns to others without government permission if they feel like doing so. We’re paying the price for our highly individualist philosophy, which is positive in some ways but very destructive regarding gun ownership.
LikeLike
Jack,
I have a plan. Writing about it now. Watch for it.
LikeLike
Abortion rights reflect a 50 year culture (one that is consistent with all other developed nations) and, it is a bedrock belief of more than 60% of Americans.
The difference between gun rights and abortion rights is that one major religious sect (and, possibly two) is misogynistic and has significant control in the courts and legislatures. As a side note- evangelicals according to Frank Schaefer only enlisted in the campaign against abortion rights as a way to raise money. Raising money for the nation’s 3rd largest employer, Catholic organizations, is easy- they rake in tax revenue.
If women hated men and ran the government, gun control would pass as easily as the abolishment of abortion rights.
LikeLike
Echoes of the Taliban. They hate women. Won’t allow them to show their faces or arms or legs. Women are not to be trusted. They have no rights. The men carry guns.
LikeLike
Yes, Diane.
LikeLike
Trump, Senator Ted Cruz, and Governor Greg Abbott are scheduled to speak at the NRA national convention in Houston. We can pretty much know what is going to come out of the mouths of these spineless men who could care less about the Teachers and Students who senselessly died yesterday in Uvalde, Tx. Oh, they will speak the words of caring and prayers for the families but not one of them are going to speak up about the need to change the way a person like the shooter was able to purchase the weapon he used to kill those children and their teachers. We would not dare to speak those words in front of the NRA. Spineless. All of them.
LikeLike
Let’s just cut to the chase. If men had to experience 1% of what women have had to endure every day in history, things would be a lot different.
LikeLike
I’ve often thought this with regard to the organization of the high-school day. If parents had to go to six or seven classes a day with a 3-to-5-minute changing period between each and 20 minutes for lunch, that nonsense would change quickly. The typical schedule is madness. It’s inhumane. But it’s quotidian madness, like gun laws in America, so nothing is done about it.
LikeLike
Yes. Schools are some of the most unhealthy places to work (mentally, physically and spiritually) for both teachers and students.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yup, Bob. Women & children– no problem. /s/
LikeLike
Alas, Ginny, I think that you nailed it.
LikeLike
One thing is certain, if men had no alternative other than a coat hanger as a weapon, there would be a lot fewer killings — and probably zero mass killings.
LikeLike
Poet-
Hitting it out of the ballpark, as always
LikeLike
Reblogged this on Lloyd Lofthouse and commented:
A friend sent Gloria Steinem’s solution to gun safety:
“How about we treat every young man who wants to buy a gun like every woman who wants to get an abortion:
LikeLike
Make him walk through a gauntlet of people holding photos of loved ones who were shot to death, people who call him a murderer and beg him not to buy a gun.”
…This, we can do. Organize demonstrations outside retailers who sell guns and ammunition. Signs that also say, “guns are for cowards.”
LikeLike
Too many locations to make this work.
LikeLike
Gotta start somewhere. I don’t think MADD was a full blown national campaign from day 1. How many years did it take to change the smoking culture? Saw David Hogg talking about marches being planned for June 11. Media may have been ignoring efforts to control guns, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t been working.
LikeLike
I don’t want to get in an argument with you, but the process for getting a handgun in NY is challenging to say the least. Getting an abortion in NY is not a problem at all. And women can get one right up to the point of birth.
Sent from my iPhone
>
LikeLike
Is your point that the citizens of N.Y. are sane and civilized and places like Texas are run by unhinged, low life scum?
LikeLike
Women can’t get abortions “right up to the point of birth”.
If you are saying that the doctor might have to make a choice between a mother’s life and a fetus that won’t survive outside the womb at a late date, that you would kill the mother and not the fetus that can’t survive, that just suggests that the anti-abortion movement is actually pro-death of mothers.
LikeLike
Here is the abortion law in New York state:
New York is among the Democratic-leaning states with liberal abortion laws already on the books. In 2019, New York lawmakers and then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo approved the Reproductive Health Act. The measure, which was meant to codify Roe v. Wade into state law, allows a pregnancy to be terminated after 24 weeks if a woman’s life is in danger or the fetus is not viable. It also allows a licensed or certified health care practitioner to perform abortions.
LikeLike
dianeravitch
As Katrine Stewart tells the story, in spite of the laws in NY. You could be a woman in need of a life saving abortion and bleed out in a Catholic Health Services Hospital.
LikeLike
People who care about women’s lives should avoid the religious hospitals (at a minimum 1 in 6 are conservative religious).
LikeLike
In spite of the ability to get guns from out of state those challenges keep the murder rate per 100k in NY in the lowest quin-tile.
LikeLike
Complete bs, tharley 1969. As Diane says, abortion in NYS [per 2019 law] is legal up to 24 wks. Between 24 wks & birth (usually 40 wks), abortion is deemed legal only if the woman’s health or life are at risk or if the fetus is not viable.
NYS abortion law is not crazy-liberal. Most conditions that indicate fetus will die in-womb [or will suffer excruciatingly then die shortly thereafter] are detectable by 24 weeks.
But preeclampsia is not all that rare, develops late in pregnancy, and it’s a killer. My mother had it for 2 of her 4 pregnancies. Fortunately excellent obstetrical care detected it early and saved her (but the second time she had to do bed rest for 2 mos after delivery)– let’s remember there are many women who do not have access to that caliber of obstetrical care.
Placenta previa is another one: with competent obstetrical care it will show up sometime after 20 wks, but absent that it can kill both mother and baby.
Gestational diabetes cannot be screened for until 24-28 wks into pregnancy. Unscreened, untreated– baby will die, and mothers have a high risk of dying as well. [During one of my childbirths I was roommate to a woman who had this– she had to undergo 6 mos of bed rest, including many weeks in hospital. Those without access to that caliber healthcare will simply die, along with their babies.]
LikeLike
Thank you, bethree!!!
LikeLike
bethree5,
Thank you for this absolutely perfect response! (And I confess, I thought it was perfect that you started by calling out what was “Complete bs”)
LikeLike
If a bishop feels compelled to deny religious services to a church member, the reprimand should be against Rep. Paul Gosar who lied when he said the Uvalde shooter was “leftist, undocumented and LGBTQ.”
LikeLike
His tweet: the shooter was “a transsexual leftist illegal alien named Salvatore Ramos.”
LikeLike
And, ofc, the vile Ted Cruz responded with a call for teachers with guns.
LikeLike
For future reference
Writing the “vile Ted Cruz” is redundant.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Style point noted. My bad.
LikeLike
Rhymes with ooze
LikeLike
A pustule on the body politic
the likes of which makes decent people sick
is the loathsome Texas Senator Teddy Cruz
whose name appropriately rhymes with ooze.
LikeLike
cx:
whose name quite rightly, fittingly rhymes with ooze.
LikeLike
“Thoughts and Prayers”
For Cruz, I have a thought
A prayer is what I got:
To “Go to Hell — and straight —
“And don’t pass Heaven’s gate”
LikeLike
Gloria did not say this quote, but she does refer to it at times.
LikeLike
Thanks for sharing this, Diane.
LikeLike
(Raw Story: “Opinion- Why banning abortion is anti-Semitic…”, 5-20-2022, by John Stoehr
“It says in the Talmud when a person is having trouble giving birth, they should abort the fetus and take it out limb by limb.”
LikeLike
Well, Gloria needs to take off the gloves: one abortion is about one “life”; one gun, on the other hand, is about 21 real lives and counting.
LikeLike
Guns – in the constitution
Abortions – not in the constitution
LikeLike
Also not in the Constitution:
Marriage
Interracial and gay marriage
Gay rights
Social Security
Medicare
Most of the current federal government
LikeLike
[…] nagy indulatokat keltett, és mindkét téma emberéletekről szól vagy így, vagy úgy. Gloria Steinem újságíró szavai tökéletesen leírják a kettős […]
LikeLike
ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT!!
LikeLike
Gun laws are a constitutional right abortion is not we had this right for over 200 years but sense roe v wade we created a culture tottaly indifferent to life we throw God out of every thing and wonder why love your neighbors as yourself goes with it when we blame the tool and not the user we go off the cliff and now that same culture is ,throwing all kinds of confusion at our kids the bottom line is criminals are called criminals because they don’t follow laws we don’t need more laws we need more responsibility for what we do!
LikeLike