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UFOs can ‘fly underwater and defy physics’ claims US congressman (www.express.co.uk)

submitted 2 years ago by stopthatgirl7@kbin.social to c/news@kbin.social

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East Tennessee's Tim Burchett, a Republican, said he believes that aliens must have the technological capacity to "turn us into a charcoal briquette".

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[–] Arn_Thor@lemmy.fmhy.ml 1 points 2 years ago (5 children)

I knew I’d heard that name before:

On March 28, 2023, Burchett responded to the Covenant School shooting, where three 9-year-old students and three staff members were killed in Nashville, by telling reporters: "It's a horrible, horrible situation, and we're not going to fix it. Criminals are gonna be criminals. And my daddy fought in the second world war, fought in the Pacific, fought the Japanese, and he told me, he said, 'Buddy,' he said, 'if somebody wants to take you out, and doesn't mind losing their life, there's not a whole heck of a lot you can do about it.'" Burchett also said he sees no "real role" for Congress in reducing gun violence, other than to "mess things up".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Burchett

[–] RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (4 children)

I mean, he's kinda right though. If someone is set on committing a crime, they're going to do it. Whether they get the weapon legally or not, they're still going to commit that crime. The only way to truly stop crime is to stop people from having free will, which is impossible.

That's not to say there should be zero protections. But take gun control in the US for example, there already are gun control laws, California being the strictest. And there are still crimes committed with firearms every single day. Even if you somehow (by actual magic because it would be actually impossible) banned sales of guns and confiscated every firearm the ATF knew existed, there are still so many firearms already in the black market, or smuggled across borders, or even 3D printed, that the criminal will still have access to firearms, conceivably forever.

I mean, look at fireworks. Most cities in California have banned fireworks, but every 4th of July the night sky lights up like a rave party. Or hacking groups that constantly cyberattack literally anything they can, just because they can. If people want to do something, it doesn't really matter how much red tape you throw at them, theyre still going to do that thing.

[–] QHC@kbin.social 2 points 2 years ago

If we banned guns sales today (something only an extreme minority are asking for, btw) and it took 100 years to filter them out of society to the point the death rate by firearm in the US was similar to the EU--it would be better than doing nothing.

Something the "guns are inevitable" argument always seems to miss is that changes to the law have more of an effect on society than purely the immediate physical result. Even without removing a single gun from society, passing legislation like that, which would likely require an amendment, would be a huge sign to the entire country that the US as a country is going to be thinking about firearms differently than in the past.

There's no magical solution, but doing nothing is the most certain to have no measurable impact.

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