again: i'm not likely to oppose much of any kind of an assault-rifle ban. i don't really accept the premise of gun rights, in a reality where the government has tanks and attack helicopters and motorized drones. your militia is just going to get wiped out.

the fact is that i don't like guns, anyways.

but, i am likely to point out from time to time, as the details firm up, that passing laws against assault rifles isn't likely to actually reduce gun violence.

a socialist policy position understands the complexities of getting to the root causes of gun violence, and rejects symbolic bans and false dichotomies as pointless and simple-minded. marx was actually an advocate of the kind of gun laws that existed in switzerland.

but, what that means is that i see the policy announcements as largely irrelevant. whether they go through with a gun ban or not doesn't change the need to look at more serious approaches. so, if they need to pass a ban for political reasons, whatever. i don't care. what i want to see is more substantive social policy in addition to the ban and in the form of funding for things like programs for at-risk youth. we actually know how to reduce gun crime through social spending, we just stopped doing it because we elected too many conservatives and got too lazy about the role of the state in society.

if they just pass a ban, nothing will change, and they'll be back here in a few years with a failed strategy. maybe, by then, we'll have a revitalized ndp with a new leader that can take the government to task for creating and contributing to the problem by refusing to properly fund the appropriate services, and instead wasting all of it's time and political capital on a pointless ban.

but, if they pass the ban for the cameras, and actually do something worthwhile in the background, maybe they can turn things around enough in a few years to get some better stats out. in the end, the media may assign the better stats to the ban, and it would be be wrong, and i'll be sitting here pointing to studies and fixing their errors, but that's just what happens every day, anyways - i can't be holding my breath, waiting for the media to get it right.

what's important is to get the stats down.

so, appease the idiots and pass the ban, then. fine. whatever. but, don't just leave it at that - follow up on it, and make sure you're actually implementing policies that will actually work in reducing gun violence. we have the science. we know how to do this. we just have to do it...