Heidi Li Feldman, Georgetown U Law Professor on "more guns" and menacing democracy.

[tenderfoot]

There is a direct connection between destroying opportunities for safe public gatherings and menacing American democracy.

1/
In a pluralist democracy it is vital for for people of varied backgrounds to be able use and enjoy public spaces together. Gathering for parades, for entertainment, for education etc. builds a sense of civil society that allows for diversity of religion, race, gender, creed…

2/
Our public spaces and accommodations- streets, shopping areas, sports venues, schools, parks, buses, etc. - are where we ordinarily come together, interacting in small ways with people unlike ourselves, learning how to share civic life.

3/
We ordinarily can learn that we can be together happily both despite and because our differences. Gun violence in this country interferes with this, and this why anti-democracy institutions and people actively want more guns available to more people.

4/
By making it dangerous for people of diverse backgrounds to gather in public, gun mongers promote fear and suspicion of one another.

5/
By making public space so vulnerable to deadly violence, those who promote and push guns strike at the civil fabric.

6/
We must insist on a return to a livable interpretation of the 2A, more civil accountability for the gun industry - not out of dislike of arms but out of a love for American pluralist democracy. 7/7

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1544043714749743105.html

Link to tweet

[Novara]

1. She's right, but it isn't just that

Keeping a populace terrified keeps them cowering within the status quo. It means these assholes can hold off progress and change and pretend the country isn't becoming more of a melting pot where the white male supremacists have all the power. If they can keep America terrified, they keep people too afraid to push for bold progressive change.

I fear for polling places this fall. I think they are going to be targets for shooters. I'm definitely going to be voting by absentee ballot.

[Cosmocat]

4. We are absolutely going to see armed thugs at polls

In the very near future.

[crickets]

2. K&R in agreement with Feldman.

[Irish_Dem]

3. Putin used the NRA as a foreign asset for a reason.

[2naSalit]

5. Well that makes sense.