are claiming that we gun-control proponents are just using this latest massacre as an emotional issue to promote our "elitist" agenda of attacking the Constitution. I presume that is just another way of attacking Liberal Democrats according to the right-wing gun nut philosophy.

The real fact-of-the-matter is that the NRA and its apologists and supporters has made a political mockery of the system for tracking those who should not be in possession of lethal weapons. These right-wing Libertarian gun fetishists will go to any and all lengths to corrupt as many politicians as possible in order to promote the obscene proliferation of deadly weapons to anyone with enough cash to purchase one (or twenty).

our pro gun folks. Just wondering how they get out of this one...

are not a concern for the NRA and its devotees. It's just the price we pay for Freedom they say, and statistically immaterial in the overall scheme of things. There is nothing more important than their guns, and their right to contribute to the proliferation of death and injury from guns in this country. It's the (right-wing) American way!

Law enforcement sure messed up too.

cy: I'm sure we need more and better mental health care, but the canard of "we need more mental health care" as if that would be the solution in place of sensible gun safety regulations, has now been pretty much put to rest...

It's the current 'patsy' the gun lobby/nra/gunnuts created to fob off blame for gun problems. Not the gun's fault, it's (abracadabra) the fault of mentally unbalanced people who misuse their sacred cows.
.. gun control advocates (me & you) were the original patsies for gunnuts - twasn't the guns but guncontrol which was the reason for high crime & murder - nra said disallowing people from getting guns was the reason for the carnage, not their sacred toys. BARF.

who said? When the sword is once drawn, the passions of men observe no bounds of moderation.
who said?: “The blade itself incites to deeds of violence.”

Alexander Hamilton the first, Homer ~1800 years earlier the latter, that's who.
No they didn't mention firearms, homer could'nt've, while Hamilton surely didn't exclude a musket with a bayonet, since it then became a spear or sword.
They recognized the dangers in going about armed.

I had to look up the quote, "The blade itself incites to deeds of violence".

It is from Homer's Odyssey, when Odysseus has returned home to find Penelope keeping the suitors trying to marry her at bay. By this time Odysseus has traveled far, fought many battles and many monsters during his long, arduous trip home. He is jealous of the suitors. He hates that they are in his home. He has learned of Penelope's loyalty to him.

In disguise, he works with his son Telemachus to devise the challenge to string his bow and shoot the straightest arrow. He tell Telemachus to hide all the weapons in the dining hall. When Telemachus is concerned that removing the weapons will seem suspect, Odysseus tells him to give a long line of subterfuge about how the weapons are tarnished from disuse and that having them around is a bad omen, "The blade itself incites to deeds of violence"

So this quote is not some great revelation about the evil that lies inside of every weapon, but a lie told with the ring of truth to allay the fears of unworthy men.

When people who don't like guns say things like "The blade incites to deeds of violence", they are aping a line from the Odyssey that they don't understand and have taken out of context. The line is poetic and beautiful, but it is still a lie told to disarm the enemy before they are slaughtered. It is not some beautiful self-evident truth about the evil inherent in weapons. It is a lie told to disarm the unwitting mob.

while using blades gave each side a fighting chance and reduced the element of surprise?

james james: In disguise, {Odysseus} works with his son Telemachus to devise the challenge to string his bow and shoot the straightest arrow. He tell Telemachus to hide all the weapons in the dining hall. When Telemachus is concerned that removing the weapons will seem suspect, Odysseus tells him to give a long line of subterfuge about how the weapons are tarnished from disuse and that having them around is a bad omen, "The blade itself incites to deeds of violence"
So this quote is not some great revelation about the evil that lies inside of every weapon, but a lie told with the ring of truth to allay the fears of unworthy men

.. you post baloney; you support the premise that 'the blade itself incites to violence', & try to argue contradictorily that it doesn't.
Odysseus subterfuge was that having tarnished weapons around in the smoke from the feast would've been a bad omen; there was no subterfuge about edged weapons not being complicit in inciting to violence. Odysseus cited a truism within his subterfuge, is apparent to me.

james james: When people who don't like guns say things like "The blade incites to deeds of violence", they are aping a line from the Odyssey that they don't understand and have taken out of context.

No, we are using it properly, it is you who has fabricated a ruse.

The line is poetic and beautiful, but it is still a lie told to disarm the enemy before they are slaughtered. It is not some beautiful self-evident truth about the evil inherent in weapons. It is a lie told to disarm the unwitting mob.

baloney; odysseus was afraid the sight of edged weapons would incite visitors & disrupt the feast:

Beginning of book XIX. Odysseus tells Telemachus to hide weapons, and if anyone asks why, to tell them that weapons are removed because smoke damages them, and also because in case of a quarrel view of weapons may lead to use of these weapons.
"Telemachus, all these war weapons we must stash inside, and when the suitors notice they're not there and question you, then reassure them, using gentle language: 'I've put them away in a place far from the smoke. Those weapons are no longer like the ones Odysseus left when he set off for Troy so long ago. They're tarnished. That's how much the fire's breath has reached them. Moreover, a god has set greater fear inside my heart—you may drink too much wine and then fight amongst yourselves and wound each other. That would shame the feast, disgrace your courtship. For iron by itself can draw a man to use it.'"
https://records.viu.ca/~johnstoi/homer/odyssey19.htm

I suspect this 'james james' with one post as of this post, is aping my own name jimmy, & is an erstwhile DU creepy troll.