I could be wrong, but I don’t recall any political candidate, Democrat or Republican, campaigning on doing something to address our gun violence problem. Did you?

@frankm Beto. Gillum. Abrams. Many other Dems.

Meanwhile, Marsha Blackburn's first response to the shooting in CA:

“What we do is say, how do we make certain that we protect the Second Amendment and protect our citizens?”

@frankm Only Neil Young. ;) The Daily podcast reported that Pelosi & Democratic leaders were telling candidates to keep the message on health care. Then again, gun violence certainly has an impact on health. You make an interesting point. The kids in FL certainly vowed to make it an issue!

@Ron Did you see my post listing a whole bunch of Democrats talking about gun control? The media may have been obsessed with "the caravan", but plenty of candidates weren't ignoring guns.

@frankm I didn't pay close attention but there was a ballot initiative in Washington state that passed. Band-aid on an arterial bleed, for sure, but it's something . . .

@seansharp I-1639 passed in WA with 60% of the vote.

• Raise the age someone can purchase an assault rifle to 21. • Create an enhanced background check system similar to that used for handguns. • Requires a firearms safety training course. • Requires secure gun storage.

@cheri Those measures sound reasonable. I might quibble with the term “assault rifle”, since it is very difficult for any civilian to own one, but otherwise ...

@rmcrob Yeah, they use that word but the text defines it as semi-autos like the AR-15. Manual (pump or bolt action) rifles are still legal for 18 year olds. Hopefully between that and the storage requirements we see a reduction in frequency of High School mass shootings.

@cheri Let’s hope and pray.

@Bruce Tell @Frankm. He's the one who asked.

@Ron I did. I just thought you'd be interested in more politicians than Neil Young were talking about it—especially as you said it was a good point that Frank thought no one was talking about it.

Sorry if I've been a bit strident; but it's disheartening to hear people who care about issues like healthcare and gun violence thinking that both parties are ignoring our country's problems. I don't know how to fix it; but if you and @frankm can't find the info, I just don't know how people who pay even less attention will find it. It only took a few DDG searchs to find examples of Dems talking about the issues and their plans to solve them, but that got drowned out by the media's focus on the caravan. Any thoughts on how to cut through the noise?

@Bruce Most of what I heard in Michigan related to healthcare and our roads, which might be the primary issues in our state.

@Bruce I'm a tax accountant and a really good one. Right now I'm working on sorting out client books that were mightily snarled up by my client. What a mess! But I know I will eventually get it sorted out and fixed, because it has been my life work for many decades, and I know how to unravel these messes, how to get them resolved.

I have no expertise and no experience with unraveling or solving political messes and certainly gun violence is a huge mess politically. My thoughts on the subject would be completely irrelevant to any real solution to that problem. It is the job of our elected representatives to get this sorted out, the sooner the better. Meanwhile, it is my job to get these books fixed, so I can get the tax return prepared that is due in six days.

I am optimistic that our great nation will eventually make good progress on gun violence, just like it has solved many other problems over the many decades that I have been around this lifetime. I am sure there are many good people working out the best solution(s).

@Ron 👍

@Ron I understand that work can be busy. And there's no obligation to dive deeply into politics. But then why dismiss information that your assumption* was wrong and some politicians are working on the issue? I would think that would be good news?

I'm sorry if my tone felt too aggressive. But I guess I wonder why you would join a thread about gun control if you felt your thoughts would be "completely irrelevant to any real solution"? You certainly have the right to, but then why not engage in a discussion? Do I seem too partisan for it to be worth it? If so, I'm happy to not mention you in any future responses on any political thread.

* I read "You make an interesting point." as agreeing with Frank that no politicians were talking about gun violence. Was that a misreading on my part?

@frankm One of the odd things about midterms: they're not really a national election; instead there are a little under 500 local elections (counting House and Senate races). It can be hard to get a sense of what issues are being discussed outside of one's area. Especially with our national media chasing after Trump's latest tweet rather than any policy issues.

I think the media definitely plays a part in the "both sides are the same" and "no one has any ideas" narratives. If citizens have to put a ton of effort into finding out the actual differences, only the highly engaged will. And the incentive to default to identity politics grows because that's what gets the cable networks excited. 🙁

@Bruce The only contribution I made was a comment to Frankm, giving him a URL for a transcript of a PBS interview on election night which said that Repubs were interested in preserving coverage for pre-existing conditions. I was just giving him some facts on something he had generally alluded to without any specifics. I had happened to see the broadcast, so I sent him the data. I didn't follow the thread after that. For some reason that comment doesn't appear to be included in the political thread that you're now actively pursuing. Here it is. I specifically said I didn't want to be drawn into a discussion of politics. I don't have the time, interest or any expertise on politics. I like to write about things I know something about. I probably should not have posted any comment at all.

I wasn't joining any discussion about gun control either. I was just commenting to Frankm about what I had heard on The Daily podcast a few minutes before that. He posted, I commented and I thought I was done. The podcast I was pointing to was NOT about solutions to gun control, it was about what Nancy Pelosi wanted candidates to focus on in the election (e.g. not immigration). Saying "interesting point" wasn't a statement of agreement with any position Frank might have been adopting about any political issue. It was just a little acknowledgment of what he had written, sorta like "Ohhh, okay . . ."

@Ron Ok. I'll leave you out of any future discussions.

@Bruce Okay, good luck with them.

@Ron There is a theory that Trump doesn’t want his tax return released because there might be a loophole strategy his accounting firm employed that is “proprietary”. Sort of like what we saw in Germany recently with BlackRock and others. In your experience does that happen?