The Netflix show, more than any other Marvel product, explores the idea that the country’s systems are fundamentally broken.
.. The Punisher, Netflix and Marvel’s new 13-episode drama about a superhero whose superpower is killing people with guns
.. Punisher, a former Marine Corps sniper, turned the merciless tactics of organized criminals against them, displaying no qualms about executing gangsters. He employed what amounted to an arsenal of military-grade weapons.
.. Hardcore fans of the comic-book Punisher, who include a large number of veterans and cops, love him because he’s simple. He takes no prisoners; he embodies eye-for-an-eye vengeance. The Punisher, though, wants to emphasize that it’s more complicated
—that Frank’s bleak agenda springs directly from the fact that all the systems he encounters are fundamentally broken.
.. It’s a fascinating indictment of the American government, which, the show argues, trains young men as killers and then casts them aside.
.. Without reliable institutions to believe in, The Punisher suggests, people create their own
.. “The system let Frank down in a big way,” Curtis explains at one point. “So he did what he was trained to do.”
.. What makes The Punisher most interesting, though, is that it’s clear Frank finds pleasure in killing. It’s the logical extension of all his years of training, the manifestation of his id, and it makes the most violent scenes more disturbing than heroic.
Why Gun Control Loses
Why Gun Control Loses
There are many more intense, relatively single-minded supporters of gun rights than opponents of it. An elected official is much more likely to lose office because he voted for regulating guns than because he voted against it.
.. Gallup has been polling Americans about guns for years. It finds public support for many regulations, and sometimes broad support. “Universal background checks” drew 86 percent approval in its most recent test of the issue. The public also believes that “easy access to guns” is a major factor in mass shootings. At the same time, public support for a ban on the civilian ownership of handguns has been falling for decades. In 1959, 60 percent of the public favored the idea and 36 percent opposed it. By 1975, support had fallen to 41 percent and opposition risen to 55. Now there’s a 76–23 percent supermajority against the idea.
.. A CBS/New York Times poll found that 26 percent of the public, a minority not much larger than the one that wants to ban handguns, thinks that “stricter gun control” would “help a lot” to stop gun violence.
.. Over the last 60 years public confidence in government has declined. Most people do not believe that it would be sensible for the government to try to disarm the population, no doubt in part because of the immensity of the task and the resistance it would spark.
.. What motivates the passionate gun-controllers? If saving lives is the goal, then directing more police resources to high-crime areas might have a bigger impact than any push for gun control
David Axelrod Interviews Jason Kander (Episode 178)
Narrowly lost election to the Senate after being targeted by the NRA. Put out video response, in which he assembled a gun blindfolded while talking about why he supports background checks
Gunman’s Former In-Laws Have Attended Texas Church
County sheriff says they weren’t at First Baptist at the time of Sunday’s massacre
Wilson County Sheriff Joe Tackitt Jr. told CNN Monday that Devin Patrick Kelley’s former in-laws have attended First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, although they weren’t in church Sunday morning.
.. Kelley had been denied a license to carry a firearm in Texas, the state official said. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott told CNN that Kelley was still able to buy a high-powered rifle from an Academy Sports and Outdoors store in San Antonio.
.. Kelley was court-martialed in 2012 for two counts of assault on his spouse and on their child. He was given a bad conduct discharge, confined for a year and reduced to the rank of E-1.