The Case for Doing Nothing vs the Case for Doing Almost Nothing

In today's story of alternate history, it is January of 1942.  

The Great Depression rages on unchecked and millions of Americans are at the brink of starvation because President Joseph Manchin III believes any government action would be useless and the markets will eventually correct themselves.  

The ruins of Pearl Harbor are still smouldering, and President Joseph Manchin III's appeasement delegation still waits for an audience with the emperor of Japan.

The end is near for England.  German bombers command the skies over London and German forces are reported to be massing near Calais in preparation for invasion.  There had been some talk of lending or leasing arms to the British to help them defend themselves, but pressure from Senate Majority Leader Charles Lindberg and his America First party convinced an easily-swayed president Manchin that now would not be the time to "politicize" the war.  That the problem was not the Nazi's guns or tanks or U-boats or bombers; the problem was "mental health" and that perhaps "hardening" all but one door in all British buildings -- bricking them up-- would frustrate the invaders and they would go home.

Finally, as a bipartisan compromise, Manchin and Lindberg jointly proposed sending 1,000 First Aid kids to England, along with 7,000 pounds of mortar to help the British with the task of "hardening" their buildings: the compromise was sufficiently toothless that the fascist America First party raised no objection, and the minority Democratic party was sufficiently desperate to take anything the fascists offered.

You know the rest.

The ships carrying First Aid were sunk by Nazi U-boats which now controlled the Atlantic unopposed, and while the mortar ships were allowed safe passage, the "hardening" of  British buildings proved to be a complete failure.  

In an address to a joint session of Congress, president Manchin offered the now-conquered British Isles America's "thoughts and prayers", and told Americans that this proved once and for all that government actions and international laws are useless and that people with guns are just gonna do what they're gonna do and there is nothing anyone can do about any of it.  

He was given a 12-minute standing ovation by the America Firsters.

 End.

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Today I am going to propose a resolution.  

Each year in high school debate, the national debate society comes up with resolution that's sufficiently open-ended that it allows for lots of interpretation and therefore demands that debate teams do a lot of research on a wide array of subjects.  For example, the 1976-77 topic -- "Resolved: That a comprehensive program of penal reform should be adopted throughout the United States." -- was broad enough to include everything from decriminalizing pot and prison overcrowding, to mandatory minimum sentencing and the deportation of resident aliens.  

And I can reliably report that there was a whole lotta contention over the interpretation of the word "comprehensive".

So, here is your Gun Control topic for debate: 

Resolved:  "That anything less than a comprehensive reform of national gun sales, possession and safety laws would be worse than useless." 

Opposing the resolution:  Passing whatever weak and watered down legislation Joe Manchin and a handful of Republicans will permit Democrats to vote on -- say, improving background checks -- is worth it because even a marginal improvement over current conditions would probably prevent some tragedies and save some lives.

In favor of the resolution:  Passing whatever weak and watered down legislation Joe Manchin and a handful of Republicans will permit Democrats to vote on will not stop the next mass shooting, or the one after that, or the one after that.  What it will  do is hand more ammunition to the "Laws are useless" gun nut crowd.  "See, Dems got what they wanted!  They got one more Big Gummint gun control law passed!  And what good did it do?  None at all."  Thus making it that much harder to ever pass any  meaningful gun control legislation in the future.

Your comments are welcome, but since I moderate comments and have other things to do, it might take awhile for your comment to appear, so please don't post it nine times.  

Proud Former Debate Team Captain and Member of the National Forensic League