We were the generation that thought we were going to live forever.

Everything they say is true, it goes by in the blink of an eye. However I can’t say that either my high school or college days were the best of my life. I never want to go back to school. I like not being anxious on Sunday nights. I like not worrying about grades. And I especially like the lack of competition over meaningless data. Like grade-grubbing in college. I mean what difference does it make? Oh, high grades might get you into a better graduate school. Meanwhile, everybody who seems to change the world dropped out of college. Or certainly didn’t go to graduate school. Of course there are exceptions, but being good at school is like being a professional athlete. Your career is time-stamped, and when it’s over, you’ve still got a lot of living to do.

Forever if you’re a baby boomer, like I said above.

Come on, we all know we’re going to die, but we don’t feel it. It’s something abstract, off in the future. While we’re growing up someone we know falls through the ice, or dies in a car crash, but we see those as anomalies. And maybe someone else dies of cancer, maybe even in their twenties. But not us, we’re bulletproof, we’re made to last.

Only we’re not.

We are the generation that refused to get old. Wearing our kids’ jeans as well as getting plastic surgery. Because image is everything. If you look young, you are. Fifty is the new forty. What a bunch of hogwash that is. You may feel young, but tell that to your body, it knows no different, fifty is really fifty. Never mind that we were brought up on a diet of fast food and most of us don’t exercise.

I didn’t think I was going to die until I got cancer, back in 2009. I was the first in my group to get it, woe is me. But since then…I know many more people who’ve gotten it much worse. Some have passed. Others survive, but they’re members of the club too, the ones who’ve been hipped to the fact that we’re all gonna pass.

But hopefully later rather than sooner.

We keep hearing about our progeny, the Millennials. How they’re not going to do as well financially as we did. Sorry, but most of us didn’t do so well. There used to be a middle class. Now that’s gone. Either you’re upper middle class or richer, or you struggle. Or will when your money runs out in old age. Everybody expects to live to a hundred, but it never occurred to them how to pay for it. Just like with politics, writers are out of touch. They think since they’re doing well financially, the rest of their generation is, just like they  missed the Trump voter, primarily working class, abandoned by the Democrats.

That’s another change from our parents’ generation. Today it’s everybody for themselves. The richer you are, the less you give to charity, it’s the poor who are laying down their dough. Of course I’m speaking percentage-wise, but so many who made it did so based on ripping off the public, overcharging people, using sleight-of-hand, they’re not about to change now. Money is status.

But as you get older you realize this is untrue. We revert to our high school identities. We’re all retired, we’re all in it together. We focus on gossip, the petty. Of course there are those who continue to work. But most interestingly, the financially-challenged don’t realize that it’s nearly impossible to get a job as you get older. No one is hiring ninety-year-olds. So when you run out of money…

That’s gonna happen a lot with boomers.

Who complain about physical ailments, but somehow their hearts and arteries are immune. They’re good, they’re standing here, aren’t they?

Especially men, going to doctors is anathema. If you don’t think about it, don’t acknowledge it, it doesn’t exist. But rust never sleeps, neither does the attrition of old age. Go for a full battery of tests, you’d be surprised how you’re compromised. As for that belief that you should take no drugs… Take them, as many as the doctor prescribes. I know a fiftysomething who was externally fit who was told she had high blood pressure and should take medication, she refused, chose the homeopathic path and had a stroke. Yup, ignore the doctor’s advice at your peril.

Now I’m detecting a bit of anger in this screed. I guess because I’m doing everything right and it may not even matter. So much is DNA. My father went to the doctor, took the advice, got multiple myeloma and died at 70. Meanwhile, our close family friend went to the doctor sporadically, delayed surgery, and lived to 92. Just like you hear about people who smoked like a chimney and lived to be a hundred. But they’re the exception. And I look around and see all the people who are cavalier regarding their health. I want to wake them, shake them, before it’s over. But the joke could be on me. I could drop dead tomorrow. It happens.

I met Michael Leon in 1990. He invited me to a show at the A&M soundstage. Which is not A&M anymore. That company was gobbled up by a conglomerate, who’s heard of Alain Levy recently? Even Edgar Bronfman, Jr. is lost to the sands of music business history. As for Edgar…bad financial choices. But somehow, my generation believes its money is forever, that someone else loses out, that everybody wins, kind of Lake Wobegon, where every student is above-average.

And Michael was warm and intelligent. Which not everybody in the music business is. There are a lot of uneducated hustlers, who can sell, but can’t have a deep conversation about anything other than music.

This was not Michael.

Who sent me some money when I needed it, out of his payout from the sale of A&M. By today’s standards it wouldn’t even buy a business lunch, but it meant everything to me back then.

And we went skiing together in the year 2000. He invited me to sleep in his giant room at the Goldener Hirsch in Deer Valley.

He worked for SBK. He worked for Hybrid. He worked with the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

I remember him telling me after he fell off the board that he never cared if he flew on a private jet again. Which is the goal of the hoi polloi. Forget the rich who fly private on a regular basis, might even have their own plane, there are those a level below who get to fly on the small planes where you never have to wait and get hooked by the convenience. But Michael realized it was ultimately all b.s. He knew.

I’m learning.

And then he started to winter in Palm Springs. Michael is a dyed-in-the-wool New Yorker. At least he was, I’m still speaking in the present tense. And he spoke about getting together. But it was Covid and the vaccine didn’t work for me…

Which no one could understand. Of course it worked for them. But I was taking a medication for my pemphigus that wiped out all my B cells.

That’s another thing, boomers don’t want to hear about your problems, they just want to soldier on, until it happens to them.

And I’ve been wondering recently why Michael hasn’t contacted me. Now I’m vaccinated, now I’m going out.

And then today I read he died, at 76.

At least Seymour Stein made it to 80.

76. Tell a baby boomer they only have a few years left. They’re never going to believe it, not them. Even though they took Social Security early because they believed it was their money, and they were worried about the program crapping out. What are you going to do when you’re old? The government is not going to take pity on you, it’s not going to give you any more. Maybe you can stay with your kids. Assuming you’ve got kids.

Or you can commit suicide, a death of despair. Honestly, I’ve contemplated that. If I run out of money. I’ve got no children. What else am I going to do?

And we keep putting things off, trips, seeing old friends.

And then we’re infirm and can’t travel, and our old friends die.

I’m not going to tell you how to live your life, what to do, other than to go to the doctor and listen to what they have to say. And while I’m at it, get a supplemental Medicare policy and be sure to sign up for a drug plan, if you don’t, you’re going to pay a penalty. Because if you can find an old person who doesn’t take medication…I can’t.

That’s something you learn as you get older. You’re in charge, you make the choices. And you bear the consequences. And there are no do-overs. Employ all the excuses you want. But at some point you have to stop blaming your parents, your upbringing, and bear the burden yourself.

But responsibility did not fit in with the hippie ethos. Which transformed into the ethos of greed, once it was legitimized by Reagan. Mine for me, that’s what it’s all about. So why should you expect others to take care of you when you need it?

I guess I’m pissed. That I won’t see Michael Leon again. That so many in my generation are unprepared for what’s coming down. And the fact that I’m going to die.

I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Assuming you’re sick, you ultimately make peace with the fact you’re going to pass. Like all this b.s. about fighting cancer mentally, that’s just what it is, b.s. My cancer lowered my hemoglobin to the point where climbing a flight of stairs was challenging, not only physically, but mentally. Walking cross town in NYC the roads have a hump in the middle, that strained me. Ultimately I found tolerable iron pills which alleviated the problem to a great degree, but it’s still there, just less, my hemoglobin never returned to normal.

All this is to say your friend with terminal cancer usually accepts their death when it comes near. It’s those that are left who can’t accept it.

I’m having a hard time accepting all the people who are passing. The rock stars. Classic rock records may still be around, but the people who made the music…

And the people I know. Or knew.

No one here gets out alive. Remember that.

Ticketmaster is committed. All dates that play after January 1st will be all-in. This will end customer confusion. They will only see one price. The main reason Live Nation is doing this is to cut the FTC off at the pass. Michael Rapino learned this from Daniel Ek. You get ahead of the customer, that’s the only way to win. Rapino offered Ek a board seat, but Daniel refused it, he’s fighting his own battles of misinformation.

As for Robert Smith… Like a typical artist, he doesn’t know his own business. Acts can always negotiate the fees, not down to zero, but if you can sell tickets, you have negotiating power. Why he and his manager didn’t know this is beyond me. But this is what happened with Springsteen, he tours infrequently and he and Jon Landau were not up to speed on managing ticket prices and they got caught with their pants down. However, the Boss seems to have dodged a bullet, his fans are going to the show and are happy.

As for Cure tickets for $20. In the big city that’s how much it costs to go to a movie, and if you want to pick your seat it’s even more. Kick back, should you be entitled to see the Cure for twenty bucks? What next, a pastrami sandwich for $1.95? That’s the seventies man, and concert tickets were twenty bucks in the eighties. But rationality…how can we get it in ticketing when we can’t even get it in politics? What we need are ticketing schools. Or maybe even a ticketing Zoom, which will live online forever, informing the public how ticketing really works. Congress can watch too!

Not that Congress is really a factor here. It investigates, the elected officials grandstand and do nothing. But the FTC, led by activist Lina Khan, that’s a worry to Live Nation, which of course owns Ticketmaster. Like I said above, Ticketmaster wants to get ahead of the game.

Right now it’s about public image. Because image is more important than reality in today’s market. So Daniel Ek may not have taken a seat on the board, but Robert Smith was offered a chair and he has taken it. As for the rumor there’s also going to be a public citizen on the board…this is a good idea, but it was nixed by Greg Maffei, chairman of Live Nation.

So how is this going to work?

Well, the window is shortened too. Ticketmaster will not sell tickets for any dates that play more than six months out. So fans won’t complain about the interest on their money. And this shortened time period is a benefit to them, because there are better odds they will know their schedule.

As for pricing ceiling… No ticket outside the first ten rows will sell for more than $500 for five years. I know that sounds high, but think of those Springsteen tickets that were listed for thousands. Maffei got this idea from SiriusXM, where he is also chairman. During his tenure running the satellite radio company Mel Karmazin guaranteed there would never ever be commercials on the music channels, so the ticketing plan was based on this. As for scalpers…

Five percent of tickets for every show will be sold directly to scalpers. They will be numbered and easily identifiable. There will always be people who want to overpay just to be in the building and they must be satisfied. The scalpers will do this. They also take the risk of ending up with worthless tickets, but that’s the game they’re in. If the scalpers sell any ticket that is not connected directly to them, they will be kicked out of the system. Yes, every scalper will be licensed, and their books audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

As for the rest of the public… All tickets will now be digital, attached to your phone. And you can resell them on the Ticketmaster site for the exact same price. No fees will be attached to resale, Ticketmaster gave in to the acts on this.

The acts are not happy with all-in ticketing. But Live Nation keeps them alive, it pays much more than record companies, so the promotion company has leverage. The acts like fees. The acts take essentially all of the ticket’s face value, the promoter making his money up on the fees, and everybody blames Ticketmaster. That’s now history.

As for AEG… If you noticed, AEG didn’t sign on to the Fair Ticketing Act. And AEG is not going all-in right now either. AEG is having such success with the Zach Bryan tour ticketing that it is going to continue down that path.

As for Verified Fan, that goes by the wayside. Ticketmaster has partnered with TikTok to verify the address and phone number of each and every potential concertgoer in the United States, the data will be crunched and it will be known exactly who ticket purchasers are. You will not have a chip under your skin to get in, but Jim Dolan’s facial recognition software will be employed at tight gigs. If it can keep lawyers out of Madison Square Garden, it can keep out bad acting concertgoers using illegal tickets too.

So how can you break up Live Nation and Ticketmaster when the company is the only one being proactive and actually trying to solve the problems in the ticketing world?

But enough is never enough. For every sold-out show there will be a lottery, enter your name and you might win a free ticket to the gig. This is kind of like the fan vote in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. People are constantly bitching they can’t get in the building, never mind at a fair price. This solves that. And the seats will always be good, because they will be made up of artist holds. As for how many tickets will be given away… Negotiations between Live Nation and the acts has resulted in the guaranteed number of four. But you’d be surprised, shows that are supposed to be sold out are not, and this will be a way to paper the show if in truth all tickets have not been sold. Of course you’re going to have to cough up your data to participate in the lottery, you pay for everything in the digital world, and if it’s not cash, it’s with your personal information. Everybody’s going to sign up for the lottery and the phone numbers and addresses as well as photographs will ultimately allow Live Nation to cut down on ticketing shenanigans.

But to truly satiate fans, Garth Brooks has convinced Rapino to lean on his clients to do residencies, until demand is satiated in every market. Superstars are biting, because they hate the travel. Although it is a lot of work.

So what else do you want? Scalping is limited, and works for those who want to overpay, and not only are hidden fees eliminated, but you even have a chance of getting in free! Even the most vocal superfan can’t complain, and it’s always a few nuts making the most noise anyway.

So hate on Ticketmaster no more. Ticketmaster is your friend, Ticketmaster is making change, to your benefit. The acts can no longer blame the ticketing company. Hallelujah!

Maybe… Because there is the issue of Ticketmaster paying buildings for exclusives. Competitors don’t like this. But it looks like a deal is being brokered. Wherein Ticketmaster will have exclusives, but there will be no guarantees and limited fees. The numbers haven’t been revealed, but they’re coming.

All on a Friday night no less.

From: Peter Wiley

Subject: Spotify Discovery Mode

Hi Bob, thought this Tweet thread was a solid (and concise) look at Spotify’s Discovery Mode. I work for a label distributed via Sony’s Orchard and Sony will not participate in DM, nor allow any of it’s subsidiaries to opt in. There’s a real concern that their unilateral decision, preventing an independent, privately owned company from participating is hurting our business: not only for our current artists/catalog but also putting us at a competitive disadvantage when going up against a competitor who can participate in Discovery Mode. Managers are hip to Discovery Mode and it’s advantages for their artists. We all have a myopic obsession over Spotify, it’s how we put points on the board and judge our campaigns.

The one thing not mentioned in this Tweet thread and is hugely important to the discussion is that Discovery Mode only reduces your per stream pay out in those instances Spotify serves up the opted in song via their “radio” algorithm, not on streams coming from fans who play the song from their own playlists or pressing play on the opted in track via the artist’s page, etc. So, the reduced per stream pay out is only on incremental, new plays, which is why it’s hugely popular. You are paid the exact same for all organic or already-earned plays, the reduction only occurs on the new, never would have occured streams had you not opted in. Forgive me if that is redundant.

Spotify has finally done it.

They've democratized payola.

Here is an explainer on Discovery Mode & streaming's race to the bottom.
↓

— Rob Abelow (@AbelowRob) March 30, 2023

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Jamie Lee want’s to have rock n’ roll matinee shows:

Kent Black was pretty much spot-on with his (normal) show-day production set-up times.

The ideal scenario (particularly if it’s a “teen-appeal” act involved – and I’ve worked with many) – is when the act is fortunate enough to be able to sell two shows in the same city, those being (ideally, again) Friday and Saturday nights, with the Matinee on the Saturday afternoon. Same could be said for Saturday and Sunday evening shows, with a Sunday Matinee.

National promoter’s (and local schools within the area of the show!) are historically uneasy about booking Matinees on weekdays!

I can honestly attest to have been involved with a show (and travelling on the crew buses, to give moral support) which “back-to-backed” out of an evening arena show in Birmingham’s (UK) Resorts World Arena directly into Leeds First Direct Arena – with a Matinee on that same day. Absolute Madness (and dangerous). There will be a “H&S law” against that in the future – if it’s not already in place. Moral of the story?  – Take care allowing an agent to become over-involved in the routing of a tour.

Jake Duncan
Tour Accountant Extraordinaire

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From: Hugo Burnham

Oh, and Kent Black assumes the only acts Jamie Lee Curtis wants to see are arena acts. Meh… we’d play at 10-in-the-f*cking morning for her.

H

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My next-door neighbour (with whom I had an uneasy relationship at best) died last year, victim of his own alcoholism.  He was an avid Trumpster, and once called me a “tree-hugging libtard” when I dared buy a Tesla!  When they cleared the house, they found 2 large gun safes: one contained at least a dozen pistols, the other, 3 high-velocity rifles.  They also discovered a trap door to his cellar, at least 2 flak-jackets, massive amounts of ammunition and – and THIS is the kicker – they found prescription medication for both schizophrenia and dementia!

How did he manage to buy so many guns? ANY guns!  My neighbours and I all agree he could’ve gone “clocktower” on any one of us, at any time.

Guns are not “boy toys!” They are instruments designed to kill living beings, be they animal or human.

I am not sure what cataclysmic event will eventually bring about gun control, but something radical needs to happen:  NOW!

Best, Charlie Morgan

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My family and I were at the Highland Park Parade on the 4th, it is something we are still dealing with 9 months later and will likely be dealing with for the rest of our lives. My 5-year old and 7-year old son are still asking us if they are safe and why the ‘bad guy’ did that. It is sad to see that a shooting at a school, parade or you name it is no longer a shock, but the norm, not even lasting in the news cycle over 24 hours. We are all complaining about something getting done and yet it doesn’t.  You nailed it on the head in the middle of this e-mail, who says ‘arms’ means all guns and going on to talk about how so many of these crimes are committed after a recent purchase. There is so much anger still in my hometown of Highland Park. We are staying positive, continuing to call our elected officials and hoping that others do the same. This is not a ‘us vs them’ problem, this is an everyone problem.

Jeff Leibovich

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I was in a mass shooting event in 2018 in Nashville. The restaurant I was in was shot at 20-30 times. We hid in the back hallway by the restrooms not knowing if the gunman was coming in the front door or not. When the police told us it was ok to go, there was the moment of, is it really ok? Am I really ok?

I wasn’t in a war zone. I wasn’t even the target. But this feeling never leaves you. A random firework goes off and I am immediately brought back to that place.

Now imagine those kids. If they survive, this sh*t will f*ck up their brains forever.

Everyone knows someone that’s been in a shooting now and still, nothing. I can vote blue all day but the knuckle-draggers keep holding us back.

Bobbo

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Thank you Bob for writing about Nashville.

The shooting at Covenant School happened less than a mile from my house.

My daughter’s school is a block away from our house and her school was locked down as well.

There are no words to explain the sadness our city feels right now.

I truly hope we can find a solution or at least a middle ground.

Children should not be killed in their classrooms or anywhere for that matter.

marcie allen

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You are 100% right with this Bob. I have 3 kids – one in high school, one in middle school and one in elementary school. I get nervous all the time when they leave the house in the morning, and we live in a small town with very safe schools. Today my 8 year old just didn’t wanna go to school. He was adamant. We forced the little guy up from bed and made him go to school, all the while I’m thinking in my head, what if he’s got some weird feeling that he shouldn’t be there today? And what if, god forbid, something terrible happens and I was the one responsible for forcing him to go? I can’t fu**ing believe we are living in this nightmare right now. And I was getting hopeful that the old farts who don’t care about about the mess they’re leaving were going to die off soon, but now seeing this insane generation that’s my age coming up through our awful government is leaving me hopeless.

And this all just boils down to one thing: MONEY – the absolute godforsaken root of all evil. I don’t believe that any of these soulless “politicians” who support the 2nd amendment crap even buy into it. It’s all just absolute pandering. And why? To protect their jobs & power because without their cushy government job they’re nothing. Losers. Nobodies. But say that you support AR-15’s? Job for life!!! I honestly believe that someday one of these nutjob shooters will end up taking out an entire school of hundreds of people and it’s absolutely terrifying. I just tell myself over and over: the odds are in my favor that my family will never be in one of these situations. But I fear those odds are growing smaller each day.

Please keep using your platform, if not for anything, to at least give the hopeless a voice.

Thanks Bob.

Rob DiFondi

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Why? Because the politicians are scared. Of their base. Of the NRA. Mostly of losing their job, their power, the perks, the money, their relevancy. That’s why these geezers stay so long in Congress. They can’t give it up.

I live in rural Texas. I’ve been around guns my whole life. I have a few, and unlike most gun owners, I use them frequently as the tools they are, mainly for feral hogs. (In fact, between a lifetime of playing amplified music and regular shooting I’ve got some pretty severe tinnitus — wear hearing protection young’uns, your 60-year-old self will thank you.)

Anyone who tells you they need a high-capacity semi-automatic rifle for “hunting” is full of sh*t and a poser. Same for self-protection in your home. No regular person needs an assault rifle for any reason whatsoever.

The right likes to talk about sheeple. Well, that’s what America has become, like the frog in heating water we’ve just grown complacent that for some reason we can’t have the civilization enjoyed by much of the world. Oh sure, we can have gadgets and grocery delivery, but we can’t have healthcare or safety from gun violence, or even a viable planet for our grandkids.

The French president tries to do an end-run to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 and France grinds to a halt with coordinated mass strikes and protests, while America sits by watching our children get slaughtered saying, “There’s nothing we can do.”

Yup, we boomers dropped the ball and now we’re too old and too comfortable to get out in the streets. It’s going to require a general strike in this country. But when you kick ’em in the corporate wallet you get results. It’s up to you, kids.

Todd Jagger

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You have great points that don’t need my validation, but one thing I want to illuminate is that when the 2nd Amendment was written and first implemented, if my facts are correct, it took about 4 minutes to reload and shoot the second shot from a musket…to even approach something like a semi-automatic weapon, you had to carry, say, three loaded muskets, but then you’re still back to four minutes, minimum, to reload and shoot again.  The guns of the late 1700s are not the same machines we have today.  And one more thing, we wouldn’t want people driving cars that weren’t registered or insured, and if you purposely kill someone with a car, you may not be allowed to drive for a long time if not, ever again.  Let’s adapt!

Sam Scozzari – NYC & Suffield CT

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Obviously, I am disgusted with this month’s school shooting (I say this month, because there will probably be one next month too).

Full disclosure, I am a former Republican. I hesitate to say former because that implies I am now aligned with the Democrats. I am not. While I have found myself more in line with much of what the Democrats are about as I am approaching 50, I would not legitimize either party with my support at this point.

Growing up, your generation identified with politicians. You felt you could relate to them, JFK being the most obvious example. As a Gen Xer who grew up in the late 70’s through the 80’s, I believe my generation felt a sense of respect for politicians as leaders, but I don’t know that we related to or identified with them. Like our teachers, they were all old and from a totally different era.

My point is this. The Republicans are batsh*t crazy and MOST of us who consider themselves to be moderates see that. We just can’t believe that the Democrats can’t find ONE candidate that leads with common sense and isn’t rife with hypocrisy. When Trump was running against Hilary the tagline from the Democrats was, “Old, rich, white men have ruined this country and we need a new perspective.” But then they give us Biden.

People don’t feel they can relate to politicians and I believe that is why there is a reluctance to stand up. People feel defeated. They are overwhelmed by a sense of pointlessness.

I have an 11 year old son, so the topic of school shootings is not lost on me. It scares the sh*t out of me. I don’t own a gun. I understand why someone would want to, for various reasons. But I also understand that as a parent I shouldn’t have to worry about my child’s safety when I send him to school.

Neil Johnson

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It takes months for a restaurant to get a full liquor license, maybe even a year, and costs $100k but that jackass down the street can buy an AR-15 in 24 hours? And local municipalities cannot create their own laws because Federal government has something to say about gun rights? Lisbon isn’t a crazy idea

Tim Hyde

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Hi, Bob. No place is perfect. But America has gone downhill in the last 40 years . It was a great place when I grew up there in the 60s. I swear to you. Even if you gave me 10,000 dollars a day I wouldn’t live there again.  I just visit my daughters and grandchildren once a year. Okay. I don’t want to sound pretentious. Americans live in a myth that they have the best country in the world. Most Americans have never been out of their country to see the world. There is no democracy in the US. You are guilty until rich. Corruption is overwhelming in our government. The problem is there is no CAP on Capitalism. The simple truth is, the U.S. is at war for continued hegemony over the planet, for the preservation of the imperial system and its finance capitalist rulers. In such a war, everyone everywhere is a potential enemy, including the home population. I’m a Vietnam vet 3rd Marine Div. from 1967-70.“The U.S. is no longer an economic superpower; it can only intervene decisively in global affairs by force of arms and military intimidation.” America is exposed now in the world, as a sore loser. I doubt if Americans will wake up while I’m still alive. One thing is we can’t go on like this forever.

Best of health. Take care.

Tom Riviere

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I would imagine the most frightened segment of society in America every day would be the mothers and fathers–the parents–who have kids attending both public (and private) schools. They must wake up up feeling dread every morning…”Could it happen to us?” They are an unwitting block of voters and voting constituents. And have numbers and power. It’s a huge constituency.

If they ever got fed up enough and banded together, especially the suburban parents of kids, it could spell the end to Republican/NRA gun politics.

If the right wing believe the basic minimum role of government is to militarily protect society (and its money) and keep it safe from external threats, shouldn’t the same logic of protection extend to internal threats as well? Isn’t citizens’ life and safety an inalienable right that trumps rights to bear arms? Criminal options are drastically reduced by removing the gun option from their hands.

Eric Andersen

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