Steve:
Most excellent allusion...again.
Adding fuel to the time loop?
The well deserved general mistrust in the US Federal Government ..less so in Canada but that's lamentably changing.
To name but a few reasons.
The US military nerve gas experiments in Utah.
The CIA LSD Operation MK-ULTRA, visited upon unwitting Canadians BTW.
The Branch Davidian Complex debacle at Waco, Texas.
The Vietnam and Iraq Wars, 'covert operations' in Latin America, to say nothing of 'overlooking' the sins of the rich (war mongering) at the expense of the poor (cannon fodder).
And that's not even mentioning the absolute tyranny of J. Edgar Hoover's anti-black FBI machinations.
It should appear to even the casual viewer that the US Govt. is more interested in serving its masters and not the American people.
So, since the Civil War, The South has traded in the old cultural memes of Marauding Blue Coats, of Reconstruction Carpet Baggers and Looting Arsonists destroying cities like Atlanta for the current memes of Black helicopters and FBI or 'super woke' Northerns tearing down the last vestiges of a 'glorious' once proud culture: flags and statues and of course guns and lest we forget, The Sanctity of the Bible.
That's a deep seated fevered paranoia and as long as the Democrats and Republicans remain 'two wings on the same bird', then children will continue to be acceptable losses in the much hyperbolized 'war of freedom against tryanny', all in the name of electabiity and profit.
It is no longer a covert somewhat cool civil war.
The polarizing rhetoric has reached such epic proportions that this second civil war is now an overt hot one.
Buffalo is more than proof of that.
Another more recent example?
Florida State Republican, Rep. Randy Fine, actually threatens the President:
"Try to take our guns and you'll learn why the Second Amendment was written in the first place!"
To avoid such dangerous times dialogue is the only answer but the powers that be do not want reason to rule the day.
The NRA, true minions of the armament industry, can't make money for their lords if paranoia doesn't rule the day.
The real dilemma for gun law advocates therefore is to follow Sun Tzu:
"...build a “golden bridge” for an opponent to retreat across. Without an escape route to retreat, your opponent will engage in battle and fight like a caged and cornered tiger."
It will take the diplomatic skill of a MLK Jr. and Bobby Kennedy to heal the rift, but look what happened to them.
Otherwise, there will be a continual loop of mass shootings cooked up by those who want us continually fighting among ourselves.
From Groundhog:
Phil: "Do you ever have déjà vu, Mrs. Lancaster?"
Mrs. Lancaster: "I don't think so, but I could check with the kitchen."