Daisy Fuentes, Joey Ramone & Marky Ramone, condemn gun violence in USA; gun control plea. Ramones 

Not every Ramones song is intended to be taken literally. When in Blitzkrieg Bop, it goes "Shoot 'em in the back now" this is just being punk rock and fun. It is not serious. As for Scattergun: I don't think CJ is saying this is the way our American culture NEEDS to be nor that it is how it should be. He is only saying this is what it is, as a matter of fact. Here is what CJ had to say about guns in the USA: We’re getting to the point where something’s gonna happen. Something’s gonna get done. And I’m not saying that they’re gonna pass a whole bunch of gun control laws or something - but I think what people are starting to realise is like there’s a lot more going on within our culture, in general that needs to be addressed. And that’s really where we’re getting to, we’re kinda getting to the point where it’s like, “okay we have to do something about this situation”. But we have laws in the United States in the Constitution that guarantee people gun rights. That’s not something you can just flip. I know over in New Zealand, that, you know, they were just like, “yeah okay, everybody turn in your assault weapons.” I don’t know how successful that shit’s been, but the general population in the United States owns more rifles than our military does. So to try to change things here is not as easy as it sounds. It’s not as easy as it sounds. You can’t just do it like you can in other countries, because, you know, we have a constitutional right. And I know some people would be like, “big deal just change that.” It’s not that simple, you can’t just change things in the States and especially when it comes to gun rights, because, guns to the average American, they are, is very much a part - we were born out of a gun culture. We’re literally born out of a gun culture. That’s how our entire, our country was founded by the gun (laughs). You know what I mean. We killed, we killed off huge amounts of each other to end slavery. You know what I mean? It’s like we have lived by the gun for a very, very long time. That’s a deep cultural thing. I don’t know what the answer is to changing it. I don’t know, I’ve had other interviews where people have asked me about what needs to happen, what needs to get done, and…I don’t even know how to explain it. If you’re not from here and you’re not from a culture, it’s a very tough thing to explain to people because we are, it’s so much a part of who we are, and has been. We’ve been fighting since World War II, I think we’ve only had a couple of years where we haven’t been at war. So the whole warrior culture is even, it’s very deep-rooted here in the United States. There’s a real serious warrior culture outside of the military. It’s uh, it’s such a overly complicated situation and I would love to say that, like, this is all we have to do to get it straightened out. But you can pass a law today, and it will mean nothing tomorrow, because there are so many guns in our country. There are so many guns. And what do you think is gonna happen if they go “we’re confiscating all the assault weapons”? People are gonna go, “Really? Come knock on my door.” That’s really what you’ll have. And I have friends who are seriously like, real hardcore, anti-gun people, who are like, “that won’t happen. If they pass a law people are gonna abide by it, nobody’s gonna want to have this big, you know, uh, shootout and risk the lives of their family.” We have large groups of people, in the United States, large groups of people with military grade weapons. You think those people are just gonna give them up? You know what I mean? That ain’t gonna happen. It’s not gonna happen. So we really need to address it in a different way. We need to address it in a completely different way. But, it’s gonna have to be a little bit of everything, and that’s the point that we have to get to. But in the meantime we just fucking, we keep having these unbelievably horrific things, and it’s usually young people. All of the shooters are very young men, and they obviously have a mental - these are not people whose minds operate like the rest of the public does. Obviously. These are people with deep-rooted mental problems on top of it. And it’s just another layer that complicates the entire situation. So I would love to be able to give you a good little clean snippet that you could put in there and make a statement one way or the other, but my answer is I don’t know what to get, I don’t, I don’t even, I can’t even begin to address it. Because it is so deep-rooted in our country, our culture is, is born from it and it’s gonna be a really tough thing to separate the two. - CJ Ramone - 9/17/2019

Well, to be fair to Johnny, he is no longer around to speak for himself, so we don't KNOW that at all. While we know Johnny Ramone self-identified as a Conservative, I think he was more of a fiscal and political Conservative and not as much a cultural Conservative. I've never heard him express an anti-gun regulation stance. Indeed, I don't know if he ever expressed any opinion or statement about guns and mass shootings. We do know, because he said it, that he didn't appreciate Phil Spector casually waving his gun around in the recording studio, although this is a story that Marky Ramone has to some degree disputed. Marky said: "There were no guns pointed at anybody. The guns were there but he (Spector) had a license to carry." And then, years later, whether it was accidental or deliberate, that just having unsecured guns lying around is what directly led to the death of a woman named Lana Clarkson, and Spector spent the rest of his life in prison. We do know Johnny didn't hold the same identical cookie-cutter Conservative views on everything. He never professed to be a Christian Conservative, although he identified as Roman Catholic but he never attended Church. I've never read or heard him say anything against abortion or gay people either. Indeed, two gay guys very important in the Ramones close circle of associates were Arturo Vega the Ramones' art and lighting director, who was also a Mexican-American, and Danny Fields, their manager, who was both gay and Jewish. If Johnny had all these deep and intense hatred for gay people and other minorities like a typical Right Wing Conservative of today, it seems unlikely he would've employed Arturo and Danny for so many years and counted both of them as his friends, and yet we know that he did. Indeed, When Johnny knew that he was dying Arturo and Jonny even worked together on the designing of Johnny's grave monument, which Arturo and Linda then completed together. So let's not make assumptions about what Johnny may or may not have thought about something, that he is not on-record of having clearly stated himself. We can say that C.J. Ramone, who has publicly stated he is similarly Conservative like Johnny on some issues, has said this: "We’re getting to the point where something’s gonna happen. Something’s gonna get done. And I’m not saying that they’re gonna pass a whole bunch of gun control laws or something - but I think what people are starting to realize is like there’s a lot more going on within our culture, in general that needs to be addressed. And that’s really where we’re getting to, we’re kinda getting to the point where it’s like, 'okay we have to do something about this situation.' - On what exactly we SHOULD do, C.J. was less clear about, but on the fact that we do need to do something he is certainly clear. What's also clear, to me at least, is that if we keep electing all these Republicans who stand staunchly opposed to even the most basic, common-sense gun regulations, nothing whatsoever WILL get done. Nothing, that is, except more and more mass-shootings, accidental shootings, and gun violence in the streets.

Johnny was beaten brutally by a guy named Seth Macklin, of a long forgotten punk band called Sub Zero Construction, over the latter's talking to Johnny's ex Roxy, and Johnny intervening. He needed emergency brain surgery. I seem to remember reading in Commando (Johnny's book) that John bought a gun after that. I definitely remember him writing that he fantasized about killing Macklin. I'll never understand the fixation on linking school/mass shootings to gun control. More people are killed in our inner cities on a given weekend than a year's worth of the kind of mass shootings you are talking about. Its hard to isolate that data from all the gang related mass shootings. There are more guns in circulation in the US than there are people in this country. Criminals and those with criminal intent can always obtain one. Strict gun control would only stop the law abiding from self protection, and would eliminate our protection against tyranny. I'm sure German Jews in the 30s and 40s would have appreciated having guns. The right to bear arms shall not be infringed.

@@anonyarenaOne more thing- CJ LOVES guns. And motorcycles. He reads Guns & Ammo for fun. Johnny mentioned this simewhere. CJ does not identify as conservative though (Dee Dee did). CJ feels he was in the center of Johnny and Joey, and that politics are stupid. Also, what a straw man about consevatives you have in your mind- we all "hate gays and minorities", lol. Step out of your bubble a little.

There is nothing inherently "wrong" with believing the right to have a gun is considered as a pillar of personal freedom, but what's wrong is the entirely incorrect belief that gun ownership must be unrestricted and unregulated. The way far too many on the Conservative Right of the USA have interpreted gun rights has resulted in widespread gun violence and mass death, then they have the standing gall to turn around and point the finger of blame at the Liberal Democrats for gun crime when it is the free and easy access of gun that the Republicans insist upon what causes this problem in the first place. Joey and Marky aren't even saying gun ownership should be illegal. They are saying there needs to be gun control. Having travelled the world and been to many countries all over, they observed that other counties don't have the problems with gun violence that we in the USA do. The same can be said in countries like France and Switzerland, where no one will ever say gun murders are non-existent, but they are extremely rare. According to World Population Review. France has 0.84% of the world's gun deaths. Switzerland has even less with 0.1%. This USA has 14.85% of the deaths. We can do better. The murder that occurred recently nearby to you was a young, soon-to-be father stabbed by a 17 year old. That's one unfortunate man, killed by another with a knife. Now imagine if that 17 year old killer had a gun instead of a knife and went on a rampage and killed 27 people! These are the sorts of news headlines we are reading regularly in the USA. It does not have to be that way.

I think they are making sense. After all, what is the "trigger man" using to kill children in school? Is it JUST an "actual piece of metal?" Or is it specifically a gun? Guess what; it is a gun. No one is saying that robot guns are walking themselves into schools and killing kids. What they are saying is that a man walking into a school WITHOUT a gun won't be doing any shooting of 19 kids like what happened at Uvalde. This horrendous event showed just how false the statement "what stops a bad guy with a gun is good guys with guns." The "good guys" were all over that school and they had over 90 police officers inside the school, waiting in the hallway, while a killer with a gun shot 19 kids for 77 minutes until he was killed by a police tactical team. The point is, if we had common sense gun regulation, as is REQUIRED by the U.S. Constitution, then troubled "men" wouldn't be able to get their hands on guns so easily. Marky said: "you gotta have gun control" and I agree because THAT's what's in the 2nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. "A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." It does not say "deregulated." It does not say "unregulated." It does not say "slightly regulated." It does not even say "moderately regulated." It says "well-regulated." What did the authors of the Constitution mean by "well-regulated?" It means intelligently and thoroughly regulated. All these NRA types who don't want there to be any gun restrictions whatsoever always quote the second part "shall not be infringed" while deliberately and intentionally ignoring the first part that its literally predicated on, the "well-regulated." Joey and Marky are not only talking sense; they are talking common sense. It's the same common sense the founders made when they made sure to put regulation into the Constitution. The "guns don't kill people, people kill people" argument isn't common sense, it's a dumb slogan. CARS don't kill people sitting in the driveway either, but you need a license and registration and insurance to drive one, and you have to pass a driving test before you can get a license. And a CAR is not even designed to kill. It can, but it is not designed to. There's more regulations to buy and drive a car in this country than there is to buy and shoot a gun. That not only doesn't make sense, it's outright stupid and insane.

what a ridiculous point to make