Gun Control Rhetoric and Reality

I am tired of politicians using tragedies such as last week’s shooting to promote their own Gun Control agendas.  Of all of the gun deaths, these mass-shootings account for an extremely small percentage of all gun deaths.  We DO have a gun control problem in this country, but it is not the end-of-the-World issue that the gun-control advocates are making it out to be.

On the other hands, some common-sense gun control laws do not represent the total destruction of our Constitutions rights that the gun-control opponents are claiming, either.  

The really disgusting thing is that the politicians on both side know this, and they continue to spout their rhetoric solely to polarize our population for their own political agenda.

THERE IS NO SINGLE SOLUTION TO GUN VIOLENCE SIMPLY BECAUSE THERE IS NO SINGLE CAUSE OF GUN VIOLENCE.    Gun violence generally falls into one of several categories:

ACCIDENTS:   Banning guns from law-abiding citizens would stop these deaths.   But accidents account for about 2% of deaths from firearms.    The better solution here is mandatory safety training, including proper handling and storing of firearms.  This is common sense anyway.  Why would we NOT want to be safe when handling a deadly weapon?

SUICIDES:  Suicides account for about 62% of all gun deaths.   This is tragic, and banning guns would prevent people from using guns to kill themselves.  But the gun is just an mean to the end, and people who commit suicide generally are not thinking rationally. Those who are determined to end their lives would just choose another method.    But a ten-day waiting period before purchasing a gun would not hurt.

That leaves HOMICIDE as the cause of the rest the gun deaths in America.   But it’s not that simple.   The causes for gun homicides can also be broken down:

JUSTIFIED:   Killings made in self-defense or defense of others or by law enforcement officers in the line of duty.  The ability to protect ourselves is the entire reason for the Second Amendment.

TERRORISTS:  Since 2000, terrorists have far less than 100 people in the U.S. using guns.  Those two terrorists last week had a stock-pile of pipe-bombs ready to go.  If they had not had the guns, they could have killed as many or more people just as easily with those pipe-bombs.   No gun control laws can overcome the amount of effort these terrorists expend to plan and carry out a their attacks.  As the White House said yesterday, we could make it a little harder, but I doubt it would stop even one of them.

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE and CRAZY PEOPLE:   This is the truly tragic category.  There is really no way to prevent the homicide committed in a fit of rage by someone who has never committed domestic violence before.  A person in a fit of rage will grab any weapon they can.  But for those with a history of domestic violence or mental illness, there should be restrictions on their ability to own or possess firearms, just as there is for convicted felons.  We also need a common-sense method to allow for early intervention to prevent people with undiagnosed mental illnesses from gaining access to firearms without unduly infringing on their general rights.   But that’s a topic for another day.

CRIMINALS, and GANGS:   We already have laws that prevent convicted felons from possessing firearms.  These laws need to be much more rigidly enforced.   That means universal background checks.  Judges should add 5 or 10 years of probation to the end of each sentence, during which time police may stop and frisk without cause.   A convicted felon caught in possession of a firearm should go away for a very long time.

I SUPPORT THE SECOND AMENDMENT.   I believe law-abiding citizens have the right to arm themselves for protection.  Guns are useful tools when used properly by responsible citizens.  If even one person at that Christmas party last week had had a gun, the outcome might have been much different.  In today’s world of home-grown ISIS organizations, the original Second-Amendment argument for the need of a civilian militia is not that outdated.  It would be interesting to see how the Middle East would be right now if every citizen in those countries had ready access to firearms before ISIS came to town.

MY SOLUTION:  Personally, I would like to see the concealed handgun programs that exist in several states expanded so that ANYONE who wants to possess a firearm must obtain such a permit.   The permits should require adequate safety training before issue.  But once that training is completed, the permits must be issued to any citizen legally entitled to own a gun.   Anyone who sells a gun must verify the current status of the buyer’s permit, regardless of the location and character of the sale.  Even if you are giving the gun to your own child.  Such verification could be done very quickly with a simple automated phone call.  Dial a number, enter the permit #, and you get back a yes or no.  If you are caught with a gun and you do not have a permit, you go to jail.  Plain and simple.

This would NOT require people to register their guns.   Since having a permit would not prove that you actually owner a gun, the arguments against gun registration would not apply here.

Kim Davis: Hero or Tyrant?

Kim Davis is not a hero.  At best, she is a spoiled brat who is throwing a temper tantrum because she did not get her way.  At worst, she is a traitor to the Constitution and to our Country.

Whether you agree with the Supreme Court’s decision on gay marriage or not, the fact is that the court DID rule on this issue, and it is now the law of the land. If you do not agree with the Supreme Court’s decision on this issue, you have two options available to you:

ONE:  You can ask the Court to reconsider their opinion.  Although rare, the Supreme Court has reversed itself on numerous occasions.

TWO: You can Amend the Constitution.  An Amendment can be proposed by either a 2/3 vote in the House AND the Senate, or an Amendment can be proposed at a Constitutional Convention called by a vote of the legislature of at least 2/3 of the States.   Once proposed, the Amendment must be ratified by the a vote of ¾ of the States. 

But you DO NOT HAVE THE OPTION TO REFUSE TO FOLLOW THE COURT’S RULING.  Just because you do not like or agree with a law does not give you the right to disobey it.   This is a simple truth, and applies to everyone.  No one is above the law.

This is especially true for those whose position as a government official gives them control over others. When you hold such a position, whether you are a police officer, a court officer, or a judge, you are acting as an agent of the government. When you are doing your job, you are not acting on your own behalf, you are acting on the government’s behalf.  In other words, you ARE the government. Your personal rights do not come into play when you are acting as the government.

If your personal beliefs do not allow you to perform the duties of your job, you have the absolute right to resign your elected position and go to work at Pete’s Pool Hall (assuming Pete would hire you). On the other hand, if you are in need of a government license, you must go to the government to get that license. One in need of a license does not have the option to go to Pete’s Pool Hall to get that license.

Look at it this way: Kim Davis CHOSE to go into her office and put her rights above those of others who did not have a choice in the matter.   Kim Davis could have chosen to stay home and enjoy her rights without infringement, and the rights of those wanting marriage licenses would not have been infringed, either. It was entirely HER choice.  

When Kim Davis accepted her position, she took an oath “that I will not knowingly or willingly commit any malfeasance of office, and will faithfully execute the duties of my office without favor, affection or partiality, so help me God.” How can refusing to grant services to specific individuals not be a direct violation of that oath? 

Wake up, people! There are a lot of issues we are faced with today that have no easy answers. This is not one of them.

Offending Everybody

We all are offended by something.  That is natural when you are a member of a large, culturally diverse society.  It is that diversity that gives us our strength and character.  

But the current trend of “political correctness” is getting far out of hand.  Just because an item offends one group of people does not mean that that item should be banned or removed.  Even more troubling is the current trend of labeling those who are not offended or who do not think the same way as they do as “bigots”.

The Constitution does NOT grant us the right not to be offended.  On the contrary, our right to Freedom of Expression essentially guarantees that someone else will be offended.  It is specifically offensive speech and expressions that the Constitution protects.  Non-offensive speech and expression, by its very nature, needs no protection.

The Confederate Flag means different things to different people.  Some see it as a symbol of racial discrimination.  Some see it as a symbol of Southern Pride.  Some see it as reminder of a dark past that should not be forgotten lest it be repeated.  Physically, it’s just a piece of cloth.  Its meaning is only how it is perceived in the heart and mind of each individual – nothing more and nothing less.

What I see as FAR MORE DANGEROUS is when people use tragic events such as the Church Shooting to incite a mob-mentality to impose their views onto the views of others.  When we ban or remove anything simply because it offends a portion of our population, we are chipping away at the very freedoms the Constitution provides. The banning of items that offend selected groups of people are the first steps towards tyranny.  We seem to forget that our rights end where others’ begin.  We don’t need the Constitution to protect the rights of the many.  It’s there to protect the rights of the few.  Or the one.  The Constitution protects the minority from the majority.  That’s why it takes a three-fourths vote to amend it.

Many in this country are offended when same-sex couples marry.  They claim it tarnishes and diminishes the institution of Marriage and should be banned.   When two same-sex people marry, it does not physically affect anybody else any more than when two opposite-sex people marry.  You may be offended by it, and it may go against your religion, but it doesn’t affect you outside of it simply existing within your purview.   Gay people are not getting married just to spite you.   They just want to express their love for each other and enjoy the same rights as the rest of us.  They are not demanding that we change our beliefs for them, just that we respect their rights to live their lives under the same freedoms and rights as we live ours.

The Confederate Flag issues boils down to the same thing.   Those who fly that flag do not do it to promote racism.  They fly it to celebrate their Southern Heritage.  They are not demanding that YOU fly it in YOUR yard.  They just want to fly it in theirs.  (Individual terrorists who pervert the use of the flag, cross, or any other symbol for their own misguided purposes do so just to create controversy. They do not represent any section of our civilized society, and are not part of this debate.)

On the other hand, while the Constitution grants individual people the rights of freedom of speech and expression, it does not grant that same right to the State.  Quite the opposite: the State is required to offer equal protection to all persons.

Today’s issue centered around South Carolina’s display of the Confederate Flag.  When the State sponsors something, that has an entirely different meaning than when an individual exercises his freedom of Expression.  Since the State represents all of its citizens, its actions should reflect the central beliefs and character of its population as a whole.  This flag clearly does not.   Take it down.   It should have never been there in the first place.  In this particular case, this flag was first raised over the State Capitol in the 1960’s – a hundred years AFTER the Civil War, and right in the middle of the Civil Rights Movement. I was not there sixty years ago when it was first raised, and was not privy to the reasons for it being raised at that exact point in time. But, considering the timing, a racial message was implied, if not clearly sent.

We ALL have the same rights under our Constitution.  My issues are just as important to me as yours are to you.  What offends you may not bother me in the least.  What I find offensive might be something you hold dear.  Throughout my school-years, it was drilled into us that the United States is the “Melting Pot”, where oppressed people from all over the World could come to live in a place where they would not be persecuted for their beliefs. It is this diversity that has allowed the U.S. to flourish for 200 years.  Let’s not let the “Politically Correct” mindset start to take away those rights.  

Isn’t it ironic that the people pushing the “Politically Correct” agenda do so believing it protects our rights, when, in fact, it is taking them away a little bit at a time?   They say that if you drop a frog into boiling water, he will jump out, but if you start out with cold water and raise the temperature a little bit at a time, the frog will sit there until it’s cooked.  Let’s not be that frog in the pot.  If we continually give up our rights a little at a time in the name of political correctness, we’ll wake up one day with no rights at all.

I find it not-so-amusing that many of the same people celebrating the rights of gays to marry no matter how many others that offends are the same ones clamoring to take away the rights of others to express their own heritage because it offends them.  And the ones shouting loudest about their right to waive the Confederate Flag were the same ones shouting the loudest to restrict the rights of gays to marry.   And THAT OFFENDS ME.

Taking a look around!

I am proud of America, and proud to be an American.

Despite being constantly bombarded by news media, Facebook memes, self-interest groups who present only partial-truths, politicians who say only what they think their constituents want to hear, and the self-absorbed political pundits who spin every issue, we must remember that our country is still the greatest place on Earth!

First and foremost, we ARE free! Our freedom to legally practice whatever religion we want, say what we want to say, write what we want, travel and reside wherever in the country we want whenever we desire is unmatched anywhere in the world. We enjoy these freedoms without even giving them much thought. We are able to do this because our military is ready, able, and willing to defend our freedom with their lives.

In every small town and large city, there are stores we can walk into and purchase what we need. Our grocery stores are always fully stocked with more food that we possibly can eat. There are churches of every denomination located within easy reach. Basic and secondary Education is available without charge to every child in the country. With or without insurance, no one is denied basic emergency medical care when needed.

Contrary to popular belief, violent crime rates are at their lowest in the past thirty years. Our Police forces and Fire Departments are made up of dedicated men and women who put their lives on the line every day so that we can sleep soundly at night. Don’t let the occasional bad apple dim your view of the whole carton.

We have two oceans, thousands of beaches, beautiful mountain ranges, hundreds of National & State Parks, wide open prairies, lakes of all sizes, and even some barren deserts. From large cities to small towns, whatever you want is there. So turn off your TV, stop looking at Facebook (after reading this post, of course), take the day, get out and look around at everything our country has to offer!

God Bless America!