The Number One Reason For Electing a Third Party Candidate In Miro’s District

Hey, Joe… we need you to vote this way on this one…   oh, ok.

Versus…..

Hey Steve… we need you to vote this way on this one….    Why?

I’d certainly prefer someone who uses thought and logic to determine what is best for all, as opposed to someone who simply holds space and takes orders from those higher up… I believe you do too…. 

Incessant Arguments Over Guns….

I cannot hear an argument over guns where before long, one or two of the people end their defense by pulling out the same platitudes that surfaced just after December 14, 2012…. Apparently, there is nothing new anymore. The same arguments have now gone on for over 100 days, and we are into their fourth month….

There is nothing new to argue over… The proposals are in legislators hands.

But during the argument, there was wisdom on both sides.  And to be honest,there was foolishness on both sides.

A.  In regards to making every gun purchase require a background check, the NRA failed across the board to defend why doing such is a bad idea. In the end logic was not on their side.  As long as one convicted murderer awaiting sentencing can walk into a gun show and buy a weapon and kill, our regulations are too loose.    The NRA lost this one.    Now their only argument in use is this:  if you vote for it we will destroy you…  A threat, not an argument.  Such a retort may benefit their short term needs, but in the long run it  must fail because it runs against society’s interests.  Sooner or later, mandatory background checks have to happen.

So Background checks are to be a sure thing.

B.  Next, banning assault rifles.  The NRA has some facts here.  Assault rifles are not used in very many crimes…  In fact the only crimes they are used for are mass murders.  Like Newtown. Like Aurora. Like Tucson.  Almost all mass murders were committed by assault rifles.

This begs the question: do we or don’t we want to ban assault rifles for mass murderers?   Most mass murderers are not previous criminals.  They are good boys who flip and go bad.   Allowing every one to own a weapon that is only used for mass murder when one flips,  is our option.  Although sketchy, there is evidence that during the previous ban of assault weapons, the number of mass murders went down.  Furthermore, the biggest callers for a ban on assault weapons are our men in blue, those we hire to protect us from crime. On the front lines they understand that their survivability probability, goes up if the person shooting them has a one shot rifle or pistol, and not a 4000 rounds per minute weapon. (Google it) .  And this is the point.  Shouldn’t we side with our police over those wacko’s who own considerable weaponry, and one day, just get pissed off?

Few people are killed by assault weapons.  True.  But those that are, are our children, aunts and uncles and loved ones who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. ” Hey, who wants to see a movie?”

C.  Which brings us to clips.  The argument against large capacity clips as in the 100 rounds in Aurora,  is that when a psycho killer has to reload if anyone is left, they can bring him down.  A girl would be alive in Tucson today if the reload had occurred at bullet 15, instead of 30…  Again, the NRA states that these are trifling murders compared to the national death rate.  The opposition says, sorry NRA.  We don’t kill pigeons in boxes.  To us, every life is precious.  We’d like to keep our daughters alive too , thank you.  Most Americans would rather have someone’s daughter as their lifelong partner, than become betrothed to an assault rifle.  Living people are just better to be around than guns and our priorities should reflect that.

Banning large clips, will not affect the national death rate that much.  But it will change the death toll each time a member of the NRA goes whacko, and starts his life-long dream of his own personal random killing spree….

When you have something that is deadly and dangerous,  yet serves no helpful or productive purpose….. you get rid of it.  Done deal!  There is no reason to have these clips around and getting rid of them  (at least in the future as the mass amounts recently bought  get used), should dry up the possibility that 100 shots will get fired into people before the gunman can be tackled.  Tackle him at 15 and save lives.  People aren’t pigeons you know?

Again the NRA has not come up with a good enough reason these should continue.  The NRA’s ammunition has been reduced to their threat of retaliation, and that threat has now lost all of it’s logical underpinnings.  It is nothing more than the threat of a bully to a chump.  Don’t vote for this good piece of legislation or we will ruin you; there is no good argument otherwise…. That may be the reason Delaware’s extremely weak-kneed, cowardly, chicken-hearted republicans will vote for the continuation of future mass killings.  There certainly  is no logical explanation for the illogical backing the chicken- hearted Republican party gives to the NRA.

D. Finally the notion of safe school zones.  After much argument back and forth, I have yet to see how designating an area to be a safe school zone will work, unless it is protected by people bearing arms.  If  one chooses to designate any area as a safe zone, yet does NOT  have armed people like TSA agents forcing everyone to remove their shoes, empty their pockets, and ban all cell phones in order for one to enter, you are asking for trouble.

The smart method would be to tax the wealthy as much as is necessary so that every school district can afford to hire enough congenial policemen covering the property of  every school during school hours. After all, the wealthy are rich. Why should  anyone’s children have to suffer only so the rich can get richer?  The wealthy don’t need more money.   The notion of making a few words on a piece of paper to punish someone harder after the effect, of what a proper level of taxation should have prevented, is wasteful and makes one wonder whether  that person even considering it, exists in the ionosphere.  Republicans like Greg Lavelle are always quick to write up a new paper law to take care of real problems, that could be easily fixed on the ground if only the wealthy were simply required to pay their fair share….

That said, nothing new on this topic ever gets argued.  Gun blogs hardly raise an eyebrow anymore….

So it is time to pass the bills that are good….

A. Background checks

B. Banning Assault Weapons

C. Banning High Capacity Clips

And not pass the school law.

Amnesty Is Needed To Move Forward With Gun Control

In the bi-partisan Senate(sic) negotiations broke down today on figuring out how to accomplish background checks for hand held weapons…. By an overwhelming majority, Americans support the notion that every gun be registered to a single owner, and if a crime occurs, that owner can be charged with a conspiracy to that crime, provided he had not reported that weapon stolen….

A reader has brought up the major fear all gun owners have on getting their guns registered.  They hide behind the Constitutionality that registering guns with the Government, is the first step to confiscation.   This is not their real reason.

Their guns are illegal.  Not to them, But at some point in the past, they bought a gun in a shady private deal that did not require a background check, and the possibility lurks that their weapon they’ve had for years, probably in all fairness, was actually the stolen property of another gun owner….and with a registry, that fact will be found out.!!!

As soon as a registry goes into effect, computers will begin matching the numbers….

And, it is not these law abiding gun owner’s fault.  They performed their transactions legally, and the seller of the weapon probably in good faith, performed the transaction legally…. But with the ability to trace weapons, a gun registered in 2013 can be  found to have been stolen in 1989…..

Obviously this is a real fear.  I think all of us would feel the same.  I know I would.  Likewise, for us to move forward in taking effective action to prevent future tragedies like Newtown, we need to solve this issue.

The reality is that these once-stolen guns, are now in new homes, and those new owners are law abiding citizens… Without a registering of firearms, this criminality, possession of stolen merchandise, would never have been determined…

So by declaring no one will be prosecuted for having stolen merchandise, would go a long way to make sure fixing one injustice, does not create another…

We need amnesty against any legal action taken to retrieve ownership of a long lost gun. In most cases a statue of limitations would be long in effect, but we need a blanket Federal amnesty protection given priority over state an local laws on criminal prosecution….

We need this amnesty because we need universal background checks.

That accountability is key to holding criminals responsible..  As we go forward into the future, we will  need that clear accountability to control which guns confiscated from criminal belong to law abiding citizens who can then get return of their stolen possession, and which guns confiscated can lead us to more criminals who are using the current holes in our system to funnel guns to 7-11 and convenience store robbers….

We need oversight and accountability to accomplish this….

And putting law abiding citizens at risk for crimes of the past of which they were unaware,  gets in our way of doing what an overwhelming number of Americans want….  closing the ability of criminals to get possession of guns…..

I think tacking amnesty for gun owners covering any issues a gun registry may illuminate,  needs to be in any gun legislation bill put forward….  It is no different from granting immunity, which across this nation prosecutors do every single day……..

So let’s get it done.

WHat The Hell?

What on earth is going on in Wyoming, Kansas, New Mexico, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island, Louisiana, Alabama, West Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, Tennessee, North and South Dakota, and Montana?

We should do what they do!