Tag: NRA

Consequence of the Pulse Nightclub Terrorist Attack

There are two obvious consequences of the Pulse night club terrorist attack combined with the terrorist attack in San Bernardino California.

  • There will be more invasion of privacy.
  • The fight against terrorism will be a major issue in the presidential election.

One day after the Boston Marathon bombing the FBI released pictures of the Tsarnaev brothers. That was thanks to the battery of cameras that were mounted to buildings and light poles in the area.

We may relish our freedom but the fear of more terrorist attacks will, I believe, cause many Americans to willingly surrender that desire to prevent attacks in the future.

The NRA’s contention that more guns will stop terrorist attacks has proven worthless. Florida, where this latest attack occurred, did not stop the attack simply because most people do not carry weapons. Concealed guns are permitted in Florida.

Donald Trump will be tempted to call for more surveillance of Muslims in the United States. If he does propose that surveillance, American’s fear might prevail.

I anticipate that no matter who wins the general election we will see more loss of personal freedom.

President Barack Obama offered this statement today. “We Have To Decide If This Is The Kind Of Country We Want To Be.  …To actively do nothing is a decision as well.”

From Sandy Hook to San Bernardino

Tashfeen Malik age 27
Tashfeen Malik age 27, the face of terrorism

This year is ending on a very sad note. Apparently we have just experienced another act of terrorism that is almost exactly three years after the Sandy Hook massacre. In that time we have seen multiple massacres that have caused everyone to become accustomed to those horrible acts.

Our government cannot protect us from the quiet killer who showed no signs of planning to kill. We are all left alone to protect ourselves and our families. That means that those who don’t own a gun will now have to consider buying one and learning to use it.

Even those working in facilities providing services to the disabled will have to carry a firearm just in case there is an attack.

I am most depressed by our government’s idea that they do not have to pass any regulations that would limit the sale of guns. I just saw someone at a gun range in the San Bernardino area saying on the air that “Guns don’t kill people, it’s people who kill people.”

Congress just voted down a new registration program two days ago.

As I non-gun owner I have three choices.

  • Take a chance and hope I never am in a place where there are weapons being used.
  • Buy a gun and carry it with me as protection.
  • Move out of this country that has gone mad.

Will you buy a gun and carry it with you?

The Power of the NRA and Gun Manufacturers

Just last week Fareed Zakaria pointed out on his program, GPS, that 150,000 people have been killed in homicides since September 11, 2001 and 74 people have been killed by terrorists since that date. Few seem to be concerned about the killing by guns in America even though those events happen on a daily basis.

American attitude is that this is a cheap price to pay for our right to own a gun. No other industrialized country in the world has the high rate of deaths from gun violence that is experienced here. Are there more people that have mental disease in the United States compared to other countries? That is not likely.

We have accepted the NRA and gun manufacturers arguments that we are safer with more guns. Can you imagine how many more people would have been killed in a dark movie theater in Aurora, Colorado if someone else has started shooting to defend themselves?

Is the U.S. Constitution equivalent to the Bible?

It remains inexplicable that the most advanced country in the world honors a document written in 1789 as if it was handed down from God like the Ten Commandments.

Those wise men that wrote the United States Constitution recognized that the basic law they created might need to be amended as the world evolved. They provided for that situation in Article V. Despite that ability the conservatives on the Supreme Court and elsewhere in our nation defend the idea “that the meaning of the constitution does not change or evolve over time, but rather that the meaning of the text is both fixed and knowable.  An originalist believes that the fixed meaning of the text should be the sole guide for a judge when applying or interpreting a constitutional provision.” Source of quotation

Thus we are all bound to the idea that our right to bear arms has no limits. Anyone can buy and own a gun. The NRA strongly advocates this belief in spite of the continuing loss of life caused by the deranged. They oppose all forms of weapons registration and the names of people who own them.

Thus on this fall day a high school student in Washington State killed one classmate and seriously injured three others before taking his own life. Meanwhile two Northern California deputies are dead another officer and a civilian were injured by another mad man.

I am quite sure there were other shootings today.

We all just change the television channel or block it out of our mind. Most people just say that is the way it is in America.

If it happens to someone in our family we cry, pray, and try to forget.

MOST OF US DO NOT HAVE THE COURAGE TO SAY “ENOUGH.” CERTAINLY NOT OUR ELECTED OFFICALS. THEY TOO ARE AFRAID OF THE NRA.

Do a crime, get jail time

The NRA is the vocal defender of the second amendment.  That is OK with me.  Their reticence to insist on prosecution of those who commit murder with guns is their undoing.

The latest is the retired policeman in Florida who killed another person in a theater because that man was texting on his smartphone.  The former Tampa police captain has been jailed since he fatally shot the man and was denied bond on Friday.

America’s problem with guns is really an issue of crime.  What we really need is swift justice!

There should be no delays in conducting trials.  That too is in the constitution.  The Speedy Trial Clause of the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides that “[i]n all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy that right.  The Clause protects the defendant from delay between the presentation of the indictment or similar charging instrument and the beginning of trial.  It also ensures speedy justice to those who are injured.

Do a crime, get jail time. If we all really want justice for everyone, including the NRA, we should be pursuing criminals to mete out swift justice.

Sadly we have a slow moving court system that delays verdicts and the guilty are mildly punished.  It’s a system that has sympathy for the criminals. 

A man went to the movies with his wife.  He sent a text message to the baby sitter.  Now he is dead.  Will the retired policeman be punished for murder?  Like George Zimmerman will he be found innocent?  This is not a Black and White confrontation.  In a country where life is cheap and “stand your ground” laws are prominent I won’t be surprised if the killer is found innocent.

Guns Are More Valuable then Lives

Despite Newtown, Aurora, Virginia Tech, and Columbine, gun owner’s rights are more important than lives in America.  That fact is supported by the lack of control legislation from our congress.

School Shooting, Grayson RobinsonClaire Davis, 17, was in critical condition after being shot at point-blank range at Arapahoe High School on Dec. 13. She died Saturday afternoon.  The killer was 18 year old Karl Pierson.  He had legally purchased his shotgun at a local store a week before the shooting and bought the ammunition the day of the shooting. Anyone 18 and older is allowed to buy a shotgun in Colorado.

Colorado has a history of shooting incidents.
1999  Columbine High School in Columbine, an unincorporated area of Jefferson County – 13 people were killed
2006  Platte Canyon High School in Bailey – one person killed
2007  A 24-year-old man named Matthew Murray shot and killed four people in two different cities in Arvada and Colorado Springs.  The facilities included his church.
2012  Aurora at Century movie theater – Twelve people were killed
September 9, 2013  In the first recalls of state lawmakers in Colorado history, State Senate President John Morse and Senator Angela Giron were both removed from office Tuesday by voters upset with their stance on gun control.
December 13, 2013  Claire Davis, age 17 is killed by another student

Democracy is on Decline in America

Rural America vs. Sensible Gun Control

Multiple opinion polls have shown that more than 80% of Americans support expanded background checks to make it more difficult for criminals and the mentally ill to obtain guns. Senators Joe Manchin (Democrat from West Virginia) and Pat Toomey (Republican from Pennsylvania) struck a bi-partisan deal to accomplish this objective.  The proposal failed 54 to 46.  You see passing anything in the Senate requires 60 votes of the 100 in that body.

It is accurate to say that those living in rural areas are more likely to need a weapon for protection.  Even those people in rural areas must worry about criminals and the mentally ill.  So why would they oppose an expansion of a regulation that already exists to gun shows?

The NRA and other pro-gun groups have won another round for no limits on gun ownership.  Democracy has lost.  This nation is less safe. This nation is less united.

Is it Safe to Live in the United States?

The Los Angeles Times print and internet editions provided news of San Diego State University hosting school shooting survival training.

San Diego State simulate a police team searching for a gunman

San Diego State simulate a police team searching for a gunman

Los Angeles schools will have police visiting all schools in the city district daily to assure parents that their children are safe. The program is the result of the Newtown, Conn. Shooting.

What madness is this? Like a “Twilight Zone” story we fear a handful of people who threaten our children and families with death just because of the second amendment to the constitution. Even the conservative Supreme Court Justice Anthony Scalia has said that reasonable gun regulations are legal. The death rate from homicides in the United States is over 3 people per 100,000 residents. That same number is .5 in Canada and England had 35 homicides in 2011. Neither of those countries has seen dictators take control of their governments. Our obsession with fire arms is horrifying.

Is it safe to reside in this country when you fear going to church, to school, or the shopping mall? Is my only course being armed wherever I go?

The NRA Vision for America

The following letter to the editor appeared in the Los Angeles Times today.  The author accurately and clearly expresses my views.

Re “Gun reform ideas more than just talk,” Dec. 23, and “NRA calls for armed guards in all schools,” Dec. 21

Finally, I understand the thinking of the National Rifle Assn.: It wants to put armed guards in all schools to protect us from the people it   is protecting, when what we really need is protection against them.

An armed society is an intimidating society, in which people fear saying what is on their minds because they fear being shot by the armed person next to them.

An armed society is a gross violation of public spaces and of our right to be free from fear.

An armed society spells the end of civil public discourse and, consequently, the end of democracy.

Before this happens, we need to stand up to the menace of unrestricted gun possession and those who advocate for it.

CATHY COLLOFF

Toluca Lake, California

NRA Is Out of Touch

“We need gun control in our country and the latest tragedies only underscore that fact.”  How many blogs have to write these words or something similar?

 Wayne LaPierre

The NRA’s leader, Wayne LaPierre, says the bad guys have guns so we need to have good guys with guns to fight them.  It sounds like the “OK Corral.”  The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral was a gunfight that took place at about 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday, October 26, 1881, in Tombstone, Arizona Territory.  The movie is a story that is based upon some facts.  Bad guys versus good guys.  It is difficult for me believe that there are people in this nation that think the answer to gun violence is more gun violence.  This is not the “old west.”  We are living in the 21st century.  There are no more cowboy and indian confrontations and there are no frontiers that are inhabited with bad guys and wild animals.

I am not alone.  New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg called the NRA presentation  “shameful” and said the gun lobby “blames everyone but themselves.” Bloomberg, considered a national leader on gun control, has also chided Obama for a lack of action on the issue.

The reason we cannot obtain real gun control is the power of the NRA.  Too many congressman and senators fear the power of that group.  They believe that they will lose their elected seats if they support rational gun controls.  It is up to Americans to press their representatives to pass appropriate legislation.  There is no other way.