Archive for the ‘NRA’ Category

Mass murder has unfortunately always been a part of human history; among the worst of these are attacks on children. It is easy to buy into the idea that what we have witnessed in the last decade is a worsening of mass violence in the US. But the reality is that it is no worse than it has ever been. In fact the worst single act of school violence in the US happened in 1929. “There is no pattern; there is no increase.” (James Alan Fox, Ph.D. The Lipman Family Professor of Criminology, Law and Public Policy, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts) It seems like there is more because we have it clearly brought to us by the media, we see the horror and feel the loss and desire to take action.

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It is also common to blame firearms for mass murder, but the worst American attacks have been by explosives or arson. The worst school massacre was by explosives at the hand of a school board member who lost the election. In fact gun violence has declined to about half the rate it was in the 1990’s. The violence against students dropped from 54 to 13 per 1000 during that period. At the same time there was a huge increase in gun ownership. Not only was there a general increase in gun ownership, but the increase in semiautomatic rifles has even had a greater increase.

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How could we change gun laws to make society safer?  We could rescind them and stop infringing on the right of our citizens to own and bear arms.

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Gun laws that limit ownership do not make society safer. What these laws do is limit the good citizens’ right to self-protection; while the criminals and crazies don’t care if the gun they use is legal or not.

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Likewise, Gun laws that prohibit private ownership of guns do not make society safer. They take away the good citizens’ right to self-protection; criminals and crazies don’t care if the gun they use is legal or not.

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One of the arguments for disarming citizens is that in countries where guns are banned the murder rate is lower than in the United States. England is the most touted example. Gun ownership in England is practically forbidden and they have a lower gun murder rate than the US. However, the correlation of gun ownership is irrelevant because England had a lower murder rate than the US when both countries had no limits on gun ownership. In fact the murder rate was lower in England in the 1950’s before gun control, than it is now with complete gun control.

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Australia recently passed draconian gun laws confiscating millions of guns from their citizens. Since disarming the populace, violent crime of all types, including murder has skyrocketed.

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Switzerland, Israel, and Finland have very lenient gun laws (Switzerland actually requires each home to have and assault rifle), yet their murder rate by citizens is lower than that of the US.

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Gun ownership is much higher in American smaller cities and towns and in rural areas, yet the murder rate is lower. Gun ownership is much lower in black communities than white communities, yet the murder rate is much higher among blacks, and almost all murders of blacks are committed by blacks; mostly young males killing each other.

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In the US cities like New Orleans, Chicago, Washington DC, New York, and Los Angeles have strict gun laws, yet they are the most violent cities in the US, with the highest gun murder rates.

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Instead of worrying about guns in the hands of responsible citizens we should be addressing how to identify and neutralize the threat posed by potentially violent people. We should first figure out how to prevent them from doing harm, then figure out how to reduce the pool of those with mental problems or other violent tendencies, and how to reduce their access to potential victims.
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We should consider measures that will reduce potential damage that can be done in our schools by a nut with a backpack of homemade bombs, flammables, automatic weapons, a machete, or a steel bar. Once such a murderer is inside a “gun free” school and police are called, dozens of children can be heinously murdered.

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Even if you have a policeman on the campus at all times, the criminal only has to have two minutes to massacre a roomful of children. It can take longer than that for a resource officer to identify where the problem is and respond. Because the terrorists in Israel aggressively targeted children they have trained and armed teachers, administrators, and other school workers. This means that the damage that can be done will be limited because response will be immediate and massive.

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If there had been two concealed carry citizens in the crowed when Rep. Gifford was attacked, chances are good that many could have been saved. If the teacher and principle had been armed at Sandy Hook, there could have been many innocent lives spared.  Guns in the hands of good people is a good thing.  Guns in the hands of bad people is a bad thing.  It is the bad people that need controlling, not guns.

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In part two I will discuss how such a security plan could be properly established without creating chaos.

For those unfamiliar, Ted Nugent doesn’t shy away from sharing his opinions on myriad controversial political topics — from gun-rights to homosexuality, from religion to the military.

The veteran rocker recently said at a Republican event that, ”The whole world sucks, but America still sucks less.” He followed up the assertion by clarifying, “But with this administration, we are catching up,”

The Detroit native caught up with Mike Broomhead’s team at KFYI-AM in Phoenix for yet another bombshell of an interview. We warn, the following clip contains graphic language. Still, many will find Nugent’s trademark no holds barred attitude on politics a refreshing change of pace.

Among his more piquant revelations, Nugent believes that having Tim Geithner sever as Secretary of The Treasury, bearing in mind Geithner’s “tax cheating,“ is like having Jeffrey Dahmer ”in charge of a children’s playground.”

He also said that “welfare is slavery” and that we have “American hating maniacs” in our government.

There have been at least 20 attempts to assassinate a US president, president-elect, or past president. Of these four succeeded, Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley, and John F. Kennedy. Two other presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan were wounded in assassination attempts. There has been speculation since their deaths that Zachery Taylor and Warren Harding were assassinated by poisoning.

Fifteen of these were by gunfire, including all six of those in which a president was harmed. Three attempts were by bomb; in one case, the perpetrator changed his mind but was caught driving the car bomb, in another the disguised hand-grenade was prevented from detonating by the bandana being tied too tightly around it, and the third was disrupted when the plot was discovered by Saudi Secret Service.

Three times attempts were made to crash airplanes into the White House; one actually succeeding in crashing into the lawn, killing the pilot, one ended when the perpetrator killed the pilots then committed suicide, and one was stopped by brave passengers who refused to allow terrorist to carry through with their plot.

Only three attempts were motivated by domestic politics and three were attempts by foreign enemies. The attack on FDR’s party in 1933, was most likely not actually targeting the president, but was a successful mob hit on the Mayor of Chicago who was giving Al Capone trouble. In all other instances those attempting to assassinate the president were mentally troubled men (only two women in the whole group), often delusional, unemployed or marginally employed. Four attempts have been made by members of a cult or a domestic terror group, including the two attempts by women – one a Manson devotee and the other a Symbionese Liberation Front sympathizer.

These attacks have included sixteen against Republicans, ten against Democrats, and one against Theodore Roosevelt, former Republican running unsuccessfully on the New Progressive Party ticket. (He was shot in the chest prior to giving a speech, got up dusted himself off and gave the speech before going for medical attention. The bullet was never removed.)

In most cases the perpetrators used weapons that were illegal, transported them in a way that was illegal, and of course the act of attempting murder of itself was also illegal. A number of them were prohibited from possessing a gun, because they had criminal records. None of these laws in any way deterred them from moving forward with their plan. It is logical that this would be true, for once a person has settled on killing someone, any lesser law becomes irrelevant.

Beyond the ineffectiveness of laws another problem with trying to reduce violence by outlawing guns is that those who are set on violence have many options, as well as many illegal sources of obtaining weapons. For example, almost anybody can make a powerful bomb with simple readily-available ingredients. If a person is crazy enough to shoot a public figure and as many people around them as possible, wouldn’t they also be crazy enough to take a bomb or incendiary device into that same crowd and set it off, or drive a car, with or without explosives into the crowd? The result will be at least as bad as an armed shooter.

The difference is if the shooter uses a gun he must target each individual and if there is a policeman or an armed citizen present they can stop his attack by shooting the murderer; with the other options the slaughter is over before anyone can react.

My opinion is that we need to work on the root of the problem: 1) How do we keep people from concluding it is alright to murder someone, and 2) Why do we allow those who are unstable and unpredictable in their emotional and mental control to run freely in society?

I think that the trend toward an ethic where nothing is really wrong depending on the circumstances and away from traditional family and religious mores has created an environment that allows monsters to develop. There have always been psychotic and emotionally troubled people, but we have not always allowed them the freedom to make the terrible choice of bloodshed.

There has been much made of a pre-election campaign poster that pictured Democrats that were targeted for defeat by Republicans with the graphic of a crosshair to emphasize the concept of their being targeted. This symbolism has been used for years on political media by both political parties and individual candidates. Harry Mitchell used a photo with his opponent centered in the crosshairs – if only we had known he was attempting to incite murder, we could have had him arrested. At least according to the liberal hysteria coming from the left. I have probably a hundred photos of liberal and Democratic examples of what they are so eagerly condemning the conservatives and Republicans. A few are posted below.

This is a graphic used by the Democrats in the last election. Notice the targets on the states where they hope to defeat a Republican, or did they REALLY mean to kill a Republican? Absurd? Of course it is, but no more so than what they are saying now about the right.

A subtle hint of violence from a liberal protest march.

Satire, not hate from our liberal friends.

Why on earth was this person not arrested? No hint of left-wing inducement to violence here.

Aliens demanding their constitutional (what?) rights in Phoenix.

Lefties proudly desecrating the American flag. This is actually violence against America, but the left has no trouble supporting this right to free speach.

Since the left has been doing this kind of protest and campaigning for the last several years, and since they are saying this type of rhetoric causes crazies to kill, we shoud brace ourselves or an onslaught of mass assassination and murder. Of course the caveat is that it’s only bad if it does not reflect their view… Would the word hyprocrite be appropriate here?

The fact is that this type of protest and advertising does not cause deadly actions. In the United States there have been four presidents assassinated and twenty attempted assassinatiion of a president. Of these only three were politically motivated; the rest were all perpetrated by an unbalanced person with their own incomprehensible motivation. Interestingly enough, almost all of these were committed by a relatively young male, a loner, unemployed, with previouse social and legal problems, who acted alone. This sounds very much like the man who committed the outrage in Tucson. I don’t really want to mention his name, because that is what he apparently wants – fame.

Instead of dwelling on the murderer, or misplacing blame, we would do well to mourn the loss of Christina Green, Gabriel Zimmerman, John Roll, Dorwin Stoddard, Dorothy Morris, and Phyllis Scheck. Their love ones have lost them from this life, and we have lost an unknown number of blessings from their being taken. Let us remember in our prayers Representative Giffords as she fights her battle to regain her life, as well as Bill Badger, Ron Barber, Eric Fuller, Susan Hileman, George Morris, Pam Simon, and Mavy Stoddard all of whom were wounded by the killer. May God bless them all to have a rapid and complete recovery.

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