Our Current Gun Restrictions Are NOT Enforced Properly...and NOT Restrictive Enough

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We have gun laws prohibiting criminals and people with mental/emotional disorders from buying guns...and THAT'S a "GOOD THING."

The 1st Amendment isn't without restrictions. It's illegal to threaten, or libel/slander someone...and so too, the 2nd Amendment requires sensible restrictions.

Our current bar for criminals and those with mental/emotional issues doesn't go nearly far enough.

I've said for a long time, that we HAVE gun restrictions for people with mental issues, violent felons, etc., BUT the bar is set far TOO LOW.

Currently you have to have been institutionalized for a mental disorder, in order to be barred from gun purchases and ownership. We institutionalize almost no one today.

Likewise, you have to have been convicted of a violent felony to be barred from legally owning guns. Most felony charges are plea bargained down, so many violent offenders just "slip through the cracks."

Two changes would help, make the existing restrictions more effective; (1) "Anyone diagnosed and treated for a serious mental/emotional condition (including those engaged in road rage and domestic violence incidents and sentenced to anger management deals, Depression, PTSD, etc) is barred from OWNING (NOT just buying, but owning) firearms" and (2) "Anyone charged with a violent crime and not acquitted is barred from owning (NOT just purchasing firearms), so an individual charged with a violent crime that's plea bargained down is STILL barred from owning guns.

What stops that?

Consider how many people are charged and acquitted of violent road rage & domestic violence cases, that are plea bargained down and how many cops, ex Military members, etc. who are on PTSD disability would have to surrender their guns. It'd be LOTS of us!

THAT'S where the pushback would really come from, BUT that's exactly why the bar for being able to own, not just purchase guns, should be much higher.

Last Thursday (August 1st), Ohio Governor John Kasich announced six gun policy changes recommended by a bipartisan panel. Kasich said he hopes the recommendations pass the GOP-controlled General Assembly as a package.

That panel's proposed policy changes are:

(*) Gun violence protection orders: Allow friends and family members to petition a court to remove firearms from people who pose a threat to themselves or others. A handful of states including Indiana have passed such "red flag" laws.

(*) Domestic violence: Mirror federal law prohibiting anyone convicted of a domestic violence crime or subject to a domestic violence protection order from buying or owning a firearm.

(*) Background checks: Enforce requirements that courts submit conviction information to the state's background check database in a timely manner. A Cincinnati Enquirer investigation found many courts do not routinely update information, which might allow someone to illegally buy a gun.

(*) "Strawman" purchases: Ban purchases of firearms for third parties, except as a gift. Current state law bans these purchases only if the buyer should have known the third party is prohibited from buying a gun.

(*) Armor-piercing ammunition: Update Ohio law to mirror federal law banning body armor-piercing bullets, which would allow Ohio officers to pursue charges that federal officials might not.

(*) Bump stocks: If federal officials ban bump stocks, which increase a weapon's firing rate, Ohio law should be automatically changed to ban them as well.

I have no issue with any of those six policy changes, BUT NONE of them would do as much as simply lowering the bar for existing criminal and mental health restrictions.

Too many of us, as Americans just don't fully understand this issue.
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Is THIS Exhibit # 19,657,893, or Exhibit 19,657,894 of How Often Our Media LIES?

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.Our national mass media LIES...early and often.

It's NOT "Fake News," it's much, MUCH WORSE.

"The New York Times even fact-checked (Trumps) claim, citing a retired NYFD deputy chief who said Trump was never at Ground Zero. Business Insider ran a story with the headline, "Trump said he was 'down there' at Ground Zero after the 9/11 attacks, but there's no evidence he was ever closer than a few blocks away."

Well, according to photographic evidence, those reports are lies.
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Extremism in America?...

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An ADL report (https://www.adl.org/murder-and-extremism-2018…) shows that extremism in the U.S. is actually a negligible threat, with just 50 murders due to extremism in 2018, out of just over 16,000 murders in the U.S. that year! That comes out to LESS than 0.3% or 3/10ths of 1%!

That's a testament to the success of the DHS, FBI, and local Police.

With just 49 whites out of appx 184 million whites in the country (appx 231 million when Hispanic-Whites are included, AND Hispanics are always counted as "white" in crime stats), it gives a clear indication of just how small the extremist white population is. Certainly significantly UNDER 1%.

Likewise, there've been only 76 U.S. deaths due to Islamic Terrorism between 2010 & 2018, with 49 of those due to the Pulse Nightclub shooting, which may NOT have been due to Islamic Extremism, but Omar Mateen's latent, or "closeted" homosexuality.

That proves how effectively the "War on Terror," both here and abroad, have been.

That ENTIRE report is good news!

WHY?

Because it clearly shows that terrorism of any kind has not been an issue within the U.S. since 9/11, despite Fort Hood, the Fort Dix Six, the Pulse Nightclub shooting, the San Berdino attack and a relatively small number of Nazi inspired attacks.

In 2018 there were 0 Jihadist attacks on U.S. soil. Reportedly Nazi groups killed 49 people that year. Many of those, prosecutors, judges and cops targeted by the nation's largest and most violent prison gang, the Aryan Brotherhood.

While 49 too many, it's LESS than 1/3rd of 1% (0.3%) of all homicides (16,000+) that year!

Urban gangs are responsible for most of the homicides nationwide. Gangs are why black Americans (appx 12% of the population) have committed over 50% of all homicides nationwide since 1976 AND it's why homicide is the leading cause of death for black males age 16 to 36, when homicide isn't in the top 5 causes of death for any other group. Most of those gang-related homicides are committed by young black males (less than 6% of the population)...a staggering statistic.

America has never had a "gun problem." It has long had a "gang problem."

Thanks to the DHS, local Police and the FBI, terrorism has not been a significant issue in America since 9/11.

Unfortunately urban gang violence has been a very major issue.
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Supreme Court: Trump 2 Opponents 0...

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13 months ago the Supreme Court backed Trump's travel ban (https://www.rferl.org/a/u-s-supreme-court-uph…/29321693.html), giving him a first major victory over opponents. That ruling allowed Trump's travel ban directed against 7 nations that have been associated with international terrorism to stand.

On July 26th, 2019, the Supreme Court OK'd the use of reoriented Pentagon funds to build the Border Wall (https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/…/supreme-court-trump-ca…)
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Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) Meets His Maker...Eldon Tyrell

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I meant to post this much earlier, but didn't.

Rutger Hauer, the great Dutch actor died, Friday (7/19/19) at age 75.

He was awesome as the Replicant, Roy Batty in "Blade Runner." He also starred in "The Hitcher," "Escape From Sobibor" and "The Osterman Weekend," among many other films.

In the scene from "Blade Runner" below, he meets his maker, Eldon Tyrell of Tyrell Corporation and negotiates for more life.

R.I.P. Rutger/Roy...
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Unions and the Worker...

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What did Henry George mean, when he said, "The methods by which a trade union can alone act, are necessarily destructive; its organization is necessarily tyrannical"?

I believe he saw the Unions of his day (the late 19th Century) already becoming the coercive, political powers they've become since.

A group of workers SHOULD represent solely worker's interests and not any organization's.

Moreover, Unions have taken a power that no group has a right too, and that is "limiting access to specific work." Carpenter's Unions, Electrical Workers Unions, even Unions for attorneys (the ABA) and physicians (the AMA) exist primarily to limit access to those jobs, to create an artificial shortage and better/higher compensation for existing workers.

Often, such Unions enrich themselves at the expense of their membership and, in turn, fail to represent their member's best interests. In the 1960s, New York's newspaper Unions fought for "Pattern Bargaining," which would require all Pressman, mechanics, reporters, etc., be paid the same regardless of the size of the newspaper. That put dozens of small newspapers out of business, killing thousands of jobs. Recently Pathmark's Unions did an equally egregious thing. As that company was drowning in red ink, it sought to cut some night jobs to save the company. The Unions refused, issuing an "All or none," ultimatum. It came back...NONE, as Pathmark could no longer go on.

Those are examples of Unions NOT looking out for their worker's best interests.

Henry George (photo below) was NOT anti worker. In fact, he was derided as a "Socialist" by most Americans during his day, despite his religious, highly Christian leanings making him unpalatable to Marxists.

Henry George was, in every sense, a man alone.

Henry George's writings, like "Progress and Poverty" inspired Leo Tolstoy who corresponded with him and after Tolstoy's two initial works ("War and Peace" & "Anna Karenina") devoted all the rest of his efforts to religious works like, "The Kingdom of God is Within You," "My Confession" and "The Gospels in Brief." In turn, Tolstoy's works would greatly influence Mahatma Gandhi, so while Henry George is largely forgotten today, his influence lived on long after he did.

Henry George didn't oppose workers banding together for their own benefit, he just opposed political organizations misrepresenting worker interests...and we still have a lot of that today.
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Dan McCarthy Has it Right About...Nationalism

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In his article, “The Nationalist Surprise” (https://spectator.us/nationalist-surprise/…) that correctly begins, “The movement is beginning because conventional politics is at an end,” Dan McCarthy goes on to make the all too obvious point; “How many times do pundits with conventional sensibilities have to be surprised before they twig to their own blindness? They were surprised by BREXIT. They were surprised by Donald Trump. And now, while they’re distracted by Donald Trump’s latest tweets, they’re setting themselves up to be surprised by another nationalist miracle — the wholesale replacement of the decrepit conservative movement by a new national conservatism.”

McCarthy is right to be tuned into this new Nationalism that rejects the Imperialist aims of Anglo-American Globalism.

The rest of the world has rejected the American dream of an “Americanized world,” and FINALLY many Americans are too.

Dan McCarthy ends with the truth, “The old, post-Cold War order of weak borders, straitjacketed free-trade ideology, and endless war for utopian ideological objectives is rapidly failing, and what will replace it has already begun to arise. This week’s National Conservatism gathering was both a sign of that and a catalyst for the further transformation of the American right.”
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