Tag Archives: Second Amendment

Point of View Columns

An American Tragedy – In Three Parts

America has been a nightmare when it has seized upon some notion of destiny which requires land theft, genocide, subjugation or just plain combat. Ask the descendants of the decimated indigenous people of North America. Ask the descendants of the indigenous people of lands now known as Hawaii and Alaska.

And while you are at it ask the people of Vietnam, Iraq, the Caribbean, Latin America and Afghanistan. The global legacy of this country is not without global benefits, but too much of that legacy has involved true tragedy for too many millions of people for centuries.

And now, it would appear that America is turning inward and, not liking what it sees, is now punishing itself in so many ways. Consider the following:

Part I – Trump as Pyromaniac in Chief

Donald Trump has transformed from being the shallow and meaningless scam artist and self-promoting hustler to becoming a danger to this nation and humanity. All because his stint as the worst president in the history of the United States whetted his appetite for adoration and his addiction to domination and humiliation of anyone and everything.

In the whirlwind of his brave new world he has amassed millions who adore him and will follow him lemming like into the abyss. The denizens of MAGA Nation will literally follow him off that cliff, each one of them aspiring to be the next to go.

And now, when multiple indictments and criminal charges are about to rain on him like hail from Hell, Trump is prepared to unleash the demons who worship his cloven footprints. As he prepares to unleash those hounds Trump is revving up his masses – predicting “Death and Destruction” and “The End of America As We Know It” and other portends of doom and gloom if he is indicted for any of the many crimes that he has committed.

Trump predicted “American carnage” during his inauguration speech in 2017. He urged his supporters in 2021 to “fight like hell” in order to overturn the 2020 elections and now he is predicting ‘death and destruction” if he is arrested on criminal charges – charges that he most certainly deserves.

And the truth is that Trump can create a national firestorm that could consume these United States that will be hard, if not impossible to extinguish.

Part II – The United States of Gun Continuing Horror Show

Groundhog Day in America has a ghastly image these days. That is because every few days some deranged individual goes into a school or church or synagogue or supermarket or dance studio and kills as many men, women and children as possible.

And the aftermath is so sadly and pitifully predictable. The parents and children of the slain are mourned with tears that will never stop flowing. Safety advocates keep hoping against hope that each slaughter will be the last one.

And all the while, gun worshipers with their skewed and twisted interpretation of the Second Amendment and their pockets bulging with megadollars from gun manufacturer dollars spew asinine phrases regarding “the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun””.

And while millions of good guys with guns and bad guys with guns has resulted in a national circular firing squad, all of America is at risk at becoming collateral damage -over and over.

Part III – When Parents’ Rights Begin and Where They End

Finally, we have seen the notion of parents’ rights regarding K-12 education take a disturbing turn. We are now seeing that opponents of truth in history contending that if they don’t want their children to learn of the genocide and slavery and land theft that are the foundation of the American narrative, then these parents have the “right” to have their children miseducated in the miasma of unreality and insular ignorance.

And if that “right” is fully exercised we will soon have a nation of men and women more ignorant and more bigoted than what we have at present -and that cannot possibly by a good thing.

Afterall, ignorance sows the seeds of self-destruction in all who partake.

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Point of View Columns

Exactly What is the Number?

If you live in the United States and care remotely what may happen to you or your family and friends, if you care about any or all of your fellow human being who live in this country, then you should be very concerned that, as of the end of February 2023 thousands American men, women and children were killed by gunfire.

Consider that the United States has the highest rate of death by gunfire of any country in the world except for Yemen – which just happens to be in the middle of a civil war. A half-way rational explanation might be that the United States is in the midst of an undeclared civil war except the only ideology that is seemingly worth dying for is the sanctity of owning a gun. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Despite the deluge of bloodshed that affects every city and every state in the nation, there remain an extremely powerful cohorts of adherents that gun ownership is a God given right embedded in the Constitution. And while no one should presume exclusive knowledge as to the will of God, literally nowhere can the absolute right to unlimited gun ownership be found in the Constitution.

This is the Second Amendment exactly as it was written and ratified in 1791:

A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

One need not be a devoted student of history to understand that the militia were the first and last line of defense of the colonies prior to and during the revolution (as well as the first line of offense in decimating the indigenous population) and there were concerns that the new national government might accumulate too much power. Hence the militia were considered to be a bulwark against overreach by the national government. And, by the way, the National Guard in each state is the institutional descendant of the militias.

And, by the way, you can read the Second Amendment backwards and forwards and it simply does not refer to gun ownership as an individual right – like free speech, or freedom from self-incrimination. But the gun ownership will never let facts, even facts set forth in the Constitution itself, get in the way.

Nevertheless, one has to believe that there is a limit to the carnage that can be considered acceptable. Obviously, we have not reached that number yet. Last year 20,138 Americans were killed by guns (suicides were not included). Consider the fact that 20,138 dead mothers, babies, elderly citizens, teenagers, neighbors and strangers was not enough to move the defenders of so-called gun rights.

Consider the fact that in 2022 20 little children were literally shot to little pieces by yet another madman with a gun. In any sane country, there would be a real call to action.

We need look no further than New Zealand when another madman with an automatic rifle killed fifty men, women and children in two mosques. Within weeks there was not only a ban on the sale of automatic weapons, there was also a ban on the ownership of such weapons. Last year there were 48 gun-related deaths in New Zealand. Even considering the difference in population, there is no way that 20,138 American deaths can be deemed acceptable.

It is clear that 20,138 dead Americans in one year is not the number that can serve as the basis for change of American gun laws. It is also clear that thousands dead women, children and men are not enough dead Americans to serve as the motivation for change.

The question is, what is the number?

Perhaps we should ask Florida governor Ron DeSantis – so far 2,724 Floridians have died in his state. This number is not enough for him to break of his romance with the gun lobby? Governor DeSantis, what is the number? What is the number of dead Floridians that would be too much for you?

Would you feel differently if a member of your family was in that number? Or would that be a sacrifice that you would be willing to make on the altar of the Second Amendment.

Perhaps we should ask Texas governor Greg Abbott – so far this year 3,513 Texas children, women and men have died from gunfire. The state is on the way to having almost 40,000 dead Texans before the end of the year. This is a number close to the entire American military death toll during the Vietnam War. Governor Abbott, what is the number?

What is the number of dead Texans that would get you to turn your back on the gun lobby and begin to actually protect the men, women and children that you have so far falsely sworn to protect?

And again, if one of those dead Texans had the last name Abbott would that make a difference. Or are you comfortable being a member of the clergy of The Church of the National Rifle Association?

And to all those adherents to some mystical and unlimited right to own guns, are you prepared to answer the question, what is the number?

If their answer if that there is no number of dead Americans that should warrant limitations on gun ownership, we begin to understand that the gun lobby and their adherents have entered into a murder-suicide pact with the American people.

And if that is truly the case, then the worst of times are yet to come.

And we should all be afraid.

Very afraid.

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Point of View Columns

The United States of Gun – The Story Never Ends

Literally a week does not go by without another mass killing in the United States. Recently, the death toll has been increasing like the scoreboard for some insane video game, with mass killings every few days. And there is no end, indeed not even respite, in sight.

It is ironic that in a country that claims some kind of exceptionalism that the carnage continues unabated. The gun lobby and the gun manufacturers literally insure with their massive political donations and 24-7 propaganda machine that there will always be a critical mass of lawmakers in virtually every state and always in the Congress that will block any meaningful changes in the laws in the near, and sadly, bloody future.

With a Supreme Court that has now established a new and lethal interpretation of the Second Amendment which will very likely result in opening the remaining floodgates that will result in a virtual tsunami of guns and consequent deaths. And the irony is that the Second Amendment literally says nothing about the right of individuals to own guns, to wit:

A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. (emphasis added)

Even a casual visitor to the pages of the Constitution with only a gossamer thread of knowledge about American history will know that the Second Amendment was the reflection of the very real memory of the British colonial power dismantling state militias that were key to the American Resistance in 1775 and onwards. There is literally no indication in the writings of Madison, Hamilton, Franklin and any of the other key framers of the Constitution that the Second Amendment was intended to mean that every person had a constitutional right to own a gun.

Even granting that the Constitution has been reinterpreted to reflect the times, the reality is that well over 60 percent of the American population, when asked, favors some kind of gun control laws, rules and regulations. Yet we are supposed to believe that this so-called inalienable right is worth the lives of tens of thousands of men women and children who die from guns.

In this country guns are the leading cause of death among children (emphasis added). There is no so-called developed nation on the planet that would find that such a statistic as acceptable. Yet in this so-called exceptional country the proponents of gun carnage will send their crocodile tears and empty thoughts and their profane prayers to the survivors and this daily deluge of blood.

Almost exactly ten years ago, a 20-year old by the name of Adam Lanza killed his mother and then went to the Sandy Hook Elementary School where he shot and killed 26 people, including 20 children between the ages of 6 and 7 years of age with an AR-15 style automatic rifle. And then he shot himself in the head.

Reports of the carnage were too awful to photograph. Let it suffice to say that the carnage was so complete that parents of the children were only able to identify their sons and daughters by the clothing that they had been wearing when they left for school or, in some truly horrific cases, only by DNA evidence.

It was said at the time that, if this country could not do something about gun violence and mass shootings after Sandy Hook, it never would. And then…. in the last ten years this country has done nothing of substance.

If, ten years after Sandy Hook and after ten years of more dead men, women and children this country cannot seriously address the issue of gun violence, then it is quite possible that this country will shoot itself to death in some kind of demented suicide pact.

This country has more guns than people. And if this killing continues unabated, there will continue to be fewer people than guns.

There is no rational interpretation of the Second Amendment that justifies any American should be forced to live in the United States of Gun in order to satisfy the insatiable greed of gun manufacturers and those men and women who foresee an apocalypse where only having a gun will save you.

Clearly, this story never ends.

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Point of View Columns

-America – Land of the Gun and Home of the Dead

Before you read any further a courtesy is extended – if you believe that the right to own any kind of gun more important than the right to live, you should probably stop right now as this column is not an effort to try to convince anyone when it comes to the Second Amendment.

As you are reading this, the grieving families of the 19 children and two adults killed in Texas are trying to make sense of a universe that is now turned upside down and inside out in an unimaginable vortex of grief and pain.

And as you are reading this there are people like Texas Senator Ted Cruz who actually said that the best public policy strategy in the wake of this schoolhouse massacre would be to have more armed guards in the schoolhouse. After all, what could possibly go wrong with having even more guns in schoolhouses across this blood-soaked nation?

It should be quite clear by now that this nation is on a course that can only be described as suicidal. There is literally no other nation in the world which has the frequency of random murders by gun. These are murders with no particular ideological or religious motive because, in a bizarre and twisted way those killing make some kind of sense as opposed to someone walking into a church or a school or a synagogue or a supermarket killing anyone and everyone with no apparent reason.

There has been a lot written and said about so-called American exceptionalism but the uncomfortable truth is that among the league of developed nations the United States is first in deaths by gun violence, first in private gun ownership, first in maternal death rates, first in incarceration rates and last in national health care policy. The uncomfortable truth is that too many Americans are okay with that as long as certain preconditions are met.

Preconditions like white privilege, preconditions like a predatory economic system that rewards greed and punishes anyone who does not grasp and grab for a living. Preconditions like living in a country with a Constitution that institutionalized minority rule in the very first draft of the document – and minority rule works in the country to this very day, if you are a part of the white privileged minority.

It should also be known that those preconditions also include making some people without privilege feel good about themselves because of belief in the false idols of gun ownership, gender bias and gender dominance and a sad version of religious freedom that debases the spiritual beliefs and freedoms of others.

The massacre in Uvalde will be repeated as sure there will be unprecedented wildfires in the American forest and as sure as we will continue to see once in a century weather storms for the rest of our lives.

And I am sure that my seer and guide to the future, Negrodamus, will certainly predict that, by this time next week all of the hollow thoughts and prayers for the victims of this latest massacre will dissipate like the music of that mythical band going over the hill.

And then the gun lobby addicts posing as senators and representatives, men and women who have already sold their soul to the merchants of death, will look to make the American people believe that the right to own a machine gun is more important than the right of a ten-year-old little girl or little boy to dream and see their dreams come true.

America is exceptional indeed.

But not in a good way.

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Point of View Columns

The United States of Gun – The Endless Tragedy

 

The United States of Gun – The Endless Tragedy

During the past few weeks there have been two separate shooting incidents in American schools. There have been several deaths and multiple injuries. Interestingly enough the shooters were apprehended alive. While it might seem beside the point, it is interesting in that these young, white, active shooters were somehow apprehended alive while multiple young, black, non-active shooters are routinely killed for possession of a cell phone or a hoodie (and Skittles) or a toy gun.

It is hard to say which is more horrific – the killing of schoolchildren by schoolchildren, or the moribund lassitude of governmental leaders when it comes to gun control. We know that the perfect world envisioned by the gun industry and the National Rifle Association would include a firearm in the hand of every man and woman in America. And while there are 330 million people in America and close to 400 million guns already.

But the fact that even the most infantile of baby steps in the direction of gun control never take that first step makes one wonder if the NRA has a damaging dossier (with accompanying videos) on every elected official in this country. At least that theory would lend some kind of logic to this horrific scenario.

Consider that 26 days after the horrific mosque shooting in New Zealand, the New Zealand national government enacted serious and stringent legislation regarding the ownership and sale of firearms in that country. Consider that over fifty years after the University of Texas Tower shootings (the first mass shooting in America in the modern era) virtually no major national legislation regarding controls pertaining to the ownership and sale of firearms have been enacted with the exception of a short-lived restriction on the sale of assault weapons.

There are now more than 300 million people living in America. There are now more guns than people in America. America has more guns per capita than any country on Earth. Over 100 Americans die from gun violence every day. Since 1970 more Americans have died from guns (1.45 million) than all of the deaths in all of the wars in the history of this country.

Yet, even the hell of babies being slaughtered by an automatic weapon in Sandy Hook or a concert crowd being massacred by sniper fire in Las Vegas is not enough to dislodge the sclerotic Congress to do something, anything to lessen the death by weaponry which the most telling and bloody characteristic of the United States of Gun.

The NRA and the purveyors of death, aka gun manufacturers, have promoted the money making myth that guns are part of the American DNA dating back to the days of an American frontier and, one might add, the three century genocide war waged against the indigenous people of this continent. But there were frontiers (and genocide) in Australia and New Zealand and Canada but guns are not considered to be a part of the DNA of those countries.

The NRA and gun manufacturers have sold too many Americans on the lie that the second Amendment to the Constitution gives every American the right to own a gun. A sober and quiet reading of the Constitution will reveal that the second Amendment simply does not say that. But the NRA interpretation supports the unlimited sale of guns and rifles.

And now we have learned that there is something even more tragic than a parent losing a child to gunfire, and that would be a parent losing a child to gunfire trying to protect other children. Congress won’t or can’t act to control the sale and use of guns. Trump cannot even comprehend any reason to act to control the sale and use of guns. And too many Americans continue to elect too many men and women who will not choose to change the purported gun DNA of America.

And so we are left with the sad and tragic scenario where the only heroes are the children who get killed trying to save other children from guns.

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Point of View Columns

The Sad Saga of the United States of Gun

Another day, another gun massacre – such is life in the United States of Gun. We live in a country where 2 per cent of the world’s population lives and where 40% of all the guns on earth are stored. Every day – every day – 90 Americans die from guns – suicides, homicides, matricides, fratricides and patricides. We live in a country where mass murder is just one more story in the busy and crazy life story of the United States of Gun.

No matter the body count, the National Rifle Association (transparent front for the gun manufacturers of America) can be counted on to dismiss the logical evidence that lots of guns in a country means that lots of people will die from guns. And it must be presumed, that President Trump has swilled enough NRA Kool-Aid that he can actually believe that if there were more teachers with guns in Parkland, Florida a few days ago, that somehow there would be fewer deaths. Indeed, the NRA/Trump answer to gun violence is……….we need more guns.

There is something sad and pathetic about a country that endures this carnage year after year, as if death by gun violence is as much a part of nature as hurricanes, tornadoes and blizzards. But in the sad saga of the United States of Gun, the disasters are totally caused by humans and these episodic gun tragedies are simply and truly avoidable. The truth is that without the proliferation of assault weapons and other hand-held weapons of mass destruction, the rain of lead terror would decrease exponentially, and there would be so many men, women and children who wouldn’t have to die.

Meanwhile, the NRA and its enablers have successfully commercialized the Second Amendment to the Constitution so that we are supposed to believe that the so-called Founding Fathers envisioned a nation where anyone with money could buy enough guns to weaponize an entire neighborhood – or gang.

Here is what the Second Amendment actually says:

 “A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a Free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”

 All throughout the Constitution, when individual rights are being established, the language is clear – when “the People” are referenced, it is always speaking about collective or community rights. Further, all rights in the Constitution are subject to conditions (for example, threatening the life of the President is a crime, regardless of the right of freedom of speech).

Nevertheless, over the past few decades, the gun lobby and the NRA have engaged in the distortion of the 2nd Amendment to boost gun sales and have been enormously successful in achieving their goals. The fact that children, women and men die every day as part of this macabre business model does not seem to be a problem.

One can only hope that at some point there are enough citizens in this country who not only are tired of the carnage – but who also care about the present and the future – so that the United States can join so much of the world that grew tired of senseless slaughter a long time ago.

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Point of View Columns

The United States of Gun – Chapter 1,518

The most recent American gun massacre in Las Vegas is the tragically perfect definition of insanity – doing the same thing over and over while expecting a different result. Here in the United States of Gun, the sale of virtually any kind of gun and any kind of ammunition, no matter how lethal, is legalized and yet there is collective shock and dismay when gun massacres occur again and again. The only variable is when and where the blood of innocent children, women and men will be spilled again.

Since the horrific gun massacre of children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut on December 14, 2012 there have been 1518 gun massacres in which four or more people have been killed. The body count from these carnage carnivals has been 1700 dead and over 6000 injured and countless thousands mourning or cowering in fear. And now we add a new chapter The United States of Gun book, a chapter entitled Las Vegas – 10.1.17.

Newtown, Orlando, Sandy Hook, Virginia Tech, and San Bernardino – the list is too long and too sad to recount in this space. What we do know is that the United States, despite all of its technology and luxury and presumed veneer of civilization and advancements is rapidly claiming the title of The Most Dangerous Nation on Earth. And it is the sheer random nature of gun violence in this country that almost assures that America will hold this title for many years to come.

Sadly, random violence is known in too many venues around the world. But in most places the terror and mayhem arises from political and religious discord that is inexcusable, but does take place in the logic of some kind of warped universe. But in America, there is not even the semblance of rhyme or reason as to why a person will be shot to death in a nightclub, an office holiday party or a kindergarten.

The United States Congress has allowed itself to be held hostage by the National Rifle Association – an organization that poses as representing a citizen’s advocacy group when in fact it is a trade and industry association, the industry being the manufacture of guns and the trade being the unrestricted sale of instruments of death anywhere and everywhere and to anyone. There can be no possible reason why there are 300 million guns in this country, virtually a firearm for almost every American. Yet it is easier to buy a semiautomatic weapon than it is to buy a car. There is no reason why a device that converts a semiautomatic weapon into a machine gun should be sold to anyone – yet as you are reading this column someone probably just purchased another bumper stock accessory for their AR-15 semiautomatic weapon.

As this country continues awash in the blood of over 30,000 gun violence victims this year, it is past time to ask why. Why do Americans need so many guns? Why does the ensuing violence inspire silence and inaction instead of thoughtful action and reflection? And why can the gun industry dominate the Congress of the United States even as Americans die of gunfire every day of every week of every month of every year.

And for once and for all, the false advocacy of a flawed interpretation of the Second Amendment should not provide a fig leaf for the naked greed and hypocrisy that are the sole motivation of the gun lobby. There are restrictions on every right articulated in the Constitution. Freedom of religion does not countenance human sacrifice. Freedom of speech does not include advocating the violent overthrow of the government. How can gun ownership be without any serious control, oversight or restriction?

Sadly, it would seem that there will be another Sandy Hook, Virginia Tech or Orlando tragedy long before Congress will take any realistic action. And the silent aftermath of the next tragedy will be heartbreaking and tragic and so very unnecessary.

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Point of View Columns

Trump as Macbeth

When it comes to Donald Trump there appears to be no limit to the depths to which he will descend in his faux campaign for the presidency, a campaign that seems more and more like a textbook exercise in narcissistic self-indulgence. But this time, using his dog whistle to suggest a “Second Amendment solution” to Hillary Clinton he has once again gone too far.

It was only six years ago that Sarah Palin rose from the ashes of a failed campaign for the Vice Presidency to reincarnate herself as the Tea Party Queen. But as she staggered and wobbled from one misstatement to another falsehood, she too went too far. In the fall of 2010 she “targeted” members of Congress who should be defeated by the Tea Party zealots.

In case anyone was short on interpreting symbolism, Sarah Palin’s website displayed a national map and put a gun scope on the offices of the “targeted” Representatives. And then, a few months later, one of the Congressional Representatives targeted by Palin, Gabby Gifford of Arizona, was shot in the head.

Although it has not been confirmed that the shooter was inspired by Sarah Palin, and it is clear that he is a deranged individual, Sarah Palin created an atmosphere where “Second Amendment solutions” start to sound sane to the insane. And the blood of the individuals killed and maimed in Tucson is on the hands of Sarah Palin – indeed she is a modern day Lady Macbeth who will never be able to wash that blood off her hands.

And now along comes Donald Trump, a virtuoso dog whistle player, intimating that Second Amendment adherents could somehow solve the “Hillary problem”. Defenders/enablers of Trump contend that he is guilty of no more than spewing a bad, tasteless joke.

But there is a huge part of this country’s population that has seen presidents shot (Reagan) and killed (Kennedy, John). Many Americans have also witnessed the assassination (Kennedy, Robert) and maiming (Wallace) of presidential candidates in real time. And now that we live in a nation with over 300 million guns it would seem that this would be the worst time to kid around, joke around or dog whistle around rhetoric that even hints of “Second Amendment solutions” to the presidential campaign.

The Secret Service has already taken note of Trump’s comments, another unprecedented occurrence in American political history. But much like Lady Macbeth, we already know that any violence directed against Hillary Clinton or anyone associated with her campaign will elicit a canned denial from Trump, who will then be America’s Macbeth.

Of course, what is so sad and sickening about this entire situation is that Trump is the designated candidate of a major American political party. What is worse is that there are tens of millions of Americans who think that this arrogant, indecent and profane man should be President of the United States. What is even worse is that even when Trump is defeated in November and he goes back to his gaudy hotels and his dfraudulent schemes and his golf courses, those tens of millions of Americans will still be ith us.

And that may be the greatest danger of all. Trump will go away and disappear into the swamp of indecency and self-aggrandizement from which he slithered.

But those tens of millions of Trump supporters aren’t going anywhere.

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Point of View Columns

Taking Ben Carson Seriously

Many people who consider themselves progressive, and most people who claim sanity, do not really believe that Dr. Ben Carson will ever be elected President of the United States. That dangerous presumption could actually lead to his election, and it is time to take the man seriously and take him at his word(s). And what words they are.

Dr. Carson may singlehandedly dismantle the belief system that holds brain surgeons in high esteem because of their innate intelligence. His kindly, avuncular manner of presentation thinly disguises a malevolent and dangerous worldview, which if implemented would resurrect suffering and discord that many have thought were banished from this society years ago. Consider these words of Ben Carson:

• Obamacare is the worst thing since slavery – Dr. Carson seems to take exceptional pleasure in exhuming the rotted corpse of slavery and inserting it into serious contemporary discussion. Perhaps he feels that since he is of African descent he can play fast and loose with the memory of the millions who suffered and died under the legal lash of American bondage. Just as Jews and all people of good will are righteously outraged at useless comparisons to the Holocaust, there is simply no reason to bring slavery into a discussion of the Affordable Care Act, except for shock value. And Dr. Carson clearly pleasures himself by shocking others.

• I would rather see bullet riddled bodies than any limits on gun ownership – Rather than engaging in some semblance of decency and respect for the survivors of gun victims, Ben Carson used the recent campus gun massacre in Oregon to proclaim his dedication to the gross and historically incorrect interpretation of the Second Amendment. It is never clear whether Dr. Carson actually believes the outrageous statements that he makes. But what is clear is that words matter, and his words are offensive in the extreme.

• With less gun control Jews in Germany could have defeated Hitler – Statements like these remind us of the drunken uncle at Thanksgiving who, sometime after the dessert wine has been served, goes off on a riff so stupid, so asinine and so devoid of logic that all in attendance hope that it is only the wine that is doing the talking. But as far as we know Ben Carson does not drink alcohol and therefore we should take him at his word and reject him for his words. The illogic, the incorrect history and the bizarre belief that lightly armed German Jews could have defeated the Wermacht are woven together into a bizarre tapestry that literally defies response.

It is a sad testament regarding the state of the Teapublican Party that its leading presidential candidates are Donald Trump and Ben Carson. The only hope for the former Grand Old Party is that 70% of self-identified Republicans have not made up their mind. Nevertheless, one has to wonder who are these people that are not offended by Ben Carson’s rhetoric and who the people who actually embrace what he says?

We can be certain that there will be no apologies forthcoming from Dr. Carson. He believes so deeply that what is so wrong is right that there can be no cure for his very special madness.

And while we may feel certain that he will never be president, we should be very concerned that there are literally millions of Americans who believe that what he says is so right that he should be President of the United States.

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Point of View Columns

Land of the Gun Home of the Dead

The latest gun massacre, this time in Isla Vista, California, is barely a two day story in the media. We have become anesthetized to mass murder by gun, the only differentiation from one story to another being the sheer number of men, women and children who are killed. And as the blood spills and the tears flow, the National Rifle Association and their pawns, sock puppets and enablers in Congress and on the Supreme Court continue their pompous perversion of the Second Amendment to the Constitution, the national body count be damned.

Statistics have a tendency to numb, but they also inform. There are over 30,000 gun related deaths in the United States every year. Since 1982 there have been 70 mass shootings in this country, 36 of them having occurred since 2006. This alarming trend is no secret. It is in the newspaper headlines, the television lead stories and in the countless obituaries that are published every day.

The Bill of Rights was never intended to be the Ten Commandments, and there is nothing absolute about any of these “rights”. Freedom of speech has not been understood to include the publication of child pornography or threats to kill the President of the United States. We are all free from unreasonable search and seizure, but that right can be limited by a search warrant or life and death exigencies.

The logic that suggests that the Second Amendment to the Constitution is somehow sacred would be ludicrous but for the deadly price that we all pay. This logic has resulted in a demented approach to the regulation of guns that is really a series of loopholes connected by disjointed and fragmentary controls that still result in an annual death toll of over 30,000 Americans.

Too much time has been wasted on arguing about exactly what the Framers of the Constitution had in mind when the Second Amendment was proposed, written and ratified. Some legal historians believe that the Second Amendment referred to the establishment of state militias (think the National Guard). Some legal scholars believe that the Second Amendment refers to the actual possession of guns by individuals. It does not matter.

What matters is that the United States has become one vast, coast to coast killing field. What matters is the over 80 Americans who are killed by guns every day. What matters is that there is no mall, church, theater, home, school or street in this country that is truly safe from the plague of bullets that afflicts without regard to race, color, economic status or political affiliation.

Too much time has been spent accepting the legitimacy of the lunatic argument that the only solution to gun violence is more guns. If that sounds about as ridiculous as putting out a fire with a flamethrower, it is because that is the case.

Gun legislation which legalizes death by gun through laws like “Stand Your Ground” and legalizing the carrying of guns in bars, churches and universities doesn’t even begin to seem like a solution in a country where it is a tossup as to which is the greater health danger – carbon monoxide or gun smoke. And the claim that the gun has some kind of iconic, quasi-religious place in American culture only enables the gun worshippers on the altar, drenched with the blood of gun victims, an altar bought and paid for by the National Rifle Association and the merchants of death also knows as gun manufacturers.

The rest of the world looks at the United States in bewilderment as the scenario of Americans killing Americans plays out every – single – day, without respite. And while time and money is wasted on the War on Drugs, the Gun Lobby is waging a War on America. And they are winning.

 

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