The Second Amendment
I don't believe in criminals using guns or owning them, yet it is a fact that disarming the people had a vicious, tyrannical history. Nothing is new under the sun indeed. Hypocrisy is the order of the day of so-called establishment pacifists. They yell about total pacifism, yet many of them lived in condos and enclosed locations. They don't expect cops to come into their homes, yet they want the state to be armed to the teeth. They want the state to use weapons to kill human beings overseas in the name of democracy (yet, they lecture us on pacifism and gun violence). I respect a pacifist if they are consistent in their views. They refuse to not want gun control from the crooked cops though. The state has no right to have a monopoly of arms at all. The elite maintain a monopoly of armed force in order to have their class rule. It is known that the ruling class has tried to disarm the population in the four corners of the Earth in periods of war or social struggle. It is known that when you have radical gun bans, only the criminals and the super-rich including the state will have access to them. Now, we all know the history of the Second Amendment. I do not agree with all of the Founders' motivations and belief systems in dealing with Second Amendment. Yet, the right to self-defense is a law of reality. This does not mean that we bow down to white supremacist culture that glamorizes violence that loves to harm animals for wanton abuse, and to view guns as equivalent to the smoking gun in solving our issues. Peace is superior to violence and guns are tools (which can be utilized for good or evil) not gods. For we see that some of our oppressors utilized the Second Amendment as an excuse to dominate early U.S. society. Yet, citizens have the right to be armed legally. In our history, slaves were denied arms, because of racists' fears of the slaves revolting against their cruel system of chattel slavery. The racist Chief Justice Taney admitted that he did not want black human beings to have rights or even the right to keep arms. We know that John Brown and his allies organized his raid on Harpers Ferry in Virginia during 1859. He used arms in an attempt to liberate human beings in bondage. In that time period, ex-slave and abolitionist Frederick Douglass, a close friend of Brown, openly defended a man's "right of self-defense" when fugitive slaves were being hunted by agents of the slaveholders, even if this meant "shooting down his pursuers," as occasionally happened. "Slavery is a system of brute force," he said. "It must be met with its own weapons." The Civil War came and brothers and sisters fought valiantly for freedom. When racists tried to kill the brothers and sisters in Brooklyn back in the 1860's by racist anti-draft mobs, these brothers and sisters used arms to defend themselves. This was in the North; so many Northerners were just a bigoted as some of the Southerners in that Civil War era. During the period of Reconstruction, heroes fought against the oppressors. Black human beings wanted political power and the Confederates used reactionary Black Codes as means to deprive black human beings their God-given rights including the right to possess arms. An 1865 Florida statute, for instance, made it unlawful for "any Negro" to possess "firearms or ammunition of any kind," the penalty for violation being the pillory and the whip. In response, the federal government's Freedmen's Bureau widely distributed circulars which read in part, "All men, without distinction of color, have the right to keep and bear arms to defend their homes, families or themselves." Even President Grant opposed the Klan harming innocent human beings in the South. Union Army forces had to occupy Southern states even during Reconstruction since the Klan was just killing innocent human beings and harming society. Reconstruction officially ended with the evil Compromise of 1877. Black liberation was harmed. It took over 80 years after Reconstruction for black human beings to get some rights. Now, we do need gun safety reforms and guns shouldn't be owned by criminals or anyone with serious mental illness problems via adjudication. On the other hand, it is hypocritical for those to yell about gun control when they ignore how British and U.S. cops brutalize youth for the sake of the Drug War or continuing the violation of human civil liberties. The background to the Firearms Act (1920) in the UK was aptly described by Joyce Lee Malcolm, author of the book To Keep and Bear Arms: The Origins of an Anglo-American Right. In an article "Gun Control in England: The Tarnished Gold Standard" (saf.org), Malcolm observed: "It was fear of revolution, not crime, that resulted in the first serious gun controls. In 1920 the government faced massive labor disruption, feared a Bolshevik revolution, and worried about the return of thousands of soldiers traumatized by an especially brutal war." Even the workers movements of the Chartists advance the right of the citizens to bear arms. To exclusively have the military, the police, or select individuals to bear arms is extremist and silly. They or the establishment refuse to discuss radical anti-poverty measures, but they want to continue the stop and frisk action. Yet, an unarmed population is at the mercy at anybody even tyrants as history shows.
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I don't believe in criminals using guns or owning them, yet it is a fact that disarming the people had a vicious, tyrannical history. Nothing is new under the sun indeed. Hypocrisy is the order of the day of so-called establishment pacifists. They yell about total pacifism, yet many of them lived in condos and enclosed locations. They don't expect cops to come into their homes, yet they want the state to be armed to the teeth. They want the state to use weapons to kill human beings overseas in the name of democracy (yet, they lecture us on pacifism and gun violence). I respect a pacifist if they are consistent in their views. They refuse to not want gun control from the crooked cops though. The state has no right to have a monopoly of arms at all. The elite maintain a monopoly of armed force in order to have their class rule. It is known that the ruling class has tried to disarm the population in the four corners of the Earth in periods of war or social struggle. It is known that when you have radical gun bans, only the criminals and the super-rich including the state will have access to them. Now, we all know the history of the Second Amendment. I do not agree with all of the Founders' motivations and belief systems in dealing with Second Amendment. Yet, the right to self-defense is a law of reality. This does not mean that we bow down to white supremacist culture that glamorizes violence that loves to harm animals for wanton abuse, and to view guns as equivalent to the smoking gun in solving our issues. Peace is superior to violence and guns are tools (which can be utilized for good or evil) not gods. For we see that some of our oppressors utilized the Second Amendment as an excuse to dominate early U.S. society. Yet, citizens have the right to be armed legally. In our history, slaves were denied arms, because of racists' fears of the slaves revolting against their cruel system of chattel slavery. The racist Chief Justice Taney admitted that he did not want black human beings to have rights or even the right to keep arms. We know that John Brown and his allies organized his raid on Harpers Ferry in Virginia during 1859. He used arms in an attempt to liberate human beings in bondage. In that time period, ex-slave and abolitionist Frederick Douglass, a close friend of Brown, openly defended a man's "right of self-defense" when fugitive slaves were being hunted by agents of the slaveholders, even if this meant "shooting down his pursuers," as occasionally happened. "Slavery is a system of brute force," he said. "It must be met with its own weapons." The Civil War came and brothers and sisters fought valiantly for freedom. When racists tried to kill the brothers and sisters in Brooklyn back in the 1860's by racist anti-draft mobs, these brothers and sisters used arms to defend themselves. This was in the North; so many Northerners were just a bigoted as some of the Southerners in that Civil War era. During the period of Reconstruction, heroes fought against the oppressors. Black human beings wanted political power and the Confederates used reactionary Black Codes as means to deprive black human beings their God-given rights including the right to possess arms. An 1865 Florida statute, for instance, made it unlawful for "any Negro" to possess "firearms or ammunition of any kind," the penalty for violation being the pillory and the whip. In response, the federal government's Freedmen's Bureau widely distributed circulars which read in part, "All men, without distinction of color, have the right to keep and bear arms to defend their homes, families or themselves." Even President Grant opposed the Klan harming innocent human beings in the South. Union Army forces had to occupy Southern states even during Reconstruction since the Klan was just killing innocent human beings and harming society. Reconstruction officially ended with the evil Compromise of 1877. Black liberation was harmed. It took over 80 years after Reconstruction for black human beings to get some rights. Now, we do need gun safety reforms and guns shouldn't be owned by criminals or anyone with serious mental illness problems via adjudication. On the other hand, it is hypocritical for those to yell about gun control when they ignore how British and U.S. cops brutalize youth for the sake of the Drug War or continuing the violation of human civil liberties. The background to the Firearms Act (1920) in the UK was aptly described by Joyce Lee Malcolm, author of the book To Keep and Bear Arms: The Origins of an Anglo-American Right. In an article "Gun Control in England: The Tarnished Gold Standard" (saf.org), Malcolm observed: "It was fear of revolution, not crime, that resulted in the first serious gun controls. In 1920 the government faced massive labor disruption, feared a Bolshevik revolution, and worried about the return of thousands of soldiers traumatized by an especially brutal war." Even the workers movements of the Chartists advance the right of the citizens to bear arms. To exclusively have the military, the police, or select individuals to bear arms is extremist and silly. They or the establishment refuse to discuss radical anti-poverty measures, but they want to continue the stop and frisk action. Yet, an unarmed population is at the mercy at anybody even tyrants as history shows.
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NY Major Michael Bloomberg is at it again. Now, he wants to ban Styrofoam. He is an authoritarian NYC mayor. He wants to handle trans-fat, salt, sodas, etc. He is known for having radical gun control views. He wants to have some borderline nanny state. This can socially engineer the population. He claims to want to police anti-social behaviors, but he can easily issue an ad campaign, an education campaign, have investments in healthy foods in the city, and set up programs to set up healthy living in NYC (without authoritarian nonsense). We know that Bloomberg is in favor of population control as well. He had a secret meeting in secret with fellow billionaire eugenicists like David Rockefeller, Bill Gates, Ted Turner, and George Soros in how to accelerate the declines in fertility. Bloomberg feels that Styrofoam is almost impossible to recycle, so he wants to ban them. He tries to defend criticism that he is out to ban anything and everything just to control the lives of New Yorkers. He claims that he is not out to ban everything, but he is a straight up authoritarian extremist by advocating the banning of items. Also, he agrees with the immoral stop and frisk policy that unfairly affects numerous Black and Brown citizens in the New York City area. He also moved to ban most painkillers in NYC's public hospitals as well. He claims that he wants to handle the epidemic of prescription drug abuse. That is nonsense, because alternatives can be met to handle the prescription drug abuse issue. Despite the fact Bloomberg and his commissars lack the regulatory authority to impose the new guidelines on private hospitals, several said they would voluntarily adopt the "legislative medicine" measure. The end result is plainly visible – from now on in New York City, the government will decide what level of pain is acceptable for patients at both public and private hospitals. There is the issue of guns and Wayne LaPierre. I don't support him, because his NRA group leadership is filled with extremists and racists. Also, the NRA dealt with funding the prison industrial complex boom of the 1990's. LaPierre's new comments are controversial and I took my time to think about them since I am an intellectual man. Any human being has the right to self-defense. That is a God given right. Yet, I think he went too far in scapegoating the victims of the Sandy disaster. The truth is that there were no marauding groups of thugs in NYC or in the Northeast that executed massive, record breaking riots in NYC or the rest of the Northeastern region at all in the aftermath of the Sandy Hurricane disasters. There are gangs in America, but gangs exist in numerous backgrounds. To single out gangs of one ethnic group in some sick rant is race baiting rhetoric since illegal immigration has radically declined in recent years (Many border cities or places near the border have had reduction in crime). Deportations are higher in this administration than the previous one. Gun rights advocates are right that gun rights and self-defense are concepts that are meant to prevent tyranny including as a means for us to live in liberty. Self-defense has nothing to do with the Bill of Rights. John Locke pointed this out when he declared the right to self-defense is the first law of nature. "And thus it is that every man in the state of Nature has a power to kill a murderer," he wrote in An Essay Concerning the true original, extent, and end of Civil Government. Yet, LaPierre's words mixed many truths of self-defense along with race baiting rhetoric in my opinion. The reason is that gangs, rioting, and other crimes are not limited by race or nationality at all. Many of these things exist as a product of economic inequality and other socioeconomic complications. Therefore, innocent law abiding citizens have every right to own a gun (and having gun rights is one out of many bulwarks against tyranny) regardless of what MSNBC says. Not to mention that in solving the issue of gun violence, we need comprehensive solutions (like ending gun trafficking, handling socioeconomic problems, fighting criminal violent gangs, organize unique including fair ways to fight crime, handle mental health issues, continue to ban criminals from owning any gun, instituting a more just moral culture, and advance gun education programs for citizens). Policies that have proven to work to improve crime in some areas ought to be made available in communities nationwide. In the final analysis, we have to address issues of poverty in order to fight gun violence. That means that we need the growth and improvement of our families, we need real national employment growth, we need higher wages, we need a modernization of our infrastructure, and other forms of economic development too.
There is a huge amount of hypocrisy of anti-gun extremists. Even Senator Diane Feinstein's gun control bill exempts government officials from the planned semi-auto assault ban. This reality illustrates the huge hypocrisy among some anti-gun extremists. Some of these extremists do not want to disarm the American people and some do actually. Yet, many of them surround themselves with armed bodyguards and own guns themselves. The Washington Times reported recently that: "...Mrs. Feinstein's measure would exempt more than 2,200 types of hunting and sporting rifles; guns manually operated by bolt, pump, lever or slide action; and weapons used by government officials." Back in 1995, Feinstein carried a concealed weapon for her own protection and called for Mr. and Mrs. America to turn in all of their guns. This hypocrisy is expressed by other such people. The President says that he goes shooting all of the time. He wants semi-automatic assault rifles to be only in the hands of the military, but the Department of Homeland Security has purchased no less than 7,000 fully automatic assault weapons for the purposes of personal defense in addition to more than 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition over the last 10 months alone. There have been political figures that have armed Secret Service protection for life. A new investigation by the Daily Caller has found that Media Matters for America or a group that wants gun control admitted that it conspired with the White House as a means to influence news. It hired a staffer to carry a firearm to protect its founder David Brock. The staffer had no permit to carry a concealed firearm and was later hit with multiple felony charges. The Glock handgun used to defend Block was brought using Media Matters' funds. When investigative reporter Jason Mattera asked New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg if he plans to disarm his entire security team to comply with his own gun control mandate, Mattera was accosted, harassed, and follow by security. Bloomberg refused to answer the question. Michael Moore is a very strong advocate for gun control, but he has armed bodyguards. One of them was arrested for carrying an unlicensed weapon at New York's JFK airport back in 2005. The Time Warner Cable recently issued a companywide ban on television ads that show gun pointed at people. Its subsidiary Warner Bros. regularly distributes blockbuster movies that are replete with gratuitous gun violence. Many celebrities who are involved in a PSA campaign called Demand a Plan that used the Sandy Hook massacre to push for gun control regularly star in movies and television productions that depict gun violence as commonplace. Prominent gun control advocates like Piers Morgan, who base their argument on reducing gun violence, routinely threaten violence against ideological adversaries. Once, Morgan talked of his desire to use machine guns to take out his critics in a sarcastic way. He made jokes about this in January 8. Some of these hypocrites are really sad. The way to handle this violence is to improve our socioeconomic conditions, use programs to not allow criminals or anyone that doesn't need a gun to have them, to handle mental illness affairs, to use more locking systems in school, and other commonsense solutions. Gun rights are important to protect among law abiding citizens. Gun ownership has increased in America. The support for gun rights and the 2nd Amendment has been high as well. Liberty is superior to violations to that liberty.
For those who say that law abiding citizens are not targeted by anti-gun actions, the following story makes that claim false and moot at this moment. KRQE in Albuquerque, New Mexico reported that the Department of Homeland Security has used its ICE division to bust a gun collector. The DHS is the federal agency that was created originally to protect America from terrorists and to respond to natural disasters. Federal Homeland Security Investigation agents raided the home of Robert Adams on Thursday and seized 548 handguns and 317 rifles from the collector. They also raided his business and took an additional 599 handguns. KRQE reported that Adams did not violate any laws and was charged with any crimes. That is immoral since if a person's home should be raided, you should have a warrant including a probable cause not because of some political agenda. Adams may be charged with gun smuggling, tax evasion, and violating importation laws. The government spent yeas surveying the gun collector and argues that his weapons are "not properly marked possibly to make the guns more valuable and to avoid paying high import taxes." KRQE reports the federal government is concerned "that no markings on the guns and missing documents mean the guns are not traceable by law enforcement." New Mexico does not regulate or specifically restrict the possession of firearms. Owners are not required to register or license firearms with the state. "No law shall abridge the right of the citizen to keep and bear arms for security and defense, for lawful hunting and recreational use and for other lawful purposes, but nothing herein shall be held to permit the carrying of concealed weapons. No municipality or county shall regulate, in any way, an incident of the right to keep and bear arms," Article 2, Section 6 of the state constitution reads. Gun collectors are protected under the Firearm Owners Protection Act of 1986. This law says that a firearm dealer is defined as a person who is selling guns for profit or livelihood. Unlicensed individuals are allowed to sell firearms from their private collection without performing a background check on the buyer. Government gun-grabbers call this the "Gun Show Loophole" and have declared they will outlaw the practice and close down gun shows around the country. Whether you agree with this loophole or not, an innocent man ought not to be arrested and sent to jail for this event at all. The DHS is trying to make an example of Mr. Adams since they want to make new laws that affect the Second Amendment. Demonizing gun ownership is the mentality of extremists. On Sunday January 6th Staff Sgt. Nathan Haddad, a decorated combat veteran, was driving through Jefferson County New York when he was randomly pulled over for a vehicle check. Haddad, who had five 30 round empty magazines in his possession, was arrested by the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department and charged with five felony counts. According to Haddad's brother, Michael Haddad, Nathan thought these magazines were legally made before the New York Assault Weapons Ban. When Nathan Haddad was arrested, the new ban had not even been fully enacted yet. This man was not a criminal at all. He was recently honored by the Philadelphia chapter of Blue Star Mothers and the Union League's Armed Services Council for helping disabled vets get back on their feet. He helped humanity and he is being treated as a rapist or a murderer or an assaulter. This is wrong and this reality refutes the lie that no one is taking the gun rights of law abiding citizens at all. Nathan Haddad's brother has set up a legal defense fund for his brother since his brother can't afford to fight these charges on his own. This is an attack on every law abiding citizen in America.
For those who say that law abiding citizens are not targeted by anti-gun actions, the following story makes that claim false and moot at this moment. KRQE in Albuquerque, New Mexico reported that the Department of Homeland Security has used its ICE division to bust a gun collector. The DHS is the federal agency that was created originally to protect America from terrorists and to respond to natural disasters. Federal Homeland Security Investigation agents raided the home of Robert Adams on Thursday and seized 548 handguns and 317 rifles from the collector. They also raided his business and took an additional 599 handguns. KRQE reported that Adams did not violate any laws and was charged with any crimes. That is immoral since if a person's home should be raided, you should have a warrant including a probable cause not because of some political agenda. Adams may be charged with gun smuggling, tax evasion, and violating importation laws. The government spent yeas surveying the gun collector and argues that his weapons are "not properly marked possibly to make the guns more valuable and to avoid paying high import taxes." KRQE reports the federal government is concerned "that no markings on the guns and missing documents mean the guns are not traceable by law enforcement." New Mexico does not regulate or specifically restrict the possession of firearms. Owners are not required to register or license firearms with the state. "No law shall abridge the right of the citizen to keep and bear arms for security and defense, for lawful hunting and recreational use and for other lawful purposes, but nothing herein shall be held to permit the carrying of concealed weapons. No municipality or county shall regulate, in any way, an incident of the right to keep and bear arms," Article 2, Section 6 of the state constitution reads. Gun collectors are protected under the Firearm Owners Protection Act of 1986. This law says that a firearm dealer is defined as a person who is selling guns for profit or livelihood. Unlicensed individuals are allowed to sell firearms from their private collection without performing a background check on the buyer. Government gun-grabbers call this the "Gun Show Loophole" and have declared they will outlaw the practice and close down gun shows around the country. Whether you agree with this loophole or not, an innocent man ought not to be arrested and sent to jail for this event at all. The DHS is trying to make an example of Mr. Adams since they want to make new laws that affect the Second Amendment. Demonizing gun ownership is the mentality of extremists. On Sunday January 6th Staff Sgt. Nathan Haddad, a decorated combat veteran, was driving through Jefferson County New York when he was randomly pulled over for a vehicle check. Haddad, who had five 30 round empty magazines in his possession, was arrested by the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department and charged with five felony counts. According to Haddad's brother, Michael Haddad, Nathan thought these magazines were legally made before the New York Assault Weapons Ban. When Nathan Haddad was arrested, the new ban had not even been fully enacted yet. This man was not a criminal at all. He was recently honored by the Philadelphia chapter of Blue Star Mothers and the Union League's Armed Services Council for helping disabled vets get back on their feet. He helped humanity and he is being treated as a rapist or a murderer or an assaulter. This is wrong and this reality refutes the lie that no one is taking the gun rights of law abiding citizens at all. Nathan Haddad's brother has set up a legal defense fund for his brother since his brother can't afford to fight these charges on his own. This is an attack on every law abiding citizen in America.
One major error of the NRA is that they supported the prison industrial complex for years. There is nothing wrong with law abiding citizens owning a gun legally, but we know for sure that the prison system has been heavily corrupt for decades and centuries. During the 1990's, the NRA had spent millions of dollars in pushing for the largest prison construction boom era including harsh sentencing programs to keep them full according to Tim Murphy from Mother Jones. Wayne LaPierre is the leader of the NRA. One time, he or Wayne said that he wanted more prison building and advanced the three strikes law in California. Now, California has overflowing prisons. Even the Supreme Court deemed them cruel and unusual punishment because of their squalid conditions. Back in 1992, the NRA used the CrimeStrike program. It was an anti-crime program that caused America's prisons full. The NRA needed money in the early 1990's, because they ran up a 9 trillion dollar deficit in 1991. They were on pace for a 30 million dollar shortfall in 1992. LaPierre launched CrimeStrike that spring of 1992 with $2 million in seed money from the parent organization and a simple platform: mandatory minimums, harsher parole standards, adult sentences for juveniles, and critically, more prisons. "Our prisons are overcrowded. Our bail laws are atrocious. We'll be the bad guy," he announced. The NRA advanced these policies on the tough on crime rhetoric. They believed that Bill Clinton in 1994 was soft on crime. Yet, later on, Bill Clinton would advance the war on Drugs and increase the amount of human beings in prison completely. The NRA put out ads that folks like then Rep. Chuck Schumer of NY State wanted to get money from the crime bill. The NRA funded efforts for more prison construction. Crimestrike lobbied successfully for similar construction of prison projects in Mississippi and Virginia. Crimestrike sent cash to fund the three strikes and you're out laws. They did the same in California. In the late 1990's, Crimestrike ended. This program has done its dirty work by that time. There are more strict sentencing guidelines. The U.S. locks up more people than any nation on Earth. Violent crime is dropping in America, but incarceration rates continue to increase. These tough on crime laws failed. We have the amount of human beings serving time in state or federal prisons increased 100 percent between 1990 and 2005. Even in California, something minor like stealing a slick of pizza could give your life in prison. What is needed is not some prison state. What is needed to handle gun violence is a comprehensive approach. We need to improve our socioeconomic situation via a massive national recovery anti-poverty program in American society. We need to end the war on Drugs and address mental health issues in America. We need to target gun trafficking and target illegal guns from criminals. We need reasonable gun safety and gun education policies, so we can view guns as a tool in a serious fashion not a toy. No gun is a toy. Also, we need to improve our culture where unjust violence is shunned and righteousness is basically advanced in the world society, not only in the West.
Now, we have the statistics on the truth of gun rights. The reality is that law abiding citizens having gun rights is fine and that reality is not immoral at all. We know that that the numbers of firearms have increased since 1970 and the overall rate of homicide and suicide have not risen massively at all. In 1968, the UK passed laws that reduced the number of licensed firearms that reduced firearm availability. UK homicide rates have steadily risen since then. Ironically, firearm used in crimes has doubled in the decade after the UK heavily banned handguns. Most violent crime is caused by a small minority of repeat offenders. In the USA, the vast majority of mass public shootings have the assailants having signs of mental health issues prior to the killings. Concealed carriers have prevented crimes for years. A citizen with a gun stopped a knife wielding man as he began stabbing human beings in a Salt Lake store. A citizen takes out a shooter while the police were pinned down in Early, Texas. 39 states have right to carry laws and statistics show that in these states that the crime rate fell (or did not rise at all). The Bureau of Justice Statistics, online database, reviewing Texas and U.S. violent crime from 1995-2001 found that assaults fell 250% faster in the second year after Texas implemented its concealed carry law. There has been a drop in murder and rapes as well. So, the concealed carry law in Texas has worked without some Wild West scenario. Of the 14,000 CCW licensees in Oregon, only 4 (or 0.03% of them) were convicted of criminal (not necessarily violent) use or possession of a firearm. According to the Gun Crimes Drop at Virginia Bars And Restaurants, Richmond Times-Dispatch, August 14, 2011, reporting data from the Virginia State Police, Virginia in the first year where CCW holders were allowed to, the number of major crimes involving firearms at bars and restaurants statewide declined 5.2%. Guns have prevented millions of crimes a year or thousands of crimes every single day. According to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms from 1998, 90% of all violent crimes in America do not involve a firearm of any type. Among some of the states with the highest homicide rates, most of them have restrictive or very restrictive gun laws. The courts have consistently ruled that the police have no obligation to protect individuals.
In Warren v. District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department, 444 A.2d 1 (D.C. App. 1981), the court states that: "...courts have without exception concluded that when a municipality or other government entity undertakes to furnish police services, it assumes a duty only to the public at large and not to individual members of the community..."
Switzerland has relatively lenient gun control for Europe. It has the third lowest homicide rate of the top nine major European countries (and the same per capital rate as England and Wales). Australia and England, which heavily banned gun ownership among civilians, have the highest rates of robbery, sexual assault, and assault with force of the top 17 industrialized countries (According to Criminal Victimization in Seventeen Industrialized Countries from the Dutch Ministry of Justice in 2001). Many leaders throughout human history believed that law abiding human beings have the right to own arms. Now, this doesn't mean that we should have the status quo or do nothing to decrease gun violence. We know what works. We ought to target illegal gun trafficking, handle mental health issues, fight against poverty & evil conditions in our communities, utilize gun education for the mass public, and execute common sense gun safety programs, which will all decrease gun violence in our land of the United States of America.
There is documented evidence of extremists trying to steal weapons throughout human history. Now, there have been incidents of gun confiscation in America from the events of Hurricane Katrina to the veterans now recently in 2013. Gun confiscation is not some fantasy or some theory. It is a reality. There is an U.S. Navy veteran had his guns confiscated by police following a forced "psychiatric evaluation" in another example of how some extremists want to purge ex-service members of their guns. We know that the federal government has made documents in demonizing veterans as domestic terrorists. David A. Schmecker is a 50 year old honorably discharged disabled U.S. Navy veteran from Connecticut with no criminal record and no psychiatric history. On February 5, 2013, Schmecker's hospital primary care doctor called and heard a message on Schmecker's answer machine that sounded peculiar. This called him to contact the local police and urge them to visit Schmecker to perform a "wellness check." “The police came to my home, and, without any justification whatsoever, hauled me away for a psychiatric evaluation at a local hospital. I submitted to their forceful insistence under duress and fear of arrest or worse. I wasn’t arrested, no crime was committed nor any threats were made to myself or others,” Schmecker told Survive and Thrive’s George Hemminger. “They confiscated my guns and pistol permit. I was released two days later from the evaluation on my on recognizance. I have since attempted to use the courts and attorneys to fight the revocation of my pistol permit. Then on top of everything else, the bills from the short stay at the hospital and EMS bills that they billed me, along with what I had to pay the attorney adds up to a large amount of money,” he adds. Schmecker said that the harassment is part of a larger campaign as a means to disarm law abiding citizens. He is concerned about where America is headed. Sometimes, the psychiatric system (which is similar to contemporary authoritarian governments) is being used to circumvent courts and bypass normal legal due process. Back in August of 2012, there has been a veteran in Ohio. He had his guns taken, because he was adjudged to be mentally incompetent, despite the fact that his previous VA psychiatric evaluations were all clear. He was not on medication and he had no criminal record. We know the case of David Sarti. Stari is one of the stars of the National Geographic's Doomsday Preppers show. He visited his doctor, because he complained of chest pains. The doctor later commit him to a psychiatric ward and alerted authorities. Sarti was declared mentally defective, so his name is on a FBI list that eliminates him of his Second Amendment rights. More and more veterans are targeted by authorities. Many of them are demonized as domestic extremists and even potential terrorists. On numerous times, the FBI has characterized repeatedly returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan as a domestic terrorist threat. The Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano said that she stood by an April 2009 DHS intelligence assessment that listed returning vets as likely domestic terrorists. The NY Times reported that Boy Scout explorers are being trained by the DHS to kill disgruntled Iraq War veterans as included in anti-terror drills. In February of 2013, the constitutional attorney Michael Connelly warned that the government is now moving to strip veterans if determined to be mentally incompetent of their Second Amendment right to own a firearm. Connelly cites a letter sent by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to hundreds or possibly thousands of American veterans. “A determination of incompetency will prohibit you from purchasing, possessing, receiving, or transporting a firearm or ammunition,” the VA letter states. “If you knowingly violate any of these prohibitions, you may be fined, imprisoned, or both pursuant to the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, Pub.L.No. 103-159, as implemented at 18, United States Code 924(a)(2).” This means that if a veteran is called incompetent or violate gun control laws, then they will not own a firearm. The problem is that many veterans have been restricted of firearms without due process at all.
Conclusion
I was once like many who believed in unrestrained, free market capitalism. I used to believe in that cut, cut, and more cut philosophy. Yet, when I did some exquisite, non-abstract research, I figured that a decrepit economic philosophy that enslaved our race is not some philosophy that I need to adhere to. Dirgism, cooperatives, controlled capitalism, or even a mixed economy is superior to laissez faire capitalism. Stephen Zarlenga, Ellen Brown, and others have advanced alternative economic populist solutions as well. I am a progressive on economics, but I am an independent on other issues as well. I am an Independent man ideologically. I reject ongoing bank bailouts. I do believe that money from eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse including fair taxation on the super-rich (like higher tax rates for millionaires and billionaires) can generate revenues to fund education and healthcare, which is a human right not a privilege. I don't agree with the status quo, but a Greenback like economic populist like solution to deal with our money. Many folks from across the political spectrum comprehend the truth about the corruption and malfeasance generated by the Federal Reserve. Yet, true prudence not token moderation is about ending the war on terror and eliminating fraud not massively using austerity that will harm the poor and the middle class. The Progressive Caucus have found alternatives to austerity, which the reactionaries so love. My thinking is not anti-democratic since the Constitution in Article I, Section 8 allows Congress to dictate spending public money. Also, it is democratic to advance the general welfare of society. It is democratic to maintain human civil liberties and to expose corporate corruption not worship deficit hawk paranoia. When you live in an age of record economic inequality, token prudence is out of the question. You need emergency, radical solutions in stopping it or an economic recession not so-called soft prudence or moderation. Ellen Brown and others agree with money being backed, but not with gold. Obsessing with the gold standard in the wrong way will cause deflation. Allowing more public banking in all levels of government can be one step in solving this issue (resulting in sending credit to assist our infrastructure without funding big banks permanently) instead of the Federal Reserve being dominated by select private interests. I don't believe that central banks should run the government, but I do believe in the government ought to promote the general welfare of society. Everyone can benefit from investments, cutting fraud, waste, and abuse, ending the war on terror, never cuts essential programs that human beings need, and a radical change in power to benefit humanity not the oligarchy. What is truly anti-democratic is a dog eat dog economic view and the harm to the rights of workers, minorities, and other human beings. Allowing the free market to do whatever it wants whenever it wants is the definition of antidemocratic processes as well. That is the point. That is why we once had the Glass Steagall Act. Either we have power controlled by the people individually & collectively or the status quo.........
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One of the underreported events in the world is the anti-ballistic missiles. The new U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel mentioned recently that the Pentagon will expand the number of ground based, anti-ballistic missile interceptors deployed in the Asia Pacific region by nearly 50 percent by 2017. There are an additional 14 interceptors that would be based at Fort Greely in Alaska on top of 26 already in place. Another three are already stationed in California. Hagel seized on the North Korea's nuclear test last month and its satellite launch in December. This was done was an excuse or pretext for the expansion of U.S. anti-ballistic missile system. "North Korea, in particular, has recently made advances in its capabilities and has engaged in a series of irresponsible and reckless provocations," he said. The reality is that his commented are cynical. North Korea has a limited nuclear and missile capacity. This reality is being used as an excuse to justify the use of sophisticated anti-missile system all over the Asia Pacific region. This is used to counter China's nuclear arsenal. North Korea responded to the additional UN Security Council sanctions in this month of March. North Korea said that it had the right to defend itself including via "a pre-emptive nuclear attack against the headquarters of the aggressor." The Obama administration, however, simply dismissed the threat. Neither Hagel nor any Pentagon official has suggested that Pyongyang actually has the ability to carry out such an attack on Washington. Also, the Pentagon wants to expand the number of interceptors that predate both the North Korean missile launch and nuclear test. A senior American defense official told the Washington Post that the expansion "had been in the works for about six months." In other words, North Korea had simply supplied a convenient excuse for the announcement. Hagel said that the U.S. will deploy an additional early warning system to Japan. This is a sophisticated X-band radar, which is capable of tracking ballistic missiles. There is already one such U.S. installation in northern Japan. The U.S. is planning to create a second one in the south of the country. The Pentagon leaked details of its anti-ballistic missile plans to the Wall Street Journal. The report said that the Pentagon wants a third X-band radar installation in South East Asia, possibly in the Philippines. This technology can increase the U.S. military's ability to track the trajectory of ballistic missiles and thus to destroy them with interceptors. Japan and other nations in Asia are collaborating with America in trying to have this technology. The US navy recently boosted the number of its Arleigh Burke -class guided missile destroyers in waters off the Korean Peninsula, as part of joint exercises with South Korea. The US military also has Patriot missile batteries in South Korea. This technology is being used to act as a buffer to the hegemony of China and Russia. Such anti-ballistic capabilities can be used to a limited salvo of missiles, fired by an enemy already badly damaged by a first nuclear strike by the United States. China and Russia oppose such a program for obvious reasons. They don't wish such devices to be near their territories. Some in the Chinese bureaucracy are even opening suggesting that Pyongyang could be cut loose. The reason is that North Korea's weapons program is giving the U.S. a reason to expand their anti-missile program. Similar systems in China are still behind the U.S as admitted by Air force expert Fu Qianshao when he told the media. U.S. military forces in Asia as a means to further influence that region of the world. We will see the America-China relationship in the 2020s. ....
By Timothy
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