Time to open your mind on gun violence in the U.S.

Let’s quit pretending that our corrupt society is going to help anyone. It is like pretending that we are not racist, we do not punish the poor, or treat women equally to men, or we value anything over our individual wealth: we don’t care. Our actions, not words, define what we value. 

What is the rational and good reason to allow anyone to own an assault weapon? Think really hard, think like you just lost a loved one to gun violence, think like this is a really important issue for you. Let us just focus on the biggest reason that we allow this to exist: 

Hunting? No, the velocity of this types of weapons travel too fast to not destroy your hunting prey. Additionally single action firing weapons can effectively replace assault weapons. 

Your 2nd amendment rights? No, when this law was enacted in 1791 it was to provide a constitutional check on congressional power under Article I Section 8 to organize, arm, and discipline the federal militia. That was before we had a global military, before we had armed police, and before assault weapons, like the AR15, we made available to the public to purchase. Furthermore, no one in our society could effectively defend themselves today against our military. 

Self defense? If no citizen had assault weapons, you would be on parity with society with your single action firing weapon. 

It negatively affects your freedom rights? Breaking news, you're not free living in this corrupt society today, even the Matrix knows that. We are managed by fear, owned by laws that we don’t approve of, and surrounded by greed and corruption; that is your freedom.

Even if you try to defend assault weapon ownership, it will not be through the lens of a person(s) who lost a loved one to gun violence. The second question to decide quickly is:  how long are you going to allow our corrupt society to continue to put us all in danger?

Hatred in the United States.

My wife is constantly reminding me to be positive and I am working on it really. But there are times when I think about the movie, Network, when actor Peter Finch is screaming on television, “I am mad as hell and I am not going to take it anymore.” So, know this is an informed rant and read it if you like.

Recently I was visiting with a dear friend. I was asked what I thought about the current events, which I assumed was about our society’s tolerance for racism. I was wrong, it was about the looting during the peaceful protests. It took me a while to really absorb what I was hearing, which is most American white people’s focus on things, not people. So, I started to really pay attention to what my circle of friends were saying about George Floyd’s death (current events) and about racism overall (bigger picture). I found many of my friends who were posting articles of outrage over police brutality, some racism, some stuff about Trump. What I found interesting is most of my circle were quick to blame, but not quick to attempt ownership for the problem (self-included) and wondered why that was.

I wonder how many people know that we are a nation that was founded on racism, more specifically white privilege. If you disagree, pick up a U.S. history book and read it. Our country has made small steps to address this problem over time, but it is more like a zig zag, sometimes positive, sometimes negative, never enough. And if we fast forward to today, we are seeing the extreme of selfishness in our county: greatest divide of income, the death of the America dream (which is a separate issue I am glad to engage on), and wide spread hatred of minorities (not only people of color, but people of minority beliefs). Look at our current POTUS: he had no civil qualifications of government, was a self-acknowledged misogynist, had a previous history of racism, and was running on a platform of anti-immigration. Unfortunately for our society he has proven himself to match the traits of a dictator.

I blame all of our society for racism, and our biggest crime is not acknowledging it. It is easy to pretend it doesn’t exist because it is a point of shame. I recently heard someone compare it to gravity, in the sense that we all know it is there, but it is easy to ignore. So, I think the first thing we need to do is admit we, all citizens of United States, have a problem, and that will be the first step in healing our hatred for minorities. It is the opposite of the supporters of the NRA after a violent hate crime is committed with guns, which is “our thoughts and prayers are with you.” Which in my mind translates into it is not happening to me so I don’t care, which is the same with hatred and racism. I say let’s go back to the AA way of introducing themselves with “Hi, my name is the United States, and I am a racist.” Maybe then we can start to solve the problem and quit worrying about things over people.

Four Horsemen

I recently watched this documentary called Four Horsemen. It covers the demise of empires, fiat money versus the gold standard, controlling the cognitive map, finite global resources, and the consequences of banking that is too big to fail. You can watch it for free on their website and other places. It had the same impact on my thinking that the documentary Zeitgeist did - a real eye opener. Also gave me nightmares about my savings and retirement accounts. I think I will work on my gardening skills, immediately.

https://renegadeinc.com/channel/four-horsemen/

The decline of the Republican party

I can't remember a worse time in American presidential politics than the present. The Republican party has evolved into a freak show. The way that all of their candidates speak about the inequality of income is so harsh that it is obvious that they don't believe that it is an issue with their voters - and maybe it is not - but they need more than 1% of the population to win an election. Who wants to vote for raising the age of retirement?

Climate change is not even mentioned, this just after Obama's speech on it just a couple of days ago. Even Obama is a decade late to that party, but it is not even a discussion point for a single republican candidate. Instead we have to listen to building bigger walls around the country to protect us from Mexico, really?

National security - we have run out of countries to fight, yet you here quotes like "the purpose of the military is to kill people and break things" from Mike Huckabee, and from Ted Cruz, "we will not defeat radical Islamic terrorism so long as we have a president unwilling to utter the words: radical, Islamic, terrorism." Maybe Ted should read the news, looks like we crushed a bunch of radical terrorist over the last seven years with our drone program.

What is the saddest point is that we should be having a hard time choosing between some of the best and most qualified candidates ever - not some weird, disconnected, and bought stuffed suits. Maybe it was this bad 20, 30, 50 years ago - but I don't remember it being so void of qualified candidates addressing current and relevant issues.

A favorite movie scene

The society I live in and feeling safer.

My daughter and I were in Switzerland riding on a train at night after a dinner. The train was not patrolled or staffed by any train personnel (interesting in its own right). We were at the last stop and noticed that there was a woman’s purse left behind. We touched a button that connected us to someone with the Metro and explained the situation and asked what should we do. The reply was “leave the purse on the train and someone will return it to the owner.” As I shared this story with my fellow workers in Switzerland, they said “it is Switzerland, she will mostly likely get it back in a day with extra money in it.” I ask you, how cool is that?

 Contrast that story to the recent shooting in America. My fellow citizens are able to purchase guns (pistols, rifles and shotguns) along with body armor and walk into a public place and kill people. I can’t think of an acceptable scenario where this makes any good sense. I don’t want to go “anywhere” where my family and I can be exposed to gunfire and potentially get shot. That is not the society or community that I want to be a part of. I also do not want to carry a firearm, under any circumstances. I would not feel safer bring a gun to a gunfight – I don’t want to be in a gunfight - ever in my life. I cannot even rationalize any value of a handgun outside of law enforcement and the military – any value. So I started talking to my friends about this and I was very surprised at their strong responses – maybe I am not from this planet.

The big objection is giving up part of our civil rights, specifically the rights to bear arms. So I looked up the Second Amendment and here it what it said regarding this subject, “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.” A well regulated Militia, that does not sound like the average gun owner today in America at all – in fact, not even close. For me the trade off is safety for the society at whole, as previous stated I don’t ever want to see a gunfight. I certainly would not feel any safer if I was in a movie theater and the person next to me shot back (I would prefer the odds of making him choose versus firing back at a shooter). In the Aurora example, the shooter was in full body armor anyways. I only want a trained professional engaging the bad guy, not average Joe who has watch too much TV. Regardless, I don’t think that Second Amendment was written or developed with the intent of arming society against random attacks. So using it as an excuse to defend our civil rights does not convince me. I would rather live in a society where gun ownership is regulated to just single bolt action rifles, which would limit some of the present threat.

I am trying to understand the rational reason why one would need a gun. I came up with two:

 • Hunting – you like to kill things. Even if you decide that this is a good reason to have a gun, I would ask is it a good reason to have a handgun? How about a semi-automatic? When I think of hunting, I think of hunters aiming from a distance at their target. I also think that if a hunter wants to keep and show his target or eat his target, he/she wants to keep the amount of lead and holes to a minimum, so single shot action is mostly likely acceptable. Or put differently, an AK47 is not a requirement for hunters.

 • Personal Protection – if someone wants to shot and kill me, his/her odds of success will be high. I am not trained in combat, so my odds for defending myself will be low. I would not want to be shooting in my house of fear of hitting my wife and/or children. How does the police know who to protect versus who to go after if we both are firing guns? Last, shooting a target and shooting a person is an entirely different thing that I do not think people give the right consideration to. It is easy to say I will kill anyone who enters my home until you find out it is one of your kids friends.

In the end, for me, it boils down to safety and I feel safer with trained dedicated professionals defending me versus myself. I don’t think that all guns should be banned, but I do think that all semi-automatic guns should not be allowed in any public places. I don’t think more guns equal more safety; I think more guns equal more fatalities. I like the story about the purse on the Swiss train better than Aurora shooting.

What to see what it feels like to ride in a Shelby that goes 146 mph in a 1/4 mile?