BUCKLE UP FOLKS, IT’S GONNA BE A BUMPY RIDE!

(The Blaze, Associated Press, Chicago Tribune, Huff Post, National Post Graphics Vault)

(NPR, CNN, Washington Times, Frazer Chronicle)

 

Thanks to Glenn Beck, we can sleep better at night, and we can go wherever we want during the day, and the evening as well. Two of the biggest gun control myths have been debunked, more guns mean more crimes, and strict gun control works in other countries. People still shoot themselves, while shooting deaths continue on either a normal count, or at a slightly higher rate than in previous years. As Beck would say, “it’s the nature of the beast.”

 

Let’s address each of Becks points, and examine the rational for Becks opinions, and where he got his information to formulate that opinion. In 2004 an extensive report by the National Academy of Science was not able to identify a single gun control regulation that actually reduced violent crime, suicide or accident. One of the pillars of gun control is the argument that more guns mean more crime.

 

Because the facts, (according to Beck) do not back up the claim that more guns do mean more crime and violence. Beck further cited a University of Pennsylvania study in 1994 that stated banning so-called assault weapons did little to reduce gun violence while in effect.

 

Glenn Beck does have a legitimate argument…..NOT, anybody worth his/her salt who renders an opinion, who has a platform such as Beck does, knows current information is the key to stating an opinion, and you’d better get three sources to substantiate your stated opinion.

 

It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure out that if people do not posses guns, crime, assault and firearms related deaths would drop exponentially. You have to go back a long, long way in human history to find crime, death and assaults waged by people with sticks.

 

Beck also stated that “strict gun control works in other countries,” here again Beck dips, (1997) into history to find what I guess would be information favoring Glenn Becks idea of people owning guns with absolutely unfettered access.

 

Beck points to England banning almost all firearms in 1997, and that crime involving firearms almost doubled. Armed street gangs caused so much havoc that British police resorted to carrying guns and the country still experienced mass shootings. In addition the homicide rate rose dramatically for seven years after the ban from 1.1 deaths per 100,000 to 1.8 per 100,000.

 

Here is a sobering fact from Posts (Atom) in 2012 they estimated that there were 270,000,000 guns in the United States, the next closest country where it’s citizens owned guns was France…..with 19,000,000, and the death rate from guns per 100,000, 0.22. That’s right, 19,000.000 guns, and less than 1 person dies from firearms.

 

The United States, per 100,000 citizens firearm deaths, 3.20, and suicide deaths, per 100,000, 6.30.

To understand what these figures mean, let me put the numbers into context, the United States ranks 13^th in the world in firearms deaths…..in the world. And the countries ahead of the U.S. are South Africa, Uruguay, Zimbabwe, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panama, the Philippines, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Honduras.

 

Uruguay, Zimbabwe, and Honduras aren’t really your household related countries, they are developing, and political unrest rules their citizen’s lives. Other countries, Colombia and Nicaragua have drug problems and others, like Africa go through regime change sometimes almost at the top of every hour.

 

The suicide rate in the United States is almost unparalleled, with the exception of Montenegro which boosts a 6.49 death rate per 100,000; the U.S. with its 6.30 per 100,000 is lapping at the heels of Montenegro to coin a sports phrase.

 

So for Beck to cavalierly talk about studies and results that are decades old isn’t stretching the facts of the issue, they border on out and out lies. The United States owns more than 300,000,000 firearms, a small arms survey in 2007 put the number of gun owners at 270,000,000…..and I updated the number by around 30,000,000 more.

 

CHICAGO’S SOUTH-SIDE

I think that we all can agree that Chicago’s Southside is not an emerging and developing area, in fact the area was annexed, with several other townships into the city of Chicago in June of 1889. Called (The Side) by some, the area is along the Lake Michigan shore line and is between 70 and 90% black.

 

Chicago last year had more than 500 gun related deaths, from babies, to teens to adults, the gun violence did not favor one age group, it did however target blacks at an overwhelming rate. Street gangs, shake-downs, drugs, and turf wars were all part of the problem, however it was a problem for some for a very different reason…..they simply were in the wrong place at the wrong time…..and paid the ultimate price.

 

There are always going to be bad people, racial profiling will probably always be a factor when people try and figure out what a particular area, and its inhabitants are going wrong. However I can’t find any particular race of people that wants to live in America, and have to worry about their safety, or the safety of their loved ones. Nobody wants to live in a war zone, especially in a developed country like the United States.

 

Last year the Chicago Police Department reported seizure of 7,400 guns used in crimes, or that were unpermitted, nearly double the next highest New York City and the 3,285 confiscated. Chicago police, at the end of January reported 40 shooting deaths and that they had taken more than 550 weapons in criminal investigations.

 

Typically in Chicago, gunshot wounds and deaths are common place and sometimes can be buried in newspaper reports. Yesterday, April 30, there were nine people wounded on the Far South and South side of the windy city.

 

At one site, people watching the police taping off the crime scene remarked that the neighborhood to an evening in Beirut, or a market area in Iraq. Another woman came out of a Dominick’s grocery store and saw a shooting victim laying in the parking lot, and two suspects surrounded by cops, also lying on the ground.

 

Beirut, Afghanistan, Iraq, it’s time for us to reevaluate where we are going, and what we will allow to happen on our streets. Color knows no limits when blood is spilled, it’s red, anguish knows absolutely no ethnic group, whenever a loved one is lost, the feeling of loss is the same for everybody.

 

 

 

AND NOW WE HAVE THE BOZOS

If the pollsters are correct, an overwhelming number of people in the United States are in favor of background checks. Yet elected officials won’t see the handwriting on the wall. The gun lobby touches vast numbers of law-makers in the country. The NRA seems to have deep pockets, and seeks to control vast blocks of legislators on all levels of government.

 

Who the hell are these people, and what in the world are they thinking of, when kids get killed in their classrooms, when people die in their workplace by a nut-jobs, how radical do you have to be to say…..enough!

 

Do these gun advocates want everybody to buckle up, should everybody be packing heat, what in hell is going on…..(I’ve asked that question on numerous occasions)…..and have yet to get what I would call a basically intelligent answer.

 

Just because people have access to firearms, whether concealed or slung over their shoulder, how can that presence retard some nut case from walking casually into a super-market, or a mall, or a grade school and start killing people. Is the civilian that is an honest citizen, who has done all the legal steps to carry either a side arm or a rifle going to do against the crazy gun who is intent on taking out as many people as possible?

 

I’ll tell you…..in 99% of the incidents…..nothing, he’ll hit the deck just like everybody else…..don’t you people know that Harry Callahan isn’t a real person, it’s Clint Eastwood acting, it’s called a movie, your average person doesn’t act that way…..so red necks holster that Colt 45 before you possible get your head blown off.

 

For us…..as a people, to get to a better place, a place that is safe, where people treat one another with dignity and respect, we are going to have to change our basic mode of thinking. The 2^nd amendment was a provision for people to protect the country as militia; there wasn’t a standing army…..the militia was it. Farmers, shop owners, carpenters, masons, and just plain everyday citizens made up the army.

 

Now we have the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines, and we spend billions of dollars to these people to protect our country against invasion. There isn’t a need for the 2^nd amendment or the militia, we don’t need week-end warriors running through the woods playing army, and we have professionals doing that job.

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!