HOLD ON THERE SLICK, THIS AIN’T RIGHT!

HOLD ON THERE SLICK, THIS AIN’T RIGHT!

(Alan J. Lizotte, Beth Bjerregard, Mark E. Rushefsky, Jeremy Meyer)

(Ezra Klein, Huffington Post, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, A life of Resistance)

(Tom Brennan, New York Times, Winnipeg Free Press, Washington Post, Frazer Chronicle)

 

From London, a disc jockey was saddened when he heard about the latest mass shooting in the United States, but like most of the world, outside the United States, that was following Monday’s attack at the Navy Ship Yard in Washington D.C. he wasn’t surprised.

 

To me that reaction by the English deejay epitomizes what is going on in our country…..and has been going on for years, it’s kind of like a couple’s right to pro-create, people in the United States, citizens…..have the right to keep and bear arms, again…..it’s a rite of passage…..and it disgusts me, and it should you also.

 

This woe-be-gone former Navy reservist felt pissed off…..(for whatever reason) had exercised his inalienable right as an American to keep and bear arms, (and brother, he didn’t kid around). When Aaron Alexis opened fire on the mostly civilian work force at the Navy facility he definitely wasn’t striking a blow for any cause that any rational thinking person might be thinking…..even terrorists who have a cause.

 

Now begins the process of trying to figure out exactly what in hell was wrong with Aaron Alexis, what would drive a person to execute such a barbaric and seeming unbelievable attack on innocent people at their work place.

 

The investigation will take weeks if not months, and at the end, when a report comes out, and is released through the newspapers, radio, and television to the public…..and the mountain of op-eds, that will come out, written by worldly scholars, nothing, absolutely nothing will be solved, there won’t be any closure, and everybody will be left hanging until the next mass execution style shooting happens.

 

And it will happen, a mass shooting, it’s inevitable, it’s like the man said, “it’s happened before, and it’ll happen again”. It’s a sad statement, a troubling statement, but none-the-less an accurate statement. There is a price that you pay for having less than stringent rules and regulations for gun ownership and easy access to the same.

 

Our history is dotted with mass murders that actually make a mockery of what we preach to other countries with regards to a democratic society and the power of a free enterprise system of government that champions freedom of the people, with certain rights that are guaranteed by a constitution that was written more than 200 years ago.

 

The first thing that people who protect our way of life…..the very first thing that this people will tell you is that our way of government, our way of living has worked for more than 200 years, and is the best kind of government in the world.  Okay I’ve heard that argument before, and as long as American’s have breath to breathe, it’ll be their battle cry…..but can we check just a few numbers…..not as a rebuttal to that credo, rather a point of order.

 

A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE WITH THE GUN

Since 1900, in the United States there has been a long history of violence with regards to firearms, since 1900 at least 150, that would be more than one per year, a figure that should shock us all, and more than shock, the figure should wake us up to the fact that we need to do something about gun violence and the access to firearms in our country.

 

The death count in these more than 150 incidents, plus is above 1000 men, women and children, the shooters weren’t working on a quota type basis, they weren’t usually looking for any one individual, and they were a gender free type people…..they’d shoot anybody and anything that moved.

 

People talk about the turmoil in the Middle East; they talk about the low rent district of South America, and how cheaply those people value life. Africa is another area where our foreign policy makers figure that they need to monitor…..and they do, they recite the number of genocide deaths that happen every day, but nothing happens…..the victims are…..black.

 

However lost in the shuffle is an ongoing brand of U.S. disobedience, how we, as a people, fail to understand that there are people in our society that need monitoring, that must not have access to firearms, pretty much because they are fractured, they aren’t right and must never be able to own a gun.

 

Here again the gun advocates will tell you that a firearm is relatively easy to get in the United States whether from a legal licensed gun dealer, out of the truck of a car, or from somebody in a back alley…..and you know what….they are right. As long as there’s a profit to be made, Americans will somehow find a way to supply that demand.

 

I also am not talking about a guy and his son, or a husband and wife hitting the woods looking to bag a deer, or whatever. These people (and I know a slew of them), do not have a problem with background checks and following a rigorous set of rules and regulations to at least attempt to keep firearms out of the hands of wackos, and weirdoes with some sort of bizarre agenda. Gun advocates can just as easily be targeted by these crazies as those folks who don’t own a gun, these guys are equal opportunists.

 

Shooting sprees aren’t a rare occurrence in the United States, since 1982 there have been 61 mass murders carried out with firearms; this is according to Mother Jones, with the acts unfolding in 30 separate states from Massachusetts to Hawaii, and in  most cases, the shooters had obtained their weapons legally.

 

Over the past 50 years 15 of the 25 worst mass shootings have occurred in the United States, in second place is Finland…..with two entries. The facts and figures put the United States squarely in first place with little threat of being dislodged.

 

A figment of gun advocates imagination is that lots of guns don’t necessarily mean more shooting deaths…..and once again grand Pooba breathes, you would be wrong. Without a doubt more guns, easy access to guns, and little or lax restrictions correlate exactly to more shooting deaths…..go ahead, look it up, computer yourself!

 

The United States is a really violent place, and although some researchers would have us believe that things are getting better, I would beg to differ, just ask Newtown survivors, or those folks that are left mourning dead friends, relatives, and loved ones…..I think they might disagree with the getting better attitude.

 

CAN IT BE TRUE

Is the United States becoming more violent, I’m not sure, I hope not, but gee, how do we…..as a nation, and as a people, fail to learn from Virginia Tech, Aurora, Colorado, Fort Hood, Texas, Newtown, Connecticut, and now Washington D.C.?  And these are recent mass killings…..and the Federal Government hasn’t moved, and with the exception of Colorado, who recalled two legislatures who wanted gun control, not a single state in the continental United States has made a single meaningful change to some sort of a monitoring system to help protect…..themselves…..now that is what I call bizarre!

 

People around the world weighed in with all sorts of negative comments about our lax gun control laws, which doesn’t really matter to me, I think most of my regular readers understand my stance on running a most popular contest between countries…..leave us out of it.

 

However don’t people start to scratch heads, and furrow their brow just a bit when comment after comment is basically the same…..it’s like “what in the hell is wrong with those crazy Americans, and their seeming unabashed love for firearms?”

 

I can tell you this…..with the number of weapons that are stashed here in the United States, and with the voluminous number of gun owners, terrorists simply aren’t impressed, they sleep with their AR47 assault weapon…..and probably make love to it.

 

Here’s a jaw dropper, the A.K. 47, by far the most famous of all the assault rifles that are in use today comes from a manufacture, Izhmash, located in Izhevsk, Russia. The company has a long history of gun making among other machining parts and motorcycles. However it’s most lucrative assemblage was the AK 47, and the Kalashnikov rifle. The company, which declared bankruptcy just a year ago, manufactured 75 million AK 47’s, and 100 million Kalashnikov family weapons. At a buck apiece you’re talking $175,000,000, but I digress, the profit margin was a hell-of-a-lot more than one thin dollar bill.

 

We must get off this stupid treadmill of that we’re on with regards to U.S. citizens being fleeced by the silly antics of the National Rifle Association, their stance is costing American lives, a precious commodity that we need to have override gun enthusiasts, and the gun makers…..hell these guys do not need three or four Cadillac’s to run around in.

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!