Guns and Common Sense
Space limitations precluded discussion of several pressing local threats last week. The worst of those are gun violence, illegal immigration, and the hardening between the left and the right.
Recently, every week has been marred by one or more mass shootings. The knee jerk reaction has been for more stringent background checks on each gun purchase.
President Biden’s suggestion was to require background checks for the purchase of “Ghost Guns,” or guns assembled from kits. When has one of those been used in a massacre?
Goof grief! The answer is not trying to keep just new weapons out of the hands of the mentally disturbed or others with evil intent. Multiple shot weapons of every description are already in the hands of many millions of civilians. They are available by sale, theft, barter, gift, and other means.
In the school mass shootings, many of the weapons used were stolen. In the Sandy Hooks School shooting in Connecticut, the perpetrator stole the weapon from his mother to carry out the rampage. That is just one of many with the same scenario.
In another case, Jim Tan, a Canadian living in this country wanted to buy a shot gun to kill his father. His purchase was denied because he was not a citizen, so he got an American friend to buy the weapon. Subsequently, he was acquitted of the murder on his defense that he acted in defense of his mother.
How many of the daily murders throughout this nation are committed with stolen weapons is not known. The point, though, is that trying to reduce the number of murders by making it more difficult to acquire weapons legally is roughly equivalent to hunting bears with a BB gun.
Hanging over this, of course, are these words of the 2nd Amendment: “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.”
There is no way that the tremendous number of firearms available in this nation today can be kept out of the hands of assassins. The only answer thus appears to identify and medically treat those intent on mayhem.
That, also, is easier said than done. Family and friends of individuals who might need intervention are reluctant to call public attention to one among them who is having emotional or mental problems.
Moreover, when an individual is identified as a possible danger to society, what can be done with him or her is problematical. Because of prior abuses, involuntary commitment procedures are cumbersome.
Then, if a commitment is ordered, there may not be space in an appropriate facility. Sheriff Otto Hanak says there is currently a waiting list of over 400 for admission to that type of facility in Texas.
Finally, early identity of problem individuals may not even work. The mother of the young man who took eight lives at the FedEx facility in Indianapolis had notified the police several months ago that he might be considering suicide by cop. The follow up action was temporary only. Look at the result.
In conclusion, the current murder rampage seems to be a problem without a solution. If there is a reasonable solution, it is beyond my ken.
Another threat to our nation is a special problem because it currently is two pronged. This is the flood of illegal immigrants crossing our southern border.
The primary threat or problem is the illegal immigration. The second threat or problem is the Biden/Harris Administration’s refusal to recognize that there is a threat or problem. They actually welcome those weary walkers as potential future voters for the TS (Tax & Spend) Party.
Vice President Harris has been put in charge of the affair (not a problem), but neither she nor the President have visited the cages for children, the crowded coliseums holding thousands of unaccompanied children, the exhausted border patrol agents, or the towns and cities in Texas and Arizona being over run by illegals.
Their answer, instead, is to say they will correct the problems by improving living conditions and controlling the criminal cartels in the Central American countries that are the primary source of the flood. That means putting billions or trillions of dollars in the pockets of corrupt politicians south of our border.
Even if that plan had a glimmer of a chance of working, how many years would it take to see results?
So here’s the perspective.
Of the two threats discussed here, the threat of an increasing murder rate appears to have no defense.
There is, however, a very easy solution for the southern border problem. Simply recognize that there is a problem/threat and return to the policies of the Trump Administration, including finishing the wall. That would require the media and TS to recognize that Trump did something right.
Do not hold your breath waiting for them to recognize these hard truths.
enough
