GUN VIOLENCE

 

Blog readers know I have an issue with politicians and the way the political process plays out, but when credit is due credit is given.

The issue of gun control is so fractured and divisive nothing of  substance has taken place during the last several years.

Those who wrap themselves in the second amendment, which I am a supporter of, turn a deaf ear to any and every sensible proposal that is suggested.

They do so ignoring the realities – you’re going to find liberal Pollyanna’s  who will argue til they become blue in the face that the Second Amendment does not give the right to private citizens to keep and bear arms.

This is a right that has been upheld multiple times by the Supreme Court which in effect translates to every ruling becoming the “supreme law of the land”.

They ignore that this president who having taught constitutional law has pointedly said the second Amendment does indeed bestow this right upon citizens and he supports it.

On the opposing side it is as though conservatives can neither read, write,or think as they with a mob mentality buy into everything the NRA and and their favorite politicians have to say about a huge conspiracy to “take their guns”, and it is they with their dysfunctional approach to the welfare of the nation that comprises no small threat.

The threat to gun ownership begins and ends with the lunatics who abuse the right and indiscriminately kill men, women, and children in schools, public venues, or any other location they chose, that is the bottom line.

Ignorance and an unwillingness to do even a minimal amount of fact checking have been the characteristics of the gun control debate – but then that’s been pretty much been the way of it across the board when it comes to party allegiance.

So again I say credit where it is due, and in this case it is due to Obama.

And I repeat what I have said in the past, that law abiding gun owners need to address the real time issues and become an active participant in stemming the epidemic of gun violence.

For those who may be unaware of it or lack the cognitive powers to understand, ignorance isn’t bliss, ignorance is killing tens of thousands of people in this country annually and “patriots” posting selfies clutching guns and droning on in their pseudo Paul Revere impersonation of “the gun grabbers are coming” are doing nothing to remediate that.

http://www.salon.com/2016/01/07/are_you_fking_kidding_me_trevor_noah_unloads_on_inhuman_fox_news_tear_truthers/

http://www.salon.com/2016/01/07/wow_stephen_colbert_on_guns_and_president_obamas_tears_is_absolutely_perfect/

NOT TO BE FORGOTTEN

Ran across this on Annie’s fb page and think it should be displayed in as many sites as possible.

The intent isn’t to minimize events such as Sandy Hook, Columbine, or anywhere else but merely to add another perspective- one that speaks to a genocidal mindset directed at indigenous people and perpetrated by the government.

Modern day shooters such as those at Sandy Hook and Columbine have a twisted agenda that may never be understood-usually loners with a history of bizarre behavior-and while the governments deeds and approach to the “Indian problem” certainly can be characterized among other things as bizarre it has been a matter of policy and likewise qualifies as a murderous rampage.

At some point a shift in policy took effect, or perhaps merely an expansion that became known as the reservation system which exists to this day not only within the continental boundaries of the U.S. but elsewhere in such diverse locations as Gitmo.

That may seem a broad statement to some but if they consider that eighty plus prisoners still being held there have been “cleared” and yet remain confined the comparison becomes obvious and valid when you consider many of our people have likewise committed no crimes.

These prisoners may be viewed as “potential” terrorists, not for anything they’ve actually done but as a result of their unlawful detention- I think such was and may be the case with the reservation system and indigenous people in general.

We have been systematically stripped of our birthright, killed, and confined, and at least historically viewed as a potential threat that had to be contained.

An example of this is illustrated by the treatment of Apache “scouts” who in effect joined the military to assist in campaigns against their own people and then found themselves being shipped off to Florida following it’s conclusion.

Our people have fought in every war this nation has been involved in-yet were effectively denied the right to vote until the middle of the twentieth century.

Immigration reform is a current political topic, one no doubt driven in part by demographics being viewed as voting blocs- it is on the surface at least an attempt to integrate those who in one sense of the word are disenfranchised and allow them a level playing field- an act of assimilation.

The reservation system, boarding schools, and the outlawing of various ceremonies have also been an attempt to assimilate by brute force and at the point of gun.

Well and good to honor code talkers, to issue apologies, and stage photo op meetings, but in the midst of this the slaughter that occurred of our children is not be forgotten.

It isn’t a case of that was then and this is now.