Left Unsaid by “Obama on Guns”

Left Unsaid by “Obama on Guns”

Steven R. Berryman

from The Tentacle, January 21st 2013
 

http://thetentacle.com/ShowArticle.cfm?mydocid=5577 

Last Wednesday the president conducted a “high noon” news conference to announce and amplify upon 23 “executive actions” concerning gun ownership in America. Children were used as props; the resolutions and legislative suggestions were to propel a liberal anti-gun agenda. The centerpiece ban would not have stopped the psychotic shooter in Connecticut.

An “assault weapons ban” and limitations on gun magazines to a capacity of 10 rounds certainly would have been proposed sometime in 2013 with or without a showcase tragedy that had been foreshadowed.

[By now, sophisticated readers of TheTentacle.com will surely be aware that the term “assault rifle” is simply a prejudicial, made-up term to confuse low-information citizens about differences between machine guns and semi-automatic rifles that happen to look alike.]

Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley is proposing similar gun-ban legislation in Annapolis, and Del. Michael Hough (R., Frederick 3B) reminds us on his weekly informative video that “there have been zero murders by assault weapon (a misnomer) in the State of Maryland. The governor is grandstanding to position himself for a 2016 Democratic presidential primary against his New York counterpart Andrew Cuomo.

I was struck by the news conference, not so much for the predictable opportunism, but by the fact that the presidential pronouncements missed so much fertile ground had the real goal really been about preventing another Newtown from ever happening again. Some of the obvious items that could and should have been considered or clarified include:

·       Access to guns: The “universal background check” proviso is meaningless if those not qualified under law to own a firearm can borrow or steal one quickly.

·       The personal responsibility of the gun owners themselves is critical to a real solution.

Gun-safe minimum security standards should be set and mandated as a requirement of the ownership of certain guns. Criminal penalties must be determined for those allowing easy access of firearms to others. Young Ryan Lonza would not have gotten into his mother’s guns had they been stored in a Liberty Safe!

I would also recommend a second locked and separated storage cabinet for the ammunition element of the equation.

Also left unspoken, but foreshadowed, was the element of universal background checks that provides a loophole – person-to-person transfers and sales of guns. This one is tricky; it is also known as the gun-show loophole. What of a father wanting to hand down his guns to his own children? Yes, a gun store would need to handle the transaction under a new law. This will not go down quietly, especially in “red states.”

And getting back to background checks, exactly how is the doctor/patient relationship going to be compromised if the onus of evil detection becomes part of the doctor’s job? Are all general practitioners trained on psychological screening?

What would be the legal liability of a doctor compromising a sacred oath of the privileged relationship? What would constitute proper disclosure on the side of the patient or the doctor? Would the doctor be required to submit information on a patient that seemed to be withholding information!

Now for the medical/mental disqualification for gun ownership. Exactly which conditions and to what severity will automatically prohibit gun ownership? How about a one-time consultation about hyperactivity or obsessive-compulsive disorders? If a patient confessed a passing thought about suicide, however mild, is that to be an automatic disqualifier? How about an eating disorder?

Seems like a pretty tangled web we are weaving, perhaps conceding too much power to the state via the possible medical requirements alone.

Ironically of those mentally ill, statistically they are far, far more likely to be victims than they are to be criminals.

Now, back to Topic A, the gun ban itself. In Maryland alone there are over 10,000 legally owned firearms defined as assault weapons in the military-appearance sense. (There are many more than that with the same specifications – caliber and semi-automatic actions – in circulation with hunters and target shooters.) Will current citizen ownership of assault weapons be permitted as a “grandfather clause?” Will the resale of such grandfathered guns be permitted?

Lastly, a limitation on the capacity of a guns magazine, or clip, to one that holds but 10 rounds is bad law. By definition and usage, these clips can be owned in as many multiples as one wants, and can be duct taped together for even quicker reloading. This would not hinder the speed, methods, and actions of a deranged killer seeking maximum hurt.

Conclusion: We already have the right gun laws on the books; it’s a matter of enforcement. What has been proposed, and what has been – so far left out – does not afford much hope that we are pursuing gun law changes for the right reasons.

Could it be that our government is uncomfortable with an armed citizenry?

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srbmgr@gmail.com

            For the original post, see this link:   http://thetentacle.com/ShowArticle.cfm?mydocid=5577

            For the related preceding blog, see: 
http://mediahooker1.blogspot.com/2013/01/normal-0-channeling-rod-serling-steven-r.html

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Channeling Rod Serling [Twilight on Guns]

Channeling Rod Serling

Steven R. Berryman

January 16, 2013

If 2013 had been a Twilight Zone Soliloquy

(Narrator enters from stage left, puffs cigarette, and perches on an old crate)

You are looking at a depressed version of the nation that once gave its Founding Fathers great pride and greater hope; it is the morning of the day that would change the impact of the Second Amendment forever.

What had been legislative due process has now become the waiting game of Executive decrees about gun law.  This from the man that the people had elected president, apparently because the majority wanted to be “taken care of.”

The president famous for never allowing an opportunity to escape without exploitation is riding the wave of sorrow in America emanating from the Newtown, Connecticut shooting tragedy.  The paranoid among the nation already know that the Executive Decrees will serve an anti-gun agenda more than it will serve the legacy of those innocent children lost in the flower of their youth.

Solutions by Obama, surrounded by a backdrop of children-props, will overreach the issues by far.  Select demonized firearms will become very valuable overnight.  Bullets have just doubled in value.  Over-sized automatic gun magazines have quadrupled in value.

The above assuming some “grandfathering” of existing merchandise already on the streets. 

But certainly the president without bona fides will attach strings that the Government can pluck at will.  Searches and seizures without warrant?  “Probable Cause” rules to become a gimme, perhaps in some new secret court?

This theater of the absurd is playing out on this actual day, as we sit on the sidelines, waiting for the details to emerge, frustrated by fact that the people – half of them gun owners already – have not seen debate by congress on the matter, or any proper constitutional steps invoked.  No bills from the House.  No negotiation with the Senate over the finery. 

Of course The People’s faith in Government has waned, as trust has become eroded.  Fake fiscal cliffs, quantitative easing spent from your taxed income, picking winners and losers to satisfy political promises, and redistribution of wealth against your best wishes…just for starters.  Then create class warfare by crushing the middle class; the ones raising the children under oppressive stresses….Did you miss the 2% retaken from your payroll check yet?

The children, yes, the children!  That’s what the gun law Executive Decrees are all about; yes, yes. 

The man plucked up as a result of affirmative action, without so much as a proven record in the U.S. Senate will decide your children’s future.  It will be harder to “take our Government back” now, should the need ever arise under some future Stalinistic scenario.

Is a disarmed society a more polite society, or will it now be easier to identify who the criminals are because they are the ones with the guns?  The great irony in our present state on this dubious day is that should fresh restrictions be imposed on honest innocent citizens, then the criminals will benefit, as they, by definition, do not follow the laws anyway.

Liberals:  I dare you to plant a sign in your yard saying “This home is a gun free zone.”

…And see who is now more likely to visit you than the house with a NRA sign. 

(Narrator in black and white, takes a long puff on his cigarette, and exits stage right)

(Camera pans up to a field of stars in a crisp night sky)

srbmgr@comcast.net

With apologies to Rod Serling

Ammo: Be Prepared pre Confiscation!

Ammo:   Be Prepared.  Pre Confiscation!......