Gun Laws and Sales Take Unique Twists.

     If there is any logic to American gun laws, past and present, I’d love to hear it.

     The irony and flexibility between different states and communities provide both a progressive and paranoid picture. The United States Senate panel on gun control is considering specific steps forward this week.

     State officials may be battling the federal government soon because the conflicts and confusion provide for an enormous undertaking for a comprehensive plan. It’s impossible.

     But the one thing that isn’t complicated is the enhancement of state revenues through gun sales. State officials are lining up to find a “sin tax” revenue source, and they may have found the butter for their bread. Maryland officials want a 50 percent ammunition tax and Massachusetts wants to impose a 25 percent sales tax on all gun purchases. Nevada officials are considering a $25 tax per gun sale, which would include all gun shows in Las Vegas.

     And the most persistent legislation is coming out of California. House of Representatives member Linda Sanchez, D-California, wants a 10 percent tax on all concealable weapons purchased in the United States to go toward a federal buyback program to get guns off the streets. Meanwhile, the state legislature in California is considering a 5 percent tax on every bullet sold in the state towards a mental health screening program for children.

      In Congress, the Senate legislature would target a new ban on semi-automatic weapons modeled after military assault rifles. It would consider imposing the 1996 ban on all assault weapons that expired a decade later.

     But would it make a real difference in America’s fight against violence?

     Experts say there are already somewhere between 280 million and 320 million guns in the country today. Director of gun policy and research for the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Jon Vernick says research doesn’t find any evidence gun buyback programs reduce crime.

     The powerful National Rifle Association would have you believe we need more guns in America to fight criminals. The NRA released figures recently showing more than 500,000 new members have signed up since the 26 educators and children were shot to death at an elementary school massacre by a lone gunman last December in Newtown, Connecticut.

     The General Social Survey at the University of Chicago says gun ownership in households has actually declined steadily over the past four decades. The survey also says household gun ownership rates have declined from 50 percent in the 1970s to about 35 percent since the year 2000. The national survey is the only one of its kind and is funded by the National Science Foundation.

     But those figures differ with FBI statistics as well as Gallup Research Surveys which show nearly half the households in America have a firearm.

     The Second Amendment of the Constitution allows for the right of the people to keep and bear arms, and that right shall not be infringed.

     To what logic that freedom is allowed is a good question.

     Two small communities in Georgia and Maine have taken a unique but perhaps worrisome approach to the growing gun violence dilemma.

     The City Council of Nelson, Ga., has written a Family Protection Ordinance to be considered in April.

      The two-paragraph proposal reads, "In order to provide for the emergency management of the city, and further, in order to provide for and protect the safety, security, and general welfare of the city and its inhabitants, every head of household residing in the city limits is required to maintain a firearm, together with ammunition therefore."

     As explained by city officials, the rule would mirror one passed in nearby Kennesaw back in 1982. It would mandate gun ownership in every household. It is also supported by the police chief of Nelson, a city of just 1,300 residents, who has offered free gun safety classes and gun checks, if the law passes.

     “It’s a great idea,’’ said Police Chief Heath Mitchell. “Obviously, if you cannot afford it, don’t believe in it, or are a convicted felon or are handicapped, you are exempt from the mandate.”

     Nelson residents believe it is a great deterrent from crime. They believe criminals will bypass their small town just north of Atlanta, if the bad guys “don’t know what’s on the other side of the front door of the house.”

     Despite the national and international media attention the city of Nelson has received with the proposal, it turns out it isn’t that unique. Similar laws have been passed in Utah, Minnesota, and Idaho since 2000, and a small town in Maine is also currently considering such a proposal. Monday the town of Byron, Maine unanimously rejected a proposal to require every household to own a firearm, but city officials in the 140-resident town plan to bring the issue up again next month.

     Colorado state officials are barking for stricter gun laws. That state has seen two of the worst mass murders in recent American history. Last July, a lone gunman with an assault rifle stormed into a theatre and killed 12 people and injured 58 others in Aurora.

     In 1999, two students shot and killed 13 and wounded 23 others during the Columbine High School massacre in Littleton.

     Yet, just south of Colorado in Arizona, state officials passed a 2009 law that allows residents to enter bars with loaded firearms. Tucson officials recently took in 200 guns in a citywide buyback program with the idea of destroying those guns. State officials are discussing a law that would mandate any guns received in such buyback programs be resold.

     As if we don’t have enough guns without the sale one more in America. The Federal Bureau of Investigation statistics show there are 310 million guns in America which include 114 million handguns, 110 rifles, and 86 million shotguns. After nearly 17 million background checks since 1998, the FBI has denied about 900,000 individual gun sales. In the past year, the FBI denied 7,879 sales due to mental health issues.

     But firearm sales are a $5 billion annual industry in America, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation. And that insures America continues its prominence as the most gun violent country per capita in the world.

Sequestration May Be a Castration of Society.

     Wake up this weekend and consider your federal government has yet to act on gun control laws, despite months of debate. But, by not acting Friday on the so-called sequester, Congress may have put hundreds of thousands of children in jeopardy.

     The American public has not put enough pressure on politicians to solve problems in Washington, DC.

     We are to blame for the stalemate that led us down this path. Very soon, we’ll feel the pain of the budget cuts in federal services because of our lack of involvement. We have allowed this dilemma to happen.

      We haven’t gotten involved enough to realize how fast the federal government ship is sinking in the wrong direction. We are hiding in the closet, waiting for Christmas presents that will not arrive. We are suffering a slow death by gridlock. There is very little problem-solving because there is almost no debate for answers in the White House.

     The officials in power talked for just 45 minutes Friday before giving up and simply allowing this “sequestration” to go into effect. The average American worked an eight-hour shift the same day. Millions have been unemployed for at least a year and are still searching for a job.

     The most disturbing news since last December’s Newtown massacre is a half a million Americans have joined the National Rifle Association. The most disturbing news Friday was the sequestration in America that may deny more than 700,000 low-income children the right to the early childhood Head Start program.

     More guns in this country is clearly not the answer to our violence epidemic. Giving children a fair chance of succeeding is a step in the right direction.

     Arming teachers in our schools isn’t a solution, but arming pre-school youngsters with toothbrushes is.

     Allowing guns in houses of worship as recently approved in the state of Arkansas doesn’t deter gun violence, but identifying mental health resources and those who need it just might save lives in our communities.

     So what is really happening in this country?

      A deal was cooked up by both the Democrats and Republicans in 2011 that included a plan for about 85 billion in federal budget cuts March 1^st. They signed it in writing believing the date would never come and everything would be made happy well before Friday. We waited and waited. They barked and pointed fingers. We re-elected politicians and expected different results.

     Here are some facts that should spoil your milk.

     Almost 1,000 human beings have been murdered in Chicago since that 2011 deal was struck. The city of Detroit is in such financial disarray, the state has recently taken over the 14 billion debt tab, due to mismanagement and corruption. According to the FBI, another major city, Miami, is leading the nation in identity theft, mostly by gangs made up of 20-something adults who hack into American lifestyles with sophisticated technology, force, and violence.

     So the federal government’s answer is to do nothing. By not acting, the 2011 deal goes into effect. It is an irresponsible debt reduction plan called a sequestration, which cuts federal programs to save budget issues, such as the United States’ $16 trillion debt.

     The result will be 13 percent cuts in military programs and a broad 9 percent federal programs cut across America. Those cuts are prompted by the inability of Congress to come up with ideas. And that is what we elect politicians for.

     President Barack Obama says, “We will get through this. This is not going to be the apocalypse, as some people have said. It’s just dumb, and it’s going to hurt.”

     Republican House of Representatives speaker John Boehner added, “There are smarter ways to cut spending.”

     I’ll offer a hint you probably figured out by now. These two guys won’t be hurt by the cuts. But everyday Americans who are concerned with national security, domestic programs, and core government functions will feel the lack in services.

     And that brings us back to the Head Start Program for children. These are the most vulnerable humans in our nation. Children who may not find their way to learning how to brush their teeth, or solving eyesight or hearing problems because of the cuts to this vital federal program. The program identifies special needs for youngsters so that they have a fair chance to learn before it is too late. A chance to succeed instead of turning to violence.

Killing Machines Don't Help Anyone.

     Until Americans step up to accept and promote dramatic change in our culture, we’ll continue to be comfortably numb toward gun violence.

     That is, until the bullets knock on your door.

     What arguably started at Columbine in 1999 has actually become an epidemic in 2013 of Newtown proportions. There were sixty mass killings across the country between those two tragic events, and Congress talking the same nonsense.

     More gun laws. An assault weapons ban. Arming teachers in our schools.

     Think those ideas will work in Chicago where 503 murders took place in 2012 and forty-two murders have already taken place in January of this year?

     They aren’t working right now. A sixty-five year-old Vietnam veteran is holed up with a five-old boy he has taken hostage in a bunker down in Midland City, Alabama. The suspect had shot and killed a school bus driver in front of twenty-one children who’d fled for safety. Police are trying to negotiate for the boy’s safe release.

     Is there any law that would indeed have prevented this situation?

     Local folks have gathered outside the Midland City Town Hall to sing “Amazing Grace” in support of the boy's safe release and family.

     We need a whole lot more “Amazing Grace” here in America.

     Fifteen year-old Hadiva Pendleton was shot and killed a mile away from her school just days after performing at President Barack Obama’s Inauguration Event recently. She was killed in a Chicago park a mile away from her school by random gunfire. Obama owns a house in the affluent neighborhood less than a mile away. Pendleton was an honors student.

     Chicago has some of the most stringent gun laws in the country, say experts. That hasn’t stop the criminals, though. They can travel to Mississippi and purchase killing weapons at gun shows without dealing with background checks. In fact, thirty-three states in the U. S. don't require mandatory background checks at gun shows. Gun manufacturers continue to pour lobbying funds at federal and state officials for those Second Amendment rights to grow. The Second Amendment under the Constitution allows folks to bear arms and defend themselves. There is nothing written about game-killing other human beings in that document that I know of.

     Do you want freedom? Whose freedom? Nine year-old Christina Green had paid the ultimate price for hers two years ago. She now has a softball complex named in her memory. The third-grader was one of six people gunned down at former U. S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords’ public speech in Tucson, Ariz. Giffords was shot in the head and survived to speak three short sentences before Congress last week. It was deeply moving, troubling, and unfortunate her wounds have left Giffords sounding like a third-grader at the public hearing.

     While Giffords testified before Congress, a gunman walked into a Phoenix office and shot three people. Two eventually died. The following day, Mark Hasse, Assistant DA in Kaufman County outside Dallas, was shot and killed while getting out of his car for work at the courthouse parking lot.

     After watching dozens of YouTube videos on gun violence combined with countless gun laws articles I'm aware of the complexity of the issue. Now I’m afraid to leave the apartment. I close the windows tightly and lock the doors at night. Four blocks away, a teenager had been murdered at a grocery store last month.

     Is it a lack of civility in society? Violent video games captivating young innocent minds? Blood and guts on television selling commercials for the almighty dollar? A lack of discipline and authority in the home today?

     All of the above. But there is more. Mental health, unemployment, ongoing cuts in social services, and the lack of prosecution of violent offenders in our courtrooms are leading us toward our own demise. It’s a rapidly growing national epidemic.

     Ladies and gentlemen, we are dying left and right at the hands of our own guns. We don’t need another war with a hostile country. There are enough weapons in the United States to arm everyone.

     If the American people do not take matters into their own hands, our society will turn into the Wild Wild West again in no time. Get ready. It’s coming.

     Last year there were 5,000 gun shows in the country. Opinions on what to do next range from Newtown parent Mark Mattioli, whose son was one of twenty children who died at Sandy Hook Elementary School by a lone gunman, said, "It is a simple concept. We have a lack of civility across our nation."

     Yet, NRA Chief Executive Wayne LaPierre counters with his criticism of President Barack Obama's administration stating, "I don't think you can trust these people."

     Each and every adult in America has a civic duty to get involved in some way. The first step is your local government. You can take an active role into the safety and vibrancy of your own community. But you have to make a sacrifice and take a step.

     Or you can sit back and wait for the next nearby tragedy. Have your cell phone handy with the 911 code ready and waiting. It may not be a long wait.

America's Transparent Fiscal Cliff Mirror

      Where is this fiscal cliff I keep hearing Americans talk about?

     Does anybody really know? Can anyone show me a picture or even define what exactly is a fiscal cliff?

     Over the past nine months, I have traveled through twenty-seven different states throughout the country from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean in search of a landmark I'm unable to locate.

     It doesn't exist. No one can offer concrete facts and figures. And there within lies the problem.

     We don’t even have a starting point in the debate. The argument should have taken place years ago.

     The real issue here, ladies and gentlemen, is transparency.

     Apathy and ignorance dominate the American public. Fiscal cliff, you ask?

     It’s a catch phrase. Two buzz words. Talk points, as they call them today.

     What you need to know is The U. S. is in debt for $16 trillion dollars and counting. Such a debt obviously doesn’t occur overnight. In general terms, less than half the population is working to support the remaining human beings wandering around our country. That’s a huge problem.

     So why do we talk about this fiscal cliff like it’s Santa Claus’ business.  Because it might as well be. We didn’t care when the national debt started, didn’t pay attention when it rose to monumental levels, and even now we aren’t talking about realistic ways and means of getting ourselves out of delinquency and financial ruin.

     Maybe the debt will just go away with the winter weather pattern.

     NOT!

     We are all to blame for this miserable blizzard that has hit the American economy and the idea that something concrete will be done to solve the upcoming crisis is as Bob Dylan would say, “Blowin’ in the wind.”

     When was the last time you really believed the public had a say in what the national government does and does not do? When was the last time you got involved? How difficult would it be to get straight answers about the fact and figures?

     The answer is right before the American public’s eyes, and we are too busy blowing and powdering our noses to see it. We’re letting our rights, power, and financial welfare fade away and swirl down the drain with each passing day.

     The United States Constitution protects us all. We still have rights. It’s guaranteed. Yet we allow ourselves to be trampled over by greedy lobbyists, selfish corporate entities, and an arrogant Wall Street gang that make Bonnie and Clyde look like angels.

     If you had valuable equipment in the garage, you’d make sure the doors and windows were locked each night before you went to sleep at night. We leave the doors wide open to local, state, and federal thieves. Then we make excuses why we can’t close the windows or shut the light off. Then we wonder why the cars and valuables have gone missing by morning.

     Americans have been feeling the current financial heat and economic stress for half a decade now. We haven’t heard any concrete answers for our unemployment, housing, taxation, and banking woes. Yet the wizards in the know play with numbers. Continue to play with numbers to furnish their needs ahead of the people they work for. And we fear China? We have enough to fear right here at home in Washington, D. C.

     Records show six billion dollars was spent on the most expensive election in America’s history in 2012, including some $129 million in completely anonymous funds, thanks to a ridiculous U. S. Supreme Court decision. And yet, after one of the most grueling, negative, and polarized elections in modern day history, what really happened?

     The same players are in the same hot spots. President Barack Obama was re-elected, perhaps as the lesser of two evils. House Majority Leader John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi returned to their cozy power spots as the 113^th Congress opened. And Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid faced off against Senator Minority Leader Mitch McConnell over the fiscal cliff myth with basically the same arguments they have been arguing over for more than a decade.

      “We must restore the American public’s confidence,” chanted Pelosi, referring to the fact that the 112^th Congress was rated as the worst ever by the American public .

     Then Pelosi went out and ordered a photo of the women in the 113^th Congress super-imposed or “doctored up” to include four women who weren’t at the photo shoot on Capitol Hill. She ordered staff to throw their individual photos into the group shot, if they were posing along with the fifty-seven other women who made up the historic largest female contingent.

     That must have been some restoration project.

     We need open debates in America. No more backroom deals. Live discussions. Facts and figures intelligent minds can understand. Formulas that actually make logical sense.

     So I’m shouting out, via a blog, for something new that should actually be an old way to educate. Transparency. Open documents. Use of the internet to give us money trails for government finances that the real and true bosses, the American public, should be able to review at their leisure.

     There are easy ways to achieve this goal. It’s a silent revolution. You can read on as I enclose some of the ways to get involved. It’s all free reading and doesn’t really matter to me how involved you get.

     After all, it’s your dollars and your debt.