Gun Violence: Maybe the Underlying Problem is Our Acceptance of Stealing

One crazy person stole 26 lives from the owners of those lives. Most of the victims were children. All were unarmed. The weapon used in this crime was legal under current laws, and has the identical operating system as, and is less 'powerful" than the typical hunting rifle.

Every day, on average, in the USA, 30 lives are stolen from their owners by people operating motor vehicles under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that 32,310 people died last year in traffic accidents, the lowest number since 1949. (Obviously, banning "assault vehicles" is not working!)

The Center for Disease Control reports:

• In 2010, 10,228 people were killed in alcohol-impaired driving crashes, accounting for nearly one-third (31%) of all traffic-related deaths in the United States.1
• Of the 1,210 traffic deaths among children ages 0 to 14 years in 2010, 211 (17%) involved an alcohol-impaired driver.1
• Of the 211 child passengers ages 14 and younger who died in alcohol-impaired driving crashes in 2010, over half (131) were riding in the vehicle with the alcohol-impaired driver.1
• In 2010, over 1.4 million drivers were arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol or narcotics.3 That's one percent of the 112 million self-reported episodes of alcohol-impaired driving among U.S. adults each year.4
• Drugs other than alcohol (e.g., marijuana and cocaine) are involved in about 18% of motor vehicle driver deaths. These other drugs are often used in combination with alcohol.

Many of the same politicians, advocacy groups, and individuals who support decriminalization of recreational drug use also promote criminalization of gun ownership. (How will Lucy 'splain THAT to Ricky, we wonder?)

President Obama is counting on a majority of our people to support his executive orders to incrementally ban guns and incrementally put gun owners on Government "watch lists". Preparatory to WHAT? To "protect" whom? Be assured that we will revisit this question later on, but first let's examine what these "assault weapons are", and whether or not criminals use these special "military" features in robberies and mass murders (they do not). Here are Obama's executive orders (the italicized comments in parentheses are mine):

1. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal agencies to make relevant data available to the federal background-check system. (improve government's efficiency in spying on citizens - are we now guilty until proved innocent?)

2. Address unnecessary legal barriers, particularly relating to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, that may prevent states from making information available to the background-check system. (Remove a patient's right to privacy so the government can determine if he/she "poses a threat" - to WHOM?)

3. Improve incentives for states to share information with the background - check system. (withhold federal government's payments to states that do not knuckle-under to Big Brother's demands)

4. Direct the attorney general to review categories of individuals prohibited from having a gun to make sure dangerous people are not slipping through the cracks. (What "categories"? What "potential" for danger?

5. Propose rule making to give law enforcement the ability to run a full background check on an individual before returning a seized gun. (A gun could be seized in a non-weapons-related arrest or stop, and held until a background check was done?)

6. Publish a letter from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives (ATFE) to federally licensed gun dealers providing guidance on how to run background checks for private sellers. (What fee - tax - to become federally licensed, and what requirements?)

7. Launch a national safe and responsible gun ownership campaign. (According to whose definitions of what is "safe and responsible"?)

8. Review safety standards for gun locks and gun safes under Consumer Product Safety Commission. (under what goals and stated purpose?)

9. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal law enforcement to trace guns recovered in criminal investigations. (A "fishing expedition" to get "evidence" supporting further gun grabbing measures?)

10. Release a Department of Justice report analyzing information on lost and stolen guns and make it widely available to law enforcement. (Closing the barn door after the horse got out?)

11. Nominate an ATFE director. (Uniformed, or "plain clothes"?)

12. Provide law enforcement, first responders, and school officials with proper training for active shooter situations. (An enhanced/updated "find someplace to hide and cower in feat until police arrive 20 minutes later" directive, like what emergency 9-1-1 dispatchers tell individuals during a home invasion?)

13. Maximize enforcement efforts to prevent gun violence and prosecute gun crime. (Any limits here?)

14. Issue a Presidential Memorandum directing the Centers for Disease Control to research the causes and prevention of gun violence. (Dr. Joseph Mengele in charge of this?)

15. Direct the attorney general to issue a report on the availability and most effective use of new gun-safety technologies and challenge the private sector to develop innovative technologies. (With government's over-ride/lock capability?)

16. Clarify that the Affordable Care Act does not prohibit doctors asking their patients about guns in their homes. (Require doctors to spy on their patients and report to the government)

17. Release a letter to healthcare providers clarifying that no federal law prohibits them from reporting threats of violence to law enforcement authorities. (Including animosity toward tyrannical government?)

18. Provide incentives for schools to hire school resource officers. (Hire them at additional expense or government won't pay other subsidies).

19. Develop model emergency-response plans for schools, houses of worship and institutions of higher education. ("Call, cower, cover, pray"?)

20. Release a letter to state health officials clarifying the scope of mental health services that Medicaid plans must cover. (And report these "crazy" people to the government?)

21. Finalize regulations clarifying essential health benefits and parity requirements within Affordable Care Act exchanges. (see above)

22. Commit to finalizing mental-health parity regulations. (see above)

23. Launch a national dialogue led by Secretaries Sebelius and Duncan on mental health. ("Thought Police"?)

(Over-all, what limits to spying, defining "craziness", and seizing guns are contained in the above proposals?)

For those who might be inclined to understand what "assault rifles" are and their role in committing violent crime, here are two links to some of the many sources available. http://www.guncite.com/gun_control_gcassaul.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yATeti5GmI8

For those who don't fathom the purpose of the Second Amendment to the US Constitution:

http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/28-12-2012/123335-americans_guns-0/

and:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9xUCI3nJsQ

When we remember that it is wrong to take from another person that which belongs to him/her and doesn't belong to us - to take someone else's life and the products of that person's body and mind (his/her possessions and thoughts), then we will live in a civil society.

Ask yourself: Is the belief that one person, or a group, or a government, has a "right" to steal from another a civil way to behave? What further laws are required to stop people from stealing the lives of others? Do you trust government? WHY?

The "ruling class" that proposes gun-grabbing and spying laws is not interested in "protecting" you and me. It is devoted to protecting itself from interference in its goal to control all of us. Many of us, including most of the political/ruling class, believe that our experiment in self-government is an impediment to their more efficient form of government - an impediment that must be removed! And an informed, freedom-respecting, and armed citizenry is the main impediment to their goal.

As Senator Marco Rubio stated yesterday, if President Obama doesn't believe in the 2nd Amendment, let him have the courage to propose that it be stricken from our law.