Today is Flag Day, when we honor our flag, and appreciate what the flag represents: freedom, democracy, and the greatness of our nation, and its history of supporting freedom and democracy around the world.
But it is also the six month anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School Massacre in Connecticut, and the realization that NOTHING has been done to deal with the level of gun violence in this nation, not even a thorough background check being able to make it through the US Senate, due to the tactic of the filibuster, preventing a vote, even though a majority want such legislation.
It is unconscionable that we have had 14 massacres of multiple numbers of people since December 14, and that a few thousand people have been murdered in the past six months, not including those who have committed suicide by gun.
How can a democracy which represents such hope and faith in the future allow this level of violence to continue, and to be more concerned about the right to own firearms over the mass loss of life caused by unstable people who have no problem gaining access to firearms, and causing such widespread death and suffering?
We are the most violent society in the Western world, and we should hang our heads in shame that we are powerless in the midst of this violence!
Could it be because the fact that 99.99% of law abiding citizens who exercise their constitutional right to bear arms has nothing to do, factually and culturally, with the violence in the country?
Could it be that , after all the political paraphernalia promoted by corrupt politicians and the media, that took advantage of a tragedy to impose a political agenda, in the end, what they proposed would not have stopped another Sandy Hook from happening in the future?
That is pure bull, Juan, and you know it, when we have more gun violence than ANY other democratic nation. It is because we worship gun ownership more than life, and yet the same people are supposedly Pro Life on abortion matters! Really ironic!
During the years in which the D.C. handgun ban and trigger lock law was in effect, the Washington, D.C. murder rate averaged 73% higher than it was at the outset of the law, while the U.S. murder rate averaged 11% lower.
http://www.justfacts.com/images/guncontrol/dc-full.png
In 1920, Britain passed a law requiring civilians to obtain a certificate from their district police chief in order to purchase or possess any firearm except a shotgun. To obtain this certificate, the applicant had to pay a fee, and the chief of police had to be “satisfied” that the applicant had “good reason for requiring such a certificate” and did not pose a “danger to the public safety or to the peace.” The certificate had to specify the types and quantities of firearms and ammunition that the applicant could purchase and keep.
In 1968, Britain made the 1920 law stricter by requiring civilians to obtain a certificate from their district police chief in order to purchase or possess a shotgun. This law also required that firearm certificates specify the identification numbers (“if known”) of all firearms and shotguns owned by the applicant.
In 1997, Britain passed a law requiring civilians to surrender almost all privately owned handguns to the police. More than 162,000 handguns and 1.5 million pounds of ammunition were “compulsorily surrendered” by February 1998. Using “records of firearms held on firearms certificates,” police accounted for all but fewer than eight of all legally owned handguns in England, Scotland, and Wales.
The homicide rate in England and Wales has averaged 52% higher since the outset of the 1968 gun control law and 15% higher since the outset of the 1997 handgun ban.
http://www.justfacts.com/images/guncontrol/england-full.png
On October 1, 1987, Florida’s right-to-carry law became effective. This law requires that concealed carry licensees be 21 years of age or older, have clean criminal/mental health records, and complete a firearms safety/training course. As of July 31, 2010, Florida has issued 1,825,143 permits and has 746,430 active licensees, constituting roughly 5.4% of the state’s population that is 21 years of age or older.
Since the outset of the Florida right-to-carry law, the Florida murder rate has averaged 36% lower than it was before the law took effect, while the U.S. murder rate has averaged 15% lower.
From the outset of the Florida right-to-carry law through July 31, 2010, Florida has revoked 5,674 or 0.3% of all issued permits. Of these:
• 522 permits were revoked for crimes committed prior to licensure
• 4,955 permits were revoked for crimes committed after licensure, of which 168 involved the usage of a firearm
http://www.justfacts.com/images/guncontrol/florida-full.png
In 2007, there were 613 fatal firearm accidents in the United States, constituting 0.5% of 123,706 fatal accidents that year.
http://www.justfacts.com/images/guncontrol/accidents_fatal-full.png
Joke of the Day:
Obama Staffer: “Sir, the Iranians are rigging the elections again.”
Obama: ” Why can’t they use the IRS like everyone else?”.
Ron: Don’t tell me you didn’t at least smile with this one!
🙂 Are you satisfied, Juan? LOL
I am happy to see the most moderate candidate seems to have won the Presidency, which means maybe we can avoid a war with Iran, although I sense we are moving in that direction, by getting more involved in Syria.
I fear another major war, and more national debt, and claims we cannot help those most in need in this country–the sick, the poor, the elderly.
When will we learn that we cannot run the world, and particularly the Islamic world, as this would be the seventh major intervention in that world—Kuwait,Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and now Syria and probably Iran. And the constant threat from a nuclear Pakistan too!
This is worse than the Crusades, and will cost us dearly in treasure and lives!
Ron: I tend to agree but remember that the Crusades were a response to Islamic aggression. It was Islam that made Spain, made Granada their fortress and that if it were not for Charles “the Hammer” Martel who stopped the army of the Umayyad Caliphate led by ‘Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi, Governor-General of al-Andalus (present day Andalusia in Spain) in the Battle of Tours on October 11th, 732, one hundred years after the death of Mohammad, Islam would probably have overrun Gaul, and perhaps the remainder of western Christian Europe. Remember the Moors governed Spain for almost 600yrs, and today they make it crystal clear that they wish to re-conquer the “west”. So what I am trying to say is that we are not and have never been the aggressors here.
Juan, what you state above is historically accurate, no question, but still we can ill afford another major intervention in another war!
I hope we can avoid it, and if it were for me I would stay our of Syria all together. I mean all of the parties in the conflict hate us. As for Iran, it actually depends on Iran not us.
Excellent post Professor! 🙂