Category: Weekly Post

If It Saves Just One Child’s Life…

It’s the ultimate tug-at-the-heart gun control argument. If it saves just one child’s life, isn’t it worth it? How could any intelligent, caring, common-sense person disagree with anything proposed under such an umbrella? After all, it’s for the children!!! Well, I guess I’m just a despicable human being since I disagree.

Let’s say for just a moment that we comply and implement every one of the gun control elitists’s draconian, anti-constitutional measures. This would include, but not be limited to, a complete ban on so-called “assault-weapons”, semi-automatic and pump operated firearms, “high capacity” magazines and handguns. Bolt-action hunting rifles and single-shot shotguns, all that are legitimately needed for hunting can be kept with a license, for now, since the government respects the Second Amendment. Australian-style buybacks (a.k.a. confiscations) are implemented and “Mr and Mrs America turn ’em all in” is the new law of the land. What then?

First, let’s look at what this will accomplish. Law-abiding citizens will turn in their previously legal firearms for mass destruction. Very few firearms will be in the hands of the civilian population and those that remain, along with restricted quantities of ammunition, will be under strict regulations for storage, transportation and use. The days of carrying or keeping a firearm for personal protection will be gone. We will save that one child’s life.

But what about the criminals, gang bangers, thugs, hoodlums and terrorists? The law now says no one can own firearms, certainly they will comply, right? Umm.. No. These are people who, by the very definition of them do not follow the law. They have never been able to legally own firearms or ammunition and their use in criminal activity breaks even more laws. They now enjoy a government imposed armed advantage over every single law-abiding citizen in this country. What in god’s green earth would make anyone believe they would willingly give up the tools of their trade when they know the incredible advantage they have gained against their intended victims?

Well, at least the supply chain of guns will be shut off now and they won’t be able to get any more, right? Umm.. No. Every day, tons and tons and tons of illegal merchandise is smuggled into this county. Everything from drugs to jeans to electronics to automobiles to people. How are firearms going to be a problem? It already happens today, packed in right along with everything else. And we aren’t alone here. Australia and the United Kingdom, whose gun control models our elitists seek to emulate, have HUGE illegal firearm smuggling problems. It just isn’t part of the narrative we are told to believe. Take a look at what the London police confiscate every single day to see how ineffective a ban would be for criminals.

Certainly violent crime will drop and we will all be safer, right? Umm.. No. Criminals, who have long since lost their fear of the law, law enforcement and the courts, have really had only one obstacle left, an armed citizenry. With this obstacle removed, very little stands in their way. Again, go to the most gun controlled countries around the world and see what their violent crime rate is.

But what of the police you say? They will protect us, right? Umm.. No. You’ve heard the phrase “when seconds count, the police are only minutes away”? Even with a vastly increased police presence, demanded by an ever increasingly victimized populace, the best police response is going to be minutes away at best at any given time.

Try this simulation if you would. Do burpees or run in place while holding your breath for two minutes to simulate fighting for your life. Assuming someone called for help the instant you were attacked AND the police can take the call, dispatch an officer and the officer arrives in that two minutes, you’ll be just fine, right? Umm.. No. All this assumes the most ideal circumstances which sadly, will never apply to you. It also assumes you were not shot, stabbed, strangled, poisoned, folded, spindled, mutilated, stapled or paper clipped in the process by someone who really doesn’t care about your life or anyone else’s.

So why do I disagree? Because if we decide to trash the Constitution and Bill of Rights with the promise to save that one child’s life, we will sacrifice scores more in cities and towns all across the country. No, I’m not saying it’s acceptable to lose a single child’s life or that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one. But how do you justify sacrificing so many for the hope, the dream, the fantasy, of saving just one?

How many children would grow up without parents because the parents couldn’t protect themselves? How many wives and husbands would lose their partners because they were not allowed a means of defense? How many parents would lose their children because they are not allowed to keep them safe?

Yes, let’s save that one child by not letting someone else decide who lives and who dies.

Bob

#oddstuffing, #2ndamendment, #constitution, #billofrights, #tosaveonechildslife, #notavictim, #mewe, #oddstuffing.com

A Fight Worth Losing

I read an article recently that really disturbed me. The gun control / ban elitists were predicting a clean sweep of new gun control initiatives in Maine, Washington and Nevada during this year’s general election. Much of the success they were attributing to the massive amount of money they had poured into these initiatives compared to that of the national gun rights groups. Funding here had all but dried up for fights that were not considered winnable.

I find this disturbing because without the support of larger state and national organizations, it is nearly impossible for local grassroots groups to successfully fight off the extremely well funded and well organized national gun control / ban elitists who are systematically chipping away at their rights. Propped up by billionaires who have no interest in the Bill of Rights for anyone other than themselves, they are pouring millions into these states to buy all the votes they can.

The people living in these states are fighting for their core constitutional rights, and eventually for their actual lives as they are faced with losing their ability to defend themselves and their families. Why are these fights not worth fighting?

I understand the realities of national politics and that appearance is everything. Appearing invincible can dissuade others from fighting you in the first place. However I also understand that an advantage not used is a disadvantage.

I am reminded of a story from my past; a K-9 officer with a new drug detection dog. When called to assist another department with a vehicle stop or search, he would not deploy his dog unless he first evaluated the circumstances and was completely convinced a hit by his dog would produce the desired contraband. He explained he was protecting his dog’s stats so they would be more solid for future court cases. With this approach, his dog had an impeccable search record. The unintended consequences however were that other officers would not call for K-9 search assistance when he was working. A powerful advantage that could have been used in a wide range of situations was not in order to protect a reputation.

We can’t always pick and choose the fights we fight. Sometimes they are thrust upon us and we have no choice but to fight the best we can. More than a few of us can recall a time in our lives where we walked into a situation and quickly realized – yup, I’m gonna get my ass kicked today. Bloodied and bruised, most of us survive these things and wind up a little stronger and wiser because of it.

But what about fights that involve others? Here we have more than just our own flesh or reputation to think about, we have to consider what the fight means for them. We fight to help those who cannot win alone. We combine our efforts and fight side-by-side. Tested by adversity, we forge alliances that might never have been possible and become stronger together.

Not fighting can have far more consequences beyond losing the single battle we avoid. It demoralizes those who are committed to the cause and can set up a series of future defeats when our adversary no longer sees us as a threat to their cause. This is what we are witnessing in Maine, Washington and Nevada. Small victories on prior campaigns exposed weakness that are now being exploited to take even more rights away from law abiding firearm owners.

No one goes into a fight intending to lose and let’s face it no one likes to lose. But sometimes, the fight is more important than the outcome. Sometimes fighting the good fight and losing is better in the long term than the victory would have been. Our history is full of tragic losses that inspired and invigorated populations to be better and stronger than they ever thought possible.

In 430 BC, King Leonidas lead a combined Greek city-state force of roughly 7,000 men, including his infamous 300 Spartans to stop Xerxes Persian army estimated in the hundreds of thousands. After holding the Persians for seven days, three of them in combat at Thermopylae, Leonidas learned he was being flanked and dismissed the vast majority of his troops, remaining to cover their retreat. While nearly all that remained were killed, Leonidas’s fight turned out to be critical to the eventual defeat of the Persian army the following year. His response to the Persian king’s demands for his weapons remains as inspirational for us today as it was then; Molon Labe – Come and take them.

With the lack of support from state and national organizations during the recent unsuccessful Veto Gunmageddon ballot measure signature drive in California, I’ve heard a lot of patriots denouncing these groups’ inaction and cancelling their memberships. This is a sad and not entirely unexpected result of feeling like someone you support is not supporting you in a time of urgent need. Even though we all have the same goals, the lack of cohesion and cooperation on these critical local and state issues only serves to further fracture the firearms community and set us all up for more losses at a time when we should be working together.

Wanting to win every fight is natural, but sometimes you have no choice but to fight the fight you are handed. Sometimes the fight itself is the prize and the unity it creates, the community it inspires, the passion it invokes in others is worth far more than the cost of not winning. Sometime, it really is a fight worth losing.

Bob

#oddstuffing, #2ndamendment, #constititution, #billofrights, #Thermopylae, #molonlabe, #wearesparta! #mewe, #oddstuffing.com

The Cost of National Gun Control

You probably didn’t see the story this summer of 11 family members who were slayed in their home by an alleged rapist seeking revenge against the victim whose complaint had incarcerated him. Among the victims were two girls eight and nine years old as well as a pregnant woman. The family members were each shot multiple times and slashed, and it appeared the suspects attempted to decapitate one of them.

Why didn’t you see this story? The cold-blooded murders occurred in hamlet of San Jose El Mirador, Coxcatlan, in the central state of Puebla, Mexico. It is located a little southeast of the capital, Mexico City.

Why do we care about what happens in another country? Other than the horrible loss of human life at the hands of despicable, sub-human individuals, it’s a precautionary tale for the rest of the world.

When the United States government and gun control activists compare “gun violence” rates, they pick and choose the countries they include so as to make the US look worse in comparison. They call this exclusive list the “advanced” or “industrialized” countries. Our neighbor to the south is not on this list. For reference, when looking at worldwide violent death rates, Mexico ranks 15th and the United States ranks 85th out of 172 nations.

Apparently Mexico, who continues to capture more and more of the United States’ manufacturing in automotive, both in components and assembled vehicles, machinery, medical and electronic equipment, plastics, iron and steel products, isn’t advanced or industrialized enough to be part of the comparison. In reality, it’s because Mexico’s gun control environment is a textbook case of failure.

Mexico does recognize the right to keep and bear arms as a constitutional right under Article 10 of the Mexican Constitution of 1857. However, numerous revisions throughout its history have restricted this right nearly out of existence. Openly carrying a firearm or carrying a concealed firearm is virtually forbidden to private citizens unless authorized by Secretariat of National Defense. Personal protection firearms, up to nine long guns and one handgun, are only permitted in the residence, only when registered by the federal government and only of the type and caliber permitted by law. Separate special permits must be obtained to have a firearm in a place of business and to transport it between locations.

Is this beginning to sound familiar?

There is one and ONLY ONE place to legally purchase firearms and ammunition in Mexico. It is the Directorate of Arms and Munitions Sales operated by the Mexican military on a secure base in Mexico City. As a result of the extraordinarily tight gun control laws for legal possession, very few Mexican citizens are able to obtain the permits or travel to this one legal store to purchase them.

Of course this has had no impact on the criminal possession of firearms. Smuggled into the country, the black market trade in firearms creates an abundant illicit supply. While the United States is often blamed for the proliferation of illegal firearms, including those allowed to come in from our own government, they come from every corner of the world and include such items as rocket propelled grenades (RPGs) and full automatic rifles and pistols. Despite the rhetoric, these are not items you can pick up at any local shop in Phoenix.

Following the United States narrative for ever restrictive gun control measures, in August 2016 at the Second Conference of States Parties to the Arms Trade Treaty of the United Nations, the Foreign Minister of Mexico called on the US to implement a new “assault weapons” ban. She blamed Mexico’s rampant gun crime on the lax US laws citing the absence of a ban on “assault weapons”. She even parroted the US government myth that in the US it is “as easy to get guns as it is to get a liter of milk or a box of cereal.”

Disarming the law-abiding citizen is never, ever going to disarm the criminals. Its only effect is to transform the people into a population of victims. No matter how big or how well armed the government is, it will never be able to prevent the violence or reduce the death toll caused by disarming the people.

While you think about the ongoing deterioration of your own Second Amendment rights, take a moment to think about the victims around the world who are not able to defend themselves and are not among those as being important enough to protect themselves.

Bob

#oddstuffing, #2ndamendment, #thecostofguncontrol, #mexico, #victimsofviolence, #mewe, #oddstuffing.com

Who’s Going To Stop Them?

I don’t normally badmouth a community I am a proud member of, actively promote, advocate for, teach in and stand by with my very life and the lives of my family, but today I make an exception. To be fair, I’m not trashing the entire community, just 99 percent of it.

This past week it was announced Veto Gunmaggedon failed to get the required number of signatures to place any of the seven referendums on the 2018 ballot. Obviously, none made the 2017 ballot either. In order to make the ballots, each referendum would have had to obtain 365,000 validated signatures. The referendum with the most signatures got just 174,128 . Out of an estimated 12 million firearm owners in the State of California, that’s a bit over one percent. That is beyond pathetic.

Some warned against this effort saying it was too risky. Indeed it was risky, risky as hell. It was the Hail Mary of all Hail Mary passes, but it was also the only game in town and the right thing to do. Nobody else, not the NRA, CRPA, FPC or anyone else, had anything in the works that would have directly reversed these new anti-lawful firearm owner / pro-gun toting criminal laws. Yet, it still failed.

So why did this fail so miserably? It certainly was not due to the incredible efforts of a lot a dedicated, hard working men and women who gave their time, money and signatures to get this done. These folks, who it seems make up about one percent of California’s lawful firearm owners, are patriots who worked to salvage the rights of all legal firearm owners in the state. It failed because the other 99 percent either believe California’s increasingly oppressive gun control laws are going in the right direction OR, they just don’t give a damn.

While I strongly disagree with them, I understand some firearm owners are also gun control advocates just as the gun control elite are. They have their guns to protect themselves and believe keeping them out of the hands of other people will keep THEM safer. I can even understand the firearm owners who only have shotguns, revolvers or lever actions and think the black rifle crowd is just too dangerous. Nobody needs those military-style “assault weapons”. The laws don’t effect them and will keep THEM safer too. What I can not understand are those who just didn’t give a damn enough to be bothered with going out and signing these petitions.

Not only are these people wrong, they are sacrificing their own safety too. This effort was not about black rifles, standard capacity magazines or ammo background checks, it was about all firearms, all ammunition and the ability of all free men and women to own and use firearms for sport, hunting and to protect themselves & their families.

Here’s what the failure of these initiatives in California will do: The gun control elitists, including the Governor, State Legislature and Courts will all see that they have absolutely nothing to stop them in their quest to rid California of firearms in the hands of private citizens. Who’s going to stop them, the people? The ‘people’ just gave them a mandate to impose every draconian gun control measure they can dream up. And of course, local governments will need to get in on the action and impose their own even more restrictive local laws to show that they care MORE about “safety” than the State does. Who’s going to stop them, the people?

So for all the 99 percent of California firearm owners who don’t believe this will ever impact them, or were just too damn lazy to get off their asses and sign a few pieces of paper, know that at least 174,128 of us are going to be laughing our asses off when they come for YOUR guns and you scream for help. Nobody is going to help you because by then all of us will be laughing our asses off in prison. But hey, the good news is with California’s revolving door justice system, we’ll be out in time to see the trials for those who woke up too late for the party.

Will this be the last we hear from the valiant Veto Gunmageddon sponsors & volunteers? Absolutely not. A lot of lessons were learned from this experience and they have vowed to continue the fight. But with the lack of true support and backing of the state and national firearms groups, it’s anyone’s guess if future efforts will be able to break the apathy barrier in California. Meanwhile, all of this country’s worst gun control laws will begin going into effect on January 1st, 2017. And if you think this year’s legislative session was bad, 2018 is going to make it look like the good ol’ days.

So, I’ll leave you with a few questions: Do you really think it doesn’t matter who you vote for in November? Do you really think it won’t matter who picks the replacements for the next four or five Justices of the United States Supreme Court? Do you really think it doesn’t matter who runs for Governor or any of the State or Federal Representatives? Do you really think it doesn’t matter who runs for your local school board, water board, county board or city council?

Sadly, apathy in the firearm community is going to be the direct cause of everyone in California losing more of their Second Amendment rights and even worse, many innocent people losing their lives. It doesn’t have to be this way, but who’s going to stop them?

Bob

#oddstuffing, #Constitution, #2ndamendment, #vetogunmageddon, #voterapathy, #mewe, #oddstuffing.com

He Who Controls The Present

You may recognize this snippet and what it means. The full quote is “He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.” It is from George Orwell’s 1949 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, a futuristic portrayal of a post world war society dominated by government surveillance and public manipulation. It is also one of the few books I’ve read that gave me a serious case of the heebie-jeebies.

So why dust this off now? With the movie “Snowden” recently released, it seemed the appropriate time to see how we are measuring up.

Regardless of if you consider Edward Snowden a patriot, whistleblower or traitor, the information he disclosed is significant. It confirmed what few knew, many suspected and most feared; the depth of the United States government’s worldwide surveillance program. While there are many different programs covering telephone, Internet, email, encryption, commerce and geolocation; the end result is the government’s ability to monitor and connect every aspect of a target’s electronic life in ways we wouldn’t have thought possible. To accomplish this, everyone’s data is harvested en masse. Innocent, law-abiding citizens’ information is collected and stored right along with the terrorists.

In Nineteen Eighty-Four’s reality, citizen monitoring was done by undercover agents as well as by two-way telescreens in public places and individual homes. It not only distributed content, but also monitored the people, listening and watching for signs of subversive tendencies or rebellion.

Even George Orwell couldn’t have envisioned the world we live in today where we have so willingly embraced the technology that monitors us. We have devices that listen to our every word and waits for commands. Our email providers electronically read our messages so they can provide us with additional relevant content. We carry with us devices containing all our contacts, emails, browsing history, financial information and so much more. These devices can pinpoint our locations to a few feet anywhere in the world, 24/7/365. Video surveillance is ambiguous with cameras in our phones, cars, homes, stores and in public places. And of course we share where we are, what we are doing along with pictures for everyone to see. We accept all this enthusiastically and rejoice at the great convenience it provides. We also look at those who shun the technology with distrust for surely they must be hiding something.

While the control of our language hasn’t gotten to the level of Orwell’s Newspeak yet, we are being provided with new euphemisms such as “justice involved individuals” or “undocumented immigrant” to replace words that are no longer politically correct.

We are told to trust that government access to the most sensitive information about every aspect of our lives is protected and only granted ‘legally’ and for our own safety, even if the laws and processes for accessing it cannot be disclosed to us. At the same time we are told the government cannot recover its own emails because a single server, laptop or handheld device has been corrupted.

We look at the books being put out by those in power now. Even when the so-called biographies are revealed to be factually inaccurate, we know that one year, five years, 20 years from now; all that will remain is the carefully crafted narrative and none of the dissent. By creating their own version of the past today, they are insuring their legacy in the future.

While we try to balance the benefits of technology with the intrusiveness that comes with it, we also have to remember our basic rights. For this, we return to the United States Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Fourth Amendment.

“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

If we believe the Fourth Amendment still applies in our modern digital world, then we need to be a lot more concerned with our data and who has access to it. We need to reject the argument of “If you’ve got nothing to hide, you’ve got nothing to fear”. Our Constitution, our Bill of Rights, our way of life does not say it’s okay just because it’s the government that is doing it.

I’ll leave you with a quote from Benjamin Franklin. “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

Bob

#oddstuffing, #constitution, #billofrights, #4thamendment, #1984, #liberty, #mewe, #oddstuffing.com

Respect

Sitting during the National Anthem or Pledge of Allegiance has become the latest wave of politically correct, social justice inspired protest. Supposedly, it is being done to show solidarity with the black lives matter movement, alleged law enforcement brutalities and economic disparities. In reality, it just makes the people doing it look stupid.

Is the National Anthem or Pledge of Allegiance associated with oppression of any minority group or way of thinking in this country? Does the United States flag symbolize hate and oppression of people? I’m going to say HELL NO! It’s just the latest made up distraction designed to inject more controversy and segregation in our country during an election year.

Let’s look at the pledge:

“I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

Somehow, somewhere, someone is translating this into hate. How exactly are they getting oppression out of “with liberty and justice for all”?

Then our National Anthem:

O! say can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O! say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

Written by a witness to the attack on our soil during the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812, it is a celebration of our strength, stamina and persistence as a nation against the forces wanting to suppress it. Interpreting “the land of the free and the home of the brave” into an oppressive society is beyond comprehension.

Who is doing this? High profile and very highly paid athletes and now the college and high school students who are emulating them. And let’s not forget the fringe elected officials at the state and local levels. They too need to have their 15 minutes of fame so it looks like they might actually care about their communities.

First off, let’s take a look at our nation. It is called a melting pot for a reason. Our population is the descendants of immigrants from around the world. Members of every race, religion, and belief system have come to our shores looking for the better life afforded by the freedoms our Constitution and Bill of Rights guarantee. It continues, as it has since the beginning, as more come to share in the American dream.

Of course, that American dream came at a price. It was paid for with the blood of patriots, beginning with the Founding Fathers and continuing throughout our history with the men and women of our military forces. They have given their lives so that we can live free.

Among those rights is the right to free speech affirmed by the First Amendment.

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Our First Amendment is unique in the world. The irony is of course that without it, the form of protest these individuals are engaging in would be unlawful and, in some nations to this day, severely punished.

So my reply to this latest group of social justice warriors, please do continue with your silent protests. It is your right and I shall defend your right to do so even if I disagree with your point of view. But don’t think it won’t come at a cost. It is also my right to reject you and those who support you. It is the right of your sponsors, employers, ad agencies and everyone who has to deal with you and your elitist views to cut their ties with you and let you dangle out there on your own.

Meanwhile, if you’d like to do something useful instead of sitting on your butt, how about spending a little bit of your eight digit salary trying to fix some of the issues you are complaining about? How about going into the communities yourself and mentoring at risk youth? How about giving a helping hand to those who don’t have and never will have the advantages you were able to obtain in “the land of the free and the home of the brave”. Maybe, just maybe, if you were to teach them what our National Anthem stands for, they too would help our nation achieve “liberty and justice for all.” Maybe if you showed a little respect, they would too.

Bob

#oddstuffing, #respect, #nationalanthem, #pledgeofallegiance, #constitution, #billofrights, #firstamendment, #mewe, #oddstuffing.com

Gun Control vs. Suicide Prevention

The topic of suicide is always a dicey one between gun control and gun rights advocates. The gun control lobby point to the firearm and say the “gun” is the cause. Any mention of the topic by gun rights groups is labeled as being insensitive towards human life. As such, it tends to be the forbidden topic. I disagree. It’s time to grab hold of that highly charged third rail and do something about it.

The gun control lobby has forever included suicide numbers in their counts of “gun violence victims”. They’ve also infamously included mass shooting perpetrators who took their own life after killing others or were lawfully killed by law enforcement. Why wouldn’t they, it increases the numbers. However I don’t see an individual taking their own life and an act of violence towards another person – by any means – as being the same thing. One is done voluntarily to one’s self, the other is done involuntary to another.

First of course there is the argument that the easy availability of firearms in this country as why individuals kill themselves. One would think that the United States, with the highest percentage of firearms owners in the world, would have the highest suicide rate. In fact we are tied for 50th with Uruguay. Many of the countries with higher rates, such as Japan at 17th, highly restrict or outlaw civilian firearm ownership. Eliminating one mechanism, a firearm, is going to have no impact on the suicide rate. Other means will always be found.

Here’s my admittedly non-professional opinion. Suicide is a societal AND a mental health issue.

As a culture we too often look at life as being disposable. While suicide may not be accepted, it is tolerated, considered morally responsible or even honorable at times. Sadly, fighting this philosophy is the most difficult task we face.

There are many stimuli that can lead individuals down a path to take their own life. Depression, a primary cause from any number of sources, is generally treatable. However the way we view mental health and depression can be a roadblock in treatment and prevention. Just the shame of seeking help for a mental health “issue” can keep people from seeking the help they need. Just mentioning depression to a health care professional can initiate scrutiny from many levels and include heavy doses of medication and the potential to lose your job or rights and privileges that are a necessary part of our daily lives. By stigmatizing any form of assistance, we make the problem worse and lose lives we might otherwise be able to save.

As of 2014, nearly half of all suicides in the United States used firearms and about two thirds of firearm fatalities were suicide. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

This past week, September 5th – 8th was National Suicide Prevention Week. Together with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) announced a pilot program, involving community-based AFSP chapters in four states. This is the first time a national suicide organization has collaborated with firearm retailers, range owners and the firearm-owning community about suicide prevention. There are also other partnership programs in Washington, Vermont and other states bringing together mental health professionals and retailers to help identify those at risk and get them the help they need.

Will this effort eliminate all suicides? No, of course not. Not all suicides involve individuals purchasing firearms as a prelude to the act and in no way does removing one method eliminate all others. What it does do is get more training, more awareness and more resources available to those who may be able to intervene in their shops or elsewhere in the community.

One would think the gun control / gun elimination folks, who claim to be interested in saving lives, would have been all over National Suicide Prevention Week. Instead, they focus on one thing – more gun control. Eliminate the gun, eliminate the problem. They just want to remove the one item they don’t like and bury their head in the sand for every other means. Perhaps lives lost to other means are less important to them.

Eliminating firearms doesn’t remove the issue from our society or our minds. Instead we need to remove the stigma of mental health and change the way our society treats lives. All lives… yes, ALL lives matter.

Bob

#oddstuffing, #2ndAmendment, #suicidepreventionweek, #nssf, #afsp, #afsp.org, #alllivesmatter, #mewe, #oddstuffing.com

Labor Day

Something a little different for you today:

September 5th, 2016 is Labor Day in the United States. More than 80 countries around the world celebrate International Worker’s Day, or Labour Day at different times of the year. Today is ours and today I celebrate the American worker.

The modern holiday is celebrated with a three-day weekend that marks the unofficial end of summer. Fall activities begin around Labor Day including football, NASCAR and schools going back into session. Retailers use the Labor Day weekend to kick off the fall sales. And of course, it is the last official day to wear white. You know who you are…

Unfortunately the modern observance of the holiday seems to have forgotten the roots that brought Labor Day into being. Following the Pullman Strike of 1894 where 30 workers died and 57 were injured at the hands of the United States Army and Marshals Service, Congress approved Labor Day as an official holiday. It was an attempt by President Grover Cleveland to gain support among the trade unions following the strike. While it is disputed who first proposed the holiday, Peter J. McGuire, general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners or machinist Matthew Maguire, the intent was to create a “workingmen’s holiday”.

The American Labor Union movement, most often associated with Labor Day, began in the United States in the 1880’s. The function and influence has varied over the years but they have always played a major role in worker safety, pay, benefits and job security. While the numbers of union workers has declined over the years, unions still wield considerable influence in American politics.

Some argue it is the unions who, demanding too much, cause American companies to take their work overseas in order to remain competitive. Others contend it is the companies themselves whose never ending demand for greater profits at the expense of the workers who made them successful in the first place.

Union or not, it is the everyday workers of this country that have brought us to where we are. From the houses we live in, the roads we drive on, the utilities to make modern life possible, and nearly every commodity we buy, use and trade come from another worker’s hands. Though we live in an increasingly smaller global village where the products and services come to us seamlessly from down the street or the other side of the planet, there is still a sense of pride in American made.

Perhaps it is the conflicts outside our boarders that bring about the national pride when something is “made in the USA”. As some companies outsource more, others are keeping the jobs inside our country or are actively returning them home. American ingenuity, creativity, resourcefulness and quality all contribute to make our products among the best in the world. Many, including myself, are willing to pay a premium for items made in the USA knowing the contributions from American worker that went into it as well as being able to send our own dollars to another part of the nation.

The majority of the nation has today off and will be celebrating with family and friends in ways as varied as our nation itself. During this time, I’d ask you to join me for a moment to remember those who have contributed to what we have today as well as those who are working today for us. To those of you in the service industry, in infrastructure support, health care, military, law enforcement, fire and emergency medical services – and so many more – our thanks for your labor today.

Bob

#oddstuffing, #laborday, #madeintheusa, #thankyou, #mewe, #oddstuffing.com

Why even bother to vote in California?

Does this sound like the little voice in your head? Your political views lean a little towards the right, you may be republican, libertarian, or just not quite as far left as others. You support constitutional rights and freedom. You’re looking at the upcoming elections and thinking; why even bother? It’s not like my one vote is going to matter in this far left, progressive-democrat stronghold. Truth be told, your vote does matter and in more ways than you think.

I agree this election season is a bit on the depressing side. Our presidential choices are not ideal. Should I vote third party? It’s an option, but for me I don’t see the leading third party candidates as strongly supporting the issues I’m the most concerned with. I’m also less comfortable with the third party candidate process. We’re just hearing about them now with a few months to go until the elections. Yea, I get that the media outlets don’t cover them as much, but it’s still not clear enough.

I look in my own county and I can’t find out who is running in opposition to the usual democratic candidates. My county’s GOP site doesn’t list any candidates for the state congressional districts and not even a mention of any of the various city councils, county boards, school boards – or any of the other elected seats in the county. Has nobody stepped up? Maybe this is our problem.

Even in some of the most conservative areas of the country, residents are waking up and finding laws have been passed which do not reflect the values of the community. Instead, externally dictated agendas are driven by extremist politicians who ran unopposed and have now cemented their power in local government. And we have nobody to blame but ourselves.

By not having solid candidates running for seats at every level, we’re ceding the decisions about rights and liberty to people who have no interest in protecting them. I get the fact that running for even a local political office is an expensive proposition. It takes a lot of time and a lot of money. Even at a local level, elections can turn into full scale pissing matches. The higher you go the more expensive it gets, the more time it consumes and the nastier it is. Let’s not forget, nobody likes to lose either. Going through an election and having your candidate lose can also be demoralizing to those who were energized during the campaign.

But guess what? The people WERE energized and they can be energized again. It may take a few elections to win the one or two seats, but they can be won. Left wing voters may always outnumber centrist or right leaning ones in this state, but it doesn’t mean we give up. If we want to have a voice in the decisions made in California, we need to have someone speaking for us.

Finally, and I believe most importantly, we must actually vote. As odd as it may sound, there are still a lot of folks out there who have not registered to vote. Registering to vote can be done online in just a couple of minutes. The link to do so in California is at the end of this post. The deadline to register for this year’s general election is October 24th.

Keep in mind your vote is more than just a choice between candidates and ballot questions; it’s a message to everyone else. With the news media covering the elections with up-to-the-minute tallies of every race in the nation, it’s easy to become compliant. Some will see their candidate or choice losing and not even bother going in. Others will see a clear victory ahead and decide it’s not worth the drive in to the polling station. Delicately put, that’s CRAP! Even a loss with a strong showing is going to demonstrate the support behind it and maybe, just maybe, be won the next time around.

Every seat at every level in every election is important. YOUR one single vote for the right choice is the way to protect the liberty, rights and values our nation was founded on. As important as it was to the patriots who created our country, it is as important today to preserve it going forward.

The elections are in 73 days.

http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/voter-registration

Bob

#oddstuffing, #vote, #gunvote, #elections2016, #2ndAmendment, #mewe, #oddstuffing.com

Criminology 101 – California Style

 

Understanding crime and criminals is the basic element in being able to promote public safety. But I’m going to say there’s an even more basic step that needs to be mastered, understanding who the criminal is.

Witness the State of California and the latest legislative session in Sacramento, California as evidence. Under the pretense of pubic safety, the administration passed sweeping, draconian gun control legislation against whom? Law-abiding citizens. The ONE firearm related bill that made it to the Governor’s desk that would have actually targeted criminals, the people who break the laws, was vetoed.

But then, California has a history of coddling its criminals at the expense of the law-abiding citizenry. The adverse effects of Proposition 47, which reclassified many crimes as misdemeanors, put more criminals back on the streets and increased the crime rate in every city and town in the state, is well documented. Nationwide we’re told it’s now discriminatory to call people criminals or convicts. The new politically correct term for them is “justice involved individuals”. Why hold people responsible for their own illegal actions when it’s possible to blame the law-abiding for discriminating against them.

Keep in mind the anti-gun zealots have bought into the theory of “everyone is a law abiding citizen, until they’re not”. Since the law-abiding own deadly weapons of war, death and destruction, it’s only a matter of time before each of them will go off on a killing spree of their own. Since we don’t have a Minority Report inspired PreCrime Department to arrest people before they commit their crimes, it’s far more efficient to just to go after all gun owners. Everyone should lose his or her rights because someday, somewhere, someone is going to break the law – maybe, or maybe not.

The problem with this logic is that everyone is being punished for something they did not and never will do. The vast, Vast, VAST majority of legal firearm owners will never commit a crime, to say nothing of committing a crime with their firearms. Add to this the estimated one to two million lawful defensive uses of firearms – outnumbering felonious uses by 30 to 80 to one, by law-abiding citizens in the United States each year. According to the gun banners, these incidents never occur and the Good Guy With A Gun is merely a piece of gun lobby fiction. To this I reply: Read the news for yourself.

To make the public “safe”, our politicians are pointing to law-abiding citizens and lawfully owned firearms and saying: This is the problem; this is why you can’t feel safe in your home, your office or on the street. Your friend, your neighbor, your store clerk, your doctor, your bus driver, your lawyer, your programmer and your family – the people who bought their firearms lawfully, own them lawfully and use them lawfully – these are the people to blame. So our politicians make laws that turn these otherwise law-abiding people into criminals and take away their firearms. Then and only then will you be safe.

Of course, banning firearms is only going to remove the firearms from the people who legally own them. The criminals, the ones who illegally own them, are not going to line up to drop off their newly banned guns, the guns they already are banned from owning in the first place.

It’s time for California to wake up and smell some reality. Instead of coming up with laws that target the law-abiding, target the people who are committing the crimes. If you commit a crime, you should be punished. Yes, it really is that simple.

Instead we coddle our “justice involved individuals”, we reduce and eliminate penalties for committing crimes and we tell the rest of the nation that we shouldn’t hold people who commit crimes responsible for their own actions, now or any time in the future. In a nation where there are no consequences for breaking the law, who is going to bother to follow it?

How exactly is this promoting public safety?

Bob

#oddstuffing, #2ndAmendment, #gunvote, #californiacriminology101, #mewe, #oddstuffing.com