Author Archives: PEB
Countering the NRA
In the past year 70 people have been ruthlessly murdered by gunmen using either assault weapons – as in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting – or 9mm pistols with high capacity magazines.
And yet 1.3% of the nation’s total population of 315,167,682 people is keeping us – as Americans – from having the long overdue discussion and accompanying legislation to address this issue. The National Rifle Association has a reported 4,250,000 members, or 1.3% of the total population.
During the 2012 campaign cycle the NRA contributed $1,061,710 to the election process, with $719,596 being “donated” to federal campaigns. Of course the NRA also gave out hefty funds in the form of lobbying in 2012, totaling some $2,205,000. Total political contributions + lobbying = $3,266,710, or roughly $6,000 of peddling per member of the United States Congress. How do the other 99% fight that kind of money and influence?
Well, for starters, there are 169,000,000 registered voters (53.6% of the population) in the United States, including 86,000,000 registered Democrats (27.2% of the total population) and 55,000,000 registered Republicans (17.4% of the total population), with 28,000,000 registered others (8.8% of the total population). If each registered Democrat wrote to every member of the Congress and said they’d give them $5.00 a piece to pass meaningful legislation including a ban on assault weapons and high capacity magazines, that would equal $430,000,000 in influence divided between 535 members of Congress or $803,738 in campaign contributions; a great deal more than any member of Congress has ever received from the NRA.
And, if only half of all registered Democrats were to write to every member of Congress and offer to donate $5.00 a piece, that would equal $215,000,000 in influence, again divided between 535 members of congress equals $401,869 in campaign contributions; once again, a great deal more money than any member of Congress has ever received from the NRA.
A very simple solution to countering the NRA; money talks, and more money talks louder.
Four Step Plan to Prevent Senseless Gun Violence
This really isn’t rocket science; here are my thoughts on helping to prevent another Sandy Hook or Aurora.
Step one – get the right-wing to stop making excuses for needing assault weapons and high capacity magazines – of course if they don’t we’ll just move on to step two without them.
Step two – ban assault weapons and high capacity magazines
Step three – increase funding for school security throughout country, mandate federal standards for security, i.e., doors, windows, armed police officers etc
Step four – increase federal funding for mental health care, or simply fully fund it under the Affordable Care Act.
If the right-wing won’t police its own house – ie, the NRA – then the rest of us will; the Congress and the Tea Party oppose meaningful gun legislation at their own political peril; in case they didn’t notice they didn’t win in November. This isn’t about the adults rights to own whatever thing (gun) they want, personal property rights do not trump another individual’s right to life – as in 20 first grade students slaughtered at Sandy Hook.
Bushmaster myth
The next time a right-wing fringe-type tries to claim the XM-15 Bushmaster isn’t a dangerous assault weapon share the following information:
Comparison between M-16 A2 (standard US Army weapon)/Bushmaster XM-15 (used in Sandy Hook)
Length 39.63 in / 38.25 in
Weight 8 pounds, 13 oz / 8.27 pounds
Gas system Direct Impingement / Direct Impingement
Maximum Range 3,600 meters / 3,534 meters
Maximum Effective Range 550 meters / 550 meters
Muzzle Velocity 3,100 feet per second / 3,260 feet per second
Rate of Fire (Semiauto) 45 rounds per minute / 45 rounds per minute
Rate of Fire (Burst) 90 rounds per minute / N/A
Magazine capacity 30 round magazine / 30 round magazine
Ammunition 5.56 mm / 5.56 mm
Specs were taken from the Army manual for the M-16 A2 and from the Bushmaster manual for the XM-15
The XM-15 is as much an assault weapon as the M-16 A2, and this is the time for serious discussion on gun control, and it’s going to require serious people; if all the right-wing fringe can offer is fantasy comparisons perhaps they should keep their mouths shut; I’ve no more patience for moronic diatribes. If one of those dead first graders was their child or grand-child I don’t think they’d be so flippant.
The right-wing Hitler gun myth?
For those who will insist on continuing to use the “Hitler” reference in their argument to allow American citizens to own whatever gun they desire, or that the Founding Fathers meant for the Second Amendment to change with the times.
First, way to use the already debunked right-wing Hitler reference; one can only hope you’d know he never made any speech in 1935, or any other year where he said, “This year will go down in history! For the first time, a civilized nation has full gun registration! Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient, and the world will follow our lead into the future!”
Second, the truth is no gun law was passed in Germany in 1935. There was no need for one, since a gun registration program was already in effect in Germany; it was enacted in 1928, during the Weimar Republic, five years before Hitler’s ascendancy. But that law didn’t “outlaw” guns, it restricted their possession to individuals who were considered law-abiding citizens, and who had a reason to own one. And there’s no reason to consider that law particularly significant, either since the NAZIs didn’t seize control of their own country at the point of a bayonet, they used a much more potent weapon: propaganda. One can also hope you’d realize that no matter how well-armed German Jewry might have been it wouldn’t have been able to resist the military might of the Third Reich. Many did try and were murdered anyway. It’s the same lunatic thinking that some new wonderful band of “patriots” is going to stand up to the United States military and “take back the guvmint”.
Third, the Second Amendment was to make possible the defense of the colonies as a whole through providing for a “well regulated” militia; meaning all the “able-bodied” men would be prepared when called up, with the same caliber musket, as well as sufficient quantities of powder and ball. The Founders never intended a large standing army as Britain had been able to use in its attempt to control the colonies, thinking it the basis of tyranny. Men like Washington and Adams intended the new nation would have a very small standing army and in time of war the “citizen soldier” would be called upon to swell its ranks. It was not put into place to provide the “common man” the ability to overthrow the government, nor to be able to defend his home against marauding zombies. It also wasn’t put into place to provide the “common man” with the ability to hunt since Founders couldn’t care less who had a “squirrel gun” or a hunting rifle, it was a given you’d have the right to hunt and to provide food for your family.
So, you want guns to hunt with – fine, no problem. You want guns to defend your home – fine, also no problem. However, you don’t need assault weapons and high capacity magazines to do either of those things.
You want your assault rifle and high capacity magazine to have a revolution – fine, have it. But stop threatening it and do it, that way me and millions of others like me will be able to fulfill our oath and “protect and defend” our Constitution against the “domestic” enemy the right-wing fringe has become. If you’re going to have your revolution please start and let the rest of us move on in this much needed change of gun fantasy in this nation.
Hannity’s a liar and an idiot
The Leprechaun, Sean Hannity’s at it again, telling one big whopper after another. Tonight’s lie came during his FOX News program (9 Jan 13) when he claimed no president had ever made use of recess appointments until President Obama, I just heard him say it, you can’t make this stuff up; but of course almost every President since – and including – George Washington have made recess appointments.
President Washington appointed South Carolina judge John Rutledge as Chief Justice of the United States during a congressional recess in 1795.
Some additional examples?
New Jersey judge William J. Brennan was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956 through a recess appointment. This was done in part with an eye on the presidential campaign that year; Eisenhower was running for reelection, and his advisors thought it would be politically advantageous to place a northeastern Catholic on the court. Brennan was promptly confirmed when the Senate came back into session. President Eisenhower, also using a recess appointment, designated Charles W. Yost as United States ambassador to Syria.But wait, that’s not all President Eisenhower made two additional recess appointments, Chief Justice Earl Warren and Potter Stewart.
President George H. W. Bush appointed Lawrence Eagleburger Secretary of State during a recess in 1992 because Eagleburger had in effect filled that role after James Baker resigned.
And according to the Congressional Research Service, President Bill Clinton made 139 recess appointments while President George W. Bush made a record 171 recess appointments, and as of 5 Jan 12, President Barack Obama – who Hannity claims is attempting to “by-pass the Legislative Branch creating an imperial presidency” – had made only 32 recess appointments.
Hannity’s an idiot, and anyone who ever takes him seriously is also an idiot. Like too many people working at FOX he wouldn’t know a fact if it came and bit him on the nose.
The Liberty Tree 