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Three more high school children are dead and three more are in critical condition because a handgun was easy to obtain and was the preferred method of dispute resolution for yet another hurt/angry American.
In the first year following the murders of 20 little kids and 7 teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT, over 12,000* Americans were killed by guns. There have been 87 school shootings since then. That number does not include things like random drive by shootings on the south side of Chicago. It solely considers kids bringing heat to school and shooting fellow students. Kids making dead kids – lots of dead kids – and hoards of emotionally scarred souls dealing with that horror as a lifelong legacy.
Of course, there are also crimes of passion, as spouses settle their grievances with whatever might be handy, like the Glock in the closet. Youngsters play with daddy’s toy and one puts a bullet through the head of his brother. And so many distraught people end their pain fast, all because guns are easy to get, even by people who should never have a firearm.
Had enough of the madness? According to Mark Glaze of CNN, “74% of NRA members and 87% of non-NRA gun owners believe all gun buyers should get a criminal background check.” Glaze wrote further, “A CBS/New York Times poll released on January 17 found 93% of those living in households with gun owners and 85% in households with NRA members support background checks.” Both NRA members and other American gun owners have seen enough dead kids and have had enough of the madness.
So, how come the NRA opposes universal background checks? It’s because the organization doesn’t represent gun owners. The NRA is the lobbying arm of the gun manufacturers. Those folks don’t want universal background checks because that might mean that they would sell slightly fewer guns. That’s more important to them than the lives of our kids.
So, when there was to be a vote in Congress for universal background checks, the NRA spent millions of its dollars threatening and cajoling legislators desperate for campaign cash, demanding them to reject universal background checks. The result is that the big money gun manufacturers got what they wanted, but you didn’t.
Getting the big money out of our politics is the real solution to that, but it’s going to take a while for you and I to bring that about. For now, the best thing is for NRA members to renounce their membership en masse.
Are you an NRA member? Quit the organization that has never represented you. Turn your back on the organization that turns its back on your kids. Stop giving your money to people who don’t care that six more kids just got shot, two of them are dead and that one of them could have been your 14 year old daughter.
Now, pass this blog along to the gun owners you know.
* This is a rough number based on gun deaths reported by media. The generally accepted total is over 30,000 Americans dead from guns per year. Every year.
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Ed. note: There is much in America that needs fixing and we are on a path to continually fail to make things better. It is my goal to make a difference – perhaps to be a catalyst for things to get better. That is the reason for these posts. To accomplish the goal requires reaching many thousands of people and a robust dialogue. Please help by offering your comments, as well as by passing this along and encouraging others to subscribe and do the same. Thanks. JA
Copyright 2024 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.
3 Responses to Mass Resignation
Don Zwiers October 29, 2014
VEHICLE and GUN CONTROL can both be solved using the same process. The Federal government needs to protect us all and use our Free Market to solve the Gun Control issue. The insurance industry can help responsible gun owners have their guns and prevent bad people from getting them. All insurance businesses must make a fair profit by competing with each other by how they place the same people in different risk pools. Therefore, when they insure a gun, they want to make sure they won’t be losing money. Why would anyone insure a 16 year old, without making sure they qualify?
The Federal Government needs to sit down with the insurance Industry and determine how they can insure gun owners to be responsible owners, selling them accident insurance to cover that cost. Prospective gun owners, with the necessary skills and not on Federal “do not buy” Lists, would qualify as safe candidates. They will place each client in their own risk pool and charge them competitively. Because insurance agents have no control where guns are sold; they can’t keep records of where they are. Like autos, guns also have their own ID #. A Federal law, requiring every gun owner to carry a minimum liability policy; allows the Feds to maintain a simple data base for all guns, who owns them and their licensed insurance agent.
Before any sale is complete, both the new owner and their insurance agent must be recorded in the registry. Using the technology we presently have; if either is missing, the gun is flagged and the local police are automatically contacted. This allows the local authorities to be involved. They are the most knowledgeable about their area and most qualified to investigate.
After the law is passed; any gun owner caught without insurance after 6 months faces a punishment. If a gun is used to commit a crime, a much stiffer punishment is automatically imposed on the registered owner on record.
Insurance companies and the responsible gun owners do all the work. Damages are paid. EVERYONE IS FREE TO PURCHASE ANY WEAPON THEY WANT and CHOOSE THEIR OWN INSURANCE AGENT. The owner of each gun assumes their rightful responsibilities. THIS IS THE FREE MARKET WORKING WITHOUT GOVORNMENT REGULATIONS except to regulate against force and fraud. Big Government is not invading our privacy. Its protecting us all with its regulation and our 2nd Amendment is safe.
Manufacturers buy blanket insurance until they are sold to distributors, who also have their insurance and they sell to individuals and dealers who also have their insurance. Each of these businesses will have a record who bought what guns and that they have their insurance.
The NRA has the potential to screen their members and offer a better rate for insurance companies that trust their ability to know their members are skilled and trained.
In six months; all guns are identified or are designated illegal. Manufacturers, distributors all have records who bought each gun. Dealers and individuals may net keep this type record.
Foreign governments must also have insurance when they buy our guns; transferring the responsibility. Every gun made in America has the responsibility of the buyer.
The governments only enforce the laws and assume no other costs to the taxpayers.
Jim Altschuler October 26, 2014
I would add that the background check needs to include psychological and/or psychiatric background checking. Many of the people, mostly teenagers, have not had criminal backgrounds, but their acquaintances, parents, teachers, counselors SHOULD have known that they had problems.
And, of course, IF THERE WERE NO GUNS KEPT IN HOMES, or guns kept in homes were kept under lock and key (preferably combination locks with no key and the combinations known only to the parents), they wouldn’t be available to commit the aforementioned atrocities. In addition, spouses couldn’t kill one another in a fit of passionate anger if there were no guns in homes.
Not handguns. Not rifles. Not shotguns. And, most certainly, NOT AUTOMATIC OR EVEN SEMI-AUTOMATIC WEAPONS.
Hug your children all that you can, not only because you love them but also because I’ve read that children who feel loved and cared for are not as likely to strike toward others with their fists, or hand weapons (sticks, bats, etc.), or GUNS.
Joni Lindgren October 26, 2014
A sure-fire way to get universal background checks and for the politicians to stop taking money from the NRA is for one of the politicians to suffer that kind of grief over the loss of a loved one! That is the only way the politicians will make it a personal issue and will be able to relate to those who came before them and maybe do something!!
It’s so maddening when you see the suffering of others and how these outrageous crimes can go on and on. I’ve concluded that a politician or two will have to suffer the same loss before they know the true depth of this carnage! Even Canada is now going to stiffen up their gun laws (already more restrictive than ours) in the wake of the soldier being killed! It only takes one killing for them to do something. We look just like the gun toting vigilantes in Iraq!
We need to repeal Citizens United, some spineless politicians AND lobbyists of all kinds!!!