The Grownups vs David Hogg
By Barry Stock – https://www.flickr.com/photos/bigleaftropicals/25593049497/, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=66778431
There has been a lot of talk about “common sense gun regulation”. Most of this talk is simply a back door way to introduce the banning of certain types of guns, which will ultimately lead to the banning of guns altogether. While I generally agree with the pro Second Amendment faction, there is one regulation that I am in complete agreement with and believe it should become law. I believe that the age to purchase a gun, any gun, should be raised to twenty-one. Let me explain why.
As science shows, and most parents of teenagers can attest, the frontal lobe of the brain, the “judgement center,” is not fully developed until the late twenties. Next to preschoolers, this makes college agers one of the most impressionable groups. The Left exploits this to push its agenda. From the Hippies of the Sixties, to the Antifa movement today, the Left exploits the idealism and lack of life experience this group possesses to further its agenda. College campuses have ceased being places where young people gain wisdom and life skills to become Progressive indoctrination centers. The entertainment industry reinforces the agenda, and social media gives this group a place to sound off with the like-minded, instead of having face to face conversations with those of differing viewpoints.
Now, since the Parkland Shooting, the Left is using these youngsters as spokes persons. They treat them as experts with authority and allow people who are barely more than children to shape policy. Regulations that will affect our way of life could be dictated by young people too naïve to know they are being used, and that should frighten us all.
You see, it really isn’t about raising the age to buy a gun, it’s about raising the legal age of adult hood for everything, from buying cigarettes to voting. Especially voting. It may be one of the most effective ways to combat the Leftist indoctrination of our young people. One argument against raising the age of legal adulthood is that if you can serve in the military at eighteen you should be old enough to vote. This is easily solved. Military service should confer legal adulthood on you. If you can show a valid military ID, or DD214 showing an honorable discharge, you can drink, buy a gun and vote. No matter your age.
I am not anti-youth I know there are exceptions. Many parents have been much more successful than I at combating the Leftist influence in their own homes. I am encouraged by the young adults who are turning from the lies of the Left, but the numbers just aren’t there yet to stop those raised with an entitlement mentality, who truly believe that those in my generation have caused all their problems and the government is the only solution. Even our Founders realized that life experience is a necessary component of leadership, that is why you have to be at least thirty-five to become the President.
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Modern Day Minutemen?
“We stand for freedom, for our rights, for social independence, for democracy, for freedom of speech, for everything, for a normal life,” she told The Associated Press from her hospital bed in Kiev. Excerpt from interview with Olesya Zhukovska
The words of this young woman, an ordinary Ukrainian citizen, a paramedic, should strike a chord with every American. They should give us pause, to stop and think about how precious these rights are. Right now in the Ukraine everyday people, most of them young, and middle class, are willing to die for them. I’ve listened to and read the interviews of these courageous people. I am amazed, and shamed by them. Amazed at their bravery and tenacity, shamed that they are willing to die for what we take for granted.
Sadly, we don’t just take these rights, rights protected by the Constitution, for granted, we are actually begging for them to be taken away. We ask the federal government to take away our sovereign right to bear arms. We look the other way when the FCC wants to monitor our newsrooms. We allow the IRS, a bureaucracy created to impose taxes on us, to dictate our health care. Is there any logic to that? We are happy to trade our personal freedom for a life free from worry or want. Let the government take care of us, just so long as we do not have to assume responsibility for our own lives. We willingly elect to office men and women more interested in increasing their own power and pocketbooks than meeting the needs of their constituencies. If we go to the polls at all, we choose candidates whose names we recognize, who are the best looking, the person our mother told us to vote for, or someone promising more free stuff. We are gullible and believe pretty speeches. We don’t expect our press to thoroughly vet our candidates and we don’t demand excellence from our leaders. We settle for men and women of lesser integrity lest we have to look too deeply at ourselves.
Meanwhile, half a world away there are those who are prepared to die for what we are happily throwing away. The very rights that generations of our own young men (and women, too) have fought and died to preserve. The rights that our Founders painstakingly preserved in our Constitution, that we might be a shining example of what a nation can become when its people are free. The kind of nation that the Ukrainian protesters are trying to create for themselves.
Yes, we should be ashamed
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Manners Matter
The recent trials of Curtis Reeves and Michael Dunn are sure to add fuel to the arguments for the increased need for more gun regulations. Reeves is on trial for the murder of Chad Oulson. Reeves had repeatedly asked Oulson to quit texting during the previews for the movie, Lone Survivor. He even went so far as to report the texting to the theater manager. Oulson, tired of being harassed by Reeves, picked up Reeves popcorn and threw it at him. Reeves then lost his cool, or panicked, or both, then took out his gun and shot Oulson.
Michael Dunn, is on trial for killing 17-year-old Jordan Davis. Dunn was at a gas station in Jacksonville, FL and asked a group of teens in an SUV to turn down their music. After the teens castigated Dunn with a barrage of threats and profanities, Dunn claims he saw a weapon in the SUV (no evidence of which was ever found) so he fired several rounds at the vehicle, presumably in self-defense.
It is easy to blame these murders on an angry racist subset of society, with too easy access to firearms. But that only gives us an excuse not to look deeper. The uncomfortable truth, one that most of us are guilty of, is that as a society, we have lost our sense of civility. We have forgotten that good manners are not something that we demand to be bestowed upon us, but rather something we bestow upon other people. It used to be an automatic attitude, drilled into us as children, that in order to live peaceably with others we sometimes had to endure some inconvenience and discomfort. We took our unruly children outside the restaurant or theater; we made our calls and answered our beepers outside or in the lobby. Even though we might be tired, we offered our seats to the elderly and handicapped. We didn’t push to the front of lines, or cuss out store clerks. As children we were taught to respect our elders and those in authority. We said please, thank you and excuse me, because it was how people with a good upbringing behaved. Not because they were “magic” words we could use to get our way. We recognized that driving was a privilege not a right. We didn’t tailgate, cut people off, run red lights, or poach parking spaces on purpose.
We were also taught how to control our temper. We learned early that a tantrum would not get us toys or candy, but it might get us a spanking. Punching walls throwing things or otherwise destroying property wasn’t tolerated either. We were taught to try to find polite solutions to the people or activities that irritated us and if no polite solution was found, to remove ourselves from them.
Our homes, our schools, our churches and even the TV shows we watched, all taught us that everyone had rights. No one’s rights were more important than anyone else’s and those rights were to be respected. Sadly, not anymore.
Today’s gadget driven society feeds our egocentricity. We can be out in public without actually interacting with anyone. We have superficial conversations with friends, family, and even complete strangers, while ignoring the people right in front of us. We can hide in the apparent anonymity of a Face Book post or Twitter feed, and never have to really see the results of our words. We can blame guns, we can blame racism, we can buy into the ideal that we need more laws and stronger laws to protect us from each other. What we really need to do is some soul-searching, both individually and as a society. We need to ask ourselves how many more people have to die a senseless death before we recognize that our society is morally sick. It’s the kind of sickness that happens when people ignore the needs of their souls. It’s a sickness that no law, no government program can fix. It’s something we must recognize and heal ourselves.
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Your Voice on The Safe Communities,Safe Schools Act of 2013
Congress is now debating Senate Bill 649 The Safe Communities, Safe Schools Act of 2013. As the Obama administration continues to increase the strong-arm of the government over us, it is important that you contact your representatives and let them know your view. We cannot depend on the media to accurately reflect the views of conservative America, they won’t be taught in the schools. If we are to change the culture and return this nation to its once exceptional state, we must make our voices heard. Here is an example of an email I sent to each of my state’s Congressmen. Feel free to copy, edit, or write your own letter, JUST DO IT. You can find the addresses for your representatives here: http://www.house.gov/representatives/
As a registered voter in the state of _________, I am informing you of my opposition to the various gun bills, specifically S. 649, the “Safe Communities, Safe Schools Act of 2013”, introduced on March 21, that are being introduced in Congress. As you debate these bills in the coming days, please keep the following in mind:
There is little evidence that any of the proposed measures would indeed reduce violent crime, however there is evidence to show that in many areas of the country where the legal ownership of guns is encouraged, violent crime has been reduced.
The Constitution guarantees our right of gun ownership for more than just hunting and personal protection against crime. It was clear from the other writings of our Founding Fathers, that gun ownership was a way to protect the citizenry from the overbearing tyranny of a government out of control. As an informed voter, I would strongly reconsider my support for a Congressman who votes in favor of any bill that would increase the stranglehold of governmental power, while decreasing my right as a citizen to maintain control over it.
Common sense dictates that one of the best ways to increase safety in our schools and communities is to improve services to the mentally ill. Our system now is a revolving door where treatment is fragmented and inadequate. Steps need to be taken to make it easier for parents, legal guardians and law enforcement officials to commit violently mentally ill persons for treatment. There also needs to be in place a system by which such persons are monitored to be sure that treatment plans are followed.
All schools should be required to provide adequate armed security based on the number of students and staff on the property, and funding should be made available for this purpose. This security could take many forms, from district created police forces, to support from local law enforcement, to the training and arming school staff. The choice on what form this should take should be left up to the local school districts.
Background checks are an important tool to keep guns out of the hands of convicted criminals and the dangerously mentally ill. I personally do not object to background checks for the personal sale of firearms. However the exchange of guns between family members, whether through sale, gift, or inheritance should be exempted from this requirement. Furthermore the checks should be accomplished using existing databases. There should not be any database created to track applications for background checks, or gun purchases.
We were all horrified by the slaughter of innocent children at Sandy Hook, but as terrible as these types of incidents are, it is important that as a representative of your constituents, you put the emotional considerations aside and base your vote solely on the constitutionality of the bills at hand. Our personal liberties are precious and come time for reelection, my vote then will be heavily influenced by your vote now.
Respectfully,
Observations and Opinions of a Middle Aged Housewife 