66 dead from 69 shootings in April in the U.S. - A 37.5 % increase over March



Yes, guns do kill



This is the second in our new report on shootings that occur throughout the U.S. by month.  Last month was the first, and already April is showing an increase in deaths of 37.5 percent over March; it will be interesting to watch this trend over the coming year.  My figures are taken from reports on nationwide shootings by the national media and there is the possibility I could have missed some.  Please feel free to correct me if I have missed one in your area.

There were shooting incidents in 24 states with deaths resulting in 18 of those states.  Naturally, Arizona was first in both those categories with 18 shooting incidents resulting in 17 deaths.  Texas was second with 8 and 8.  It was interesting that New York with its tough gun laws had only one shooting incident with no deaths, at least as far as I could determine.  Calif., however, also with tight gun laws, had 5 incidents resulting in 12 deaths, one the Oakland spree.

I want to make it clear that these figures are not yet perfect and may never be since they are based on national media.  This is due to the fact that a shooting incident and death may not be reported in such a way that my search parameters find it.  I am working on perfecting this but still need your assistance in identifying any circumstances that I may have missed. 

As you can see, it is clear that Nasty Jack will continue this feature into the future until gun control law receives the attention it needs from the U.S. Congress, state legislatures and the voting public.

Now, on to this month’s gory facts:

• April 1, Dallas, TX, man in car was shot when another car approached and someone demanded money, then shot victim in stomach and hand.
• April 1, Phoenix, AZ, 3 shootings on this Sun. evening resulting in 3 dead.  2 others were wounded.
• April 2, Hattiesburg, MS, 5 people wounded in a Mexican restaurant by a gunman. 
• April 2, Phoenix, AZ, 1 dead and 1 wounded by unknown assailant. 
• April 2, New York, NY, man with 9mm semiautomatic handgun shot 4 police officers.  He also had an assault rifle.  4 officers will recover.
• April 2, Dallas, TX, teenager shot and killed in apparent sleepover where the two others were arrested.  Shooting either accident or result of bullying.
• April 2, Oakland, CA, Korean nursing student went on shooting spree at his college and killed 7 people also wounding 3 others.
• April 2, Inman, SC, 1 dead and 1 injured from shooting in quiet neighborhood.
• April 3, Akron, OH, 2 hurt in 2 separate shootings.
• April 3, Lexington, KY, man was wounded at celebration of Kentucky beating Kansas in the NCAA tournament.  The man’s leg had to be amputated.
• April 3, Des Moines, 3^rd case, at least, of gunfire in 2 days that almost hit a person in their home.  No reason given for why shootings were directed at specific homes.
• April 4, Laveen, AZ, man shot and killed at Taco Bell drive-through when he allegedly threatened man in line with a pipe.  Shooter was not arrested.
• April 5, Albany, GA, 2 people shot with 2 others being questioned over what happened at a mobile park.
• April 6, Carlsbad, NM, woman fatally shot in Denny’s restaurant and indication is that it is random act of violence.  Shooter then shot himself.
• April 6, Yuma, AZ, drive-by shooting earlier in this week which apparently was a street gang incident.
• April 6, Tulsa, OK, 3 dead and 2 injured in alleged hate crime shootings.  All the victims were black, shooter was white.
• April 6, Austin, TX, police officer killed responding to call at a Walmart store.  He struggled with shooter and when knocked to the floor the shooter pulled a semi-automatic pistol and shot officer.
• April 7, Miami, FL, 15-year-old girl shot while sleeping in her bed. 
• April 7, Phoenix, AZ, Walmart manager killed during a robbery of the store.
• April 8, Jackson, MS, gunfire was exchanged at nightspot that was closed      between security guard and unidentified shooter, which was apparently beginning of a robbery attempt.  The guard was wounded.
• April 8, Houston, TX, 1 person killed and 3 injured at beach party where there were thousands of participants. 
• April 9, Brooklyn Park, MN, 3 dead at day care center when woman picked up her unhurt child, the only one there at the time.  No arrests yet.
• April 9, Winston-Salem, NC, 4 people were injured in 2 overnight shootings from man firing a high-powered rifle into a crowd.
• April 9, Tempe, AZ, 1 killed in shooting at apartment complex that occurred near pool area.  Witnesses say could have been fight.
• April 9, South Dallas, TX, teen fatally shot after breaking into home with two others, who fled but were arrested.
• April 9, Eloy, AZ, 2 men in pickup carrying illegals were killed.  Pinal County Sheriff says the 2 were ambushed by people dressed in camouflage and armed with rifles.
• April 9, Akron, OH, 2 men wounded in 2 separate incidents, one in the head.
• April 9, Phoenix, AZ, man who allegedly threatened YMCA staff member with a gun was shot by a police officer after the man tried to pull the gun on him.
• April 10, Bullhead City, AZ, murder suicide of a man and woman, both with gunshots to their heads. 
• April 11, Los Angeles, CA, 2 shot dead at the U. of So. California which is in an urban setting.  At the time the campus was swarmed with high school students looking to enroll.  The incident occurred in a neighborhood area where security has had to be increased.
• April 12, Modesto, CA, sheriff’s deputy shot and killed trying to serve papers on a residence.  SWAT teams were called to where suspect was thought to be barricaded.
• April 12, Anchorage, AK, 2 members of the U.S. Coast Guard were shot and killed at a communications station on Kodiak Island.  FBI and Coast Guard not sure if it was a double homicide or murder suicide.
• April 12, Burnside, KY, man shoots woman and then kills himself.
• April 12, Chicago, IL, mother and her baby girl were shot while sleeping in their family’s home.  Shots were fired into the home in the early AM wounding one in the head, the other in the leg.
• April 13, Greenland, NH, Police Chief killed and 4 officers wounded in a drug bust when a man opened fire.  The Chief was just days from retirement.      
• April 13, Colorado Springs, CO, bicyclist, riding with a friend at 1:30 AM, wounded and four others had a scare when bullets flew into an apartment complex in a separate incident.
• April 13, Tulsa, OK, 2 injured when man with a semi-automatic weapon opens fire.  Police think shootings are random.
• April 13, Fort Wayne, IN, man shoots a marshal and then is shot and killed by Fort Wayne police officer.
• April 13, Brooklyn, OH, man kills 2 and wounds 1 in restaurant, then is killed by police.
• April 13, Tucson, AZ, man kills a woman in house and then shot dead in a standoff by SWAT team. 
• April 13, Chicopee, MA, 3 hour gun battle by a man in a third-story window of home firing a rifle during rush hour and with children going to school.  Police had no idea of why he did it.  The suspect was killed and one officer wounded in the hand and leg.
• April 13, Columbia, SC, man and woman shot dead, the woman’s husband not hurt and was talking to authorities.  No charges were filed in a case that is apparently still in a state of confusion with the husband telling 2 stories to police.
• April 14, Chicago, IL, 3 killed and 7 wounded in overnight shootings. 
• April 15, Flint, MI, in multiple shootings over the weekend producing the third homicide of the month.  The other 2 were on Easter Sunday (not recorded above on Apr. 8, but included in killings).
• April 16, Glendale, AZ, late night shooting at Luke Air Force Base in the housing area.  All authorities would say is that it isn’t terror-related.
• April 16, Phoenix, AZ, in a drive-by shooting, a woman was shot in the stomach while walking from a pickup that drove up behind her. 
• April 16, Glendale AZ, 1 dead 1 wounded by assailants wearing black clothes and bulletproof vests who stormed their apartment.
• April 18, Spring, TX, mother shot repeatedly and newborn was abducted outside suburban pediatric center.  The 3-day-old boy was found later.
• April 19, Edcouch, TX, cockfight at a ranch resulted in 3 shot dead and 8 others wounded.  It was a “massacre” according to the county JP.
• April 20, Pinellas County, FL, 2 incidents resulting in 2 people shot.  One happened as a club was closing.
• April 20, Cedar Rapids, IA, 3 shot on Friday in 2 incidents with all 3 in critical condition.
• April 20, Fresno, CA, 1 man dead from shooting and another wounded in a separate incident.  One of the shootings suspected to be gang-related.
• April 22, Aurora, CO, pastor’s mother shot and killed outside church.  An off-duty officer in the congregation shot a suspect who also died.
• April 22, Phoenix, AZ, man shot and killed with his child in the car after an altercation with 3 men.
• April 23, Tampa Bay, FL, shooter in a nightshirt opened fire on a speed-enforcement van in the middle of the night.  The van’s video camera recorded the entire episode.
• April 24, North Bend, WA, man looked for in the shooting deaths of his wife and daughter and who hasn’t been seen since the bodies were discovered.  He is considered a “person of interest.”    
• April 24, Scottsdale, AZ, janitor is dead from a shooting at a medical center where he was working at the time. 
• April 24, Phoenix, AZ, 2 men were shot dead in a stalking incident.  A police officer shot one of the victims after he shot another man during a scuffle on the street.
• April 24, Cedar Rapids, IA, 1 dead in an incident here at a strip club.
• April 24, Roanoke, VA, a man and his wife are recovering after he accidentally shot himself and his wife at a firearms safety class.
• April 25, Phoenix, AZ, woman shot by boyfriend on school campus when she tried to run away from him.  She is in serious condition.
• April 25, Houston, TX, Walmart guard quit after killing shoplifter earlier.  There have been at least 16 shootings on Walmart properties in a 6 month period. 
• April 26, Savannah, GA, 1 person injured in drive-by shooting. 
• April 27, Des Moines, IA, at least 2 drive-by shootings with those arrested known gang members.
• April 27, Buckeye, AZ, and we appropriately end in the loose gun laws state where 5 people were arrested for shooting out more than 50 car windows. 

An interesting observation exists in this documentation of shootings and killings.  It is the fact that there are large clusters by certain dates.  April 2, April 6, April 9, April 13, and April 24.  I plan to analyze these events for anything that makes the collection of episodes significant and report on them later.  In the meantime, May has already started with a bang.

The real downside of the Supreme Court and Arizona’s anti-immigration law

Are we sure why many of us disagree with Arizona’s case on illegal immigration in the Supreme Court?  After 40 years that brought 12 million Mexican immigrants into the U.S., more than half illegally, many have decided to shut their own door to the border and stay in Mexico.  A report by the Pew Hispanic Center says more illegals returned South of the Border in 2010 and 2011 than entered the U.S.  But Ariz. Gov. Jan Brewer and Russell Pearce want them all out.



Russell Pearce with Jan Brewer



Russell Pearce is the author of Arizona’s anti-immigration law, SB-1070 and the former state Senator who was removed from office because of his radical views on immigration.  Yet he, along with Brewer, was in Washington last week pushing the Supremes.  It might have done some good, along with the fact that many of the Justices, including the liberal ones, don’t completely agree with the feds’ case.  It’s the old “States Rights” issue raising its head again.

The case is not a test of the legality of racial profiling in Arizona but rather a challenge to the federal government which says SB-1070 is unconstitutional because it preempts federal law.  In a Salon article there is a list of the four provisions for preemptive concern as outlined by Lyle Denniston of the SCOTUS blog.  They are:

1. individual’s legal right to be in the U.S., if the officer has a “reasonable suspicion” of illegality.  If arrested, the individual cannot be released until his legal status is verified by the federal government.  That is the law’s Section 2(B).

2. A provision making it a crime under state law for an individual to intentionally fail to obtain and carry legal immigrant papers with him while in Arizona (Section 3). 

3. A provision making it a misdemeanor for an undocumented immigrant to apply for a job, publicly solicit a job, or actually work in AZ (Section 5[C]). 

4. And, a provision that allows police to arrest without a warrant any person for whom the officer has “probable cause to believe” that the individual has committed any crime, anywhere, that would make that individual subject to being deported (Section 6). 



Hispanic Supreme Court Justice
Sonia Sotomayor



An editorial in the Phoenix Arizona Republic said, “This case is not about civil rights. It's about state vs. federal power. Chief Justice John Roberts made that clear as arguments began. Civil-rights questions are the subject of other lawsuits. ‘So this is not a case about ethnic profiling,’ Roberts said.”  That was followed by the following from the paper:

“Yet those are the deeply troubling aspects of SB 1070. The law put a shadow of suspicion over all Latinos, created painful divisions in our state and gave Arizona an ugly reputation.”

The implication is that many of us progressives disagree with the law, as well as those copy-cats in other states, due to their violation of civil rights.  It is a known fact that law enforcement in Arizona was stopping individuals simply based on the color of their skin, for minor violations, arresting many, some legal residents.  The feds have initiated a program of rounding up illegals but they are only interested in the ones with criminal records, turning minor offenders loose.

Fareed Zacaria of CNN wonders if Mexicans are “giving up on U.S?  He cites the delicate economy here and how NAFTA has made Mexico more competitive.  Some of their exports are even cheaper than China’s.  Zacaria thinks we are losing our “allure.”  He refers to our demographic advantage that is shrinking due to an older median age, which produces less needed young workers.  That had been satisfied to some degree by legal and illegal immigrants entering the U.S.

Illegals are scared to death in states with stringent immigration laws, afraid to leave home without the proper papers.  The issue has also caused a drop in citizens from Latino communities reporting crime, a reaction which has become a major problem for law enforcement.  But, again, this case is not about civil rights.  But it is for those who believe in human rights, so the question is what to do.  The Democrats plan to force a vote in Congress to invalidate Arizona’s SB-1070.

Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York has announced his intention of bringing up his “fallback legislation” in the Senate if SCOTUS upholds the law  which probably has little chance of passing there or in the GOP House.  But it would certainly make points with the Hispanic community and act as the prelude to what the Dems might accomplish in November with Obama winning re-election and an increase in numbers in both the House and Senate.

Have you considered suicide? If so, you were probably drunk, possibly armed

Unfortunately the statistics don’t lie and they tell us that the person is likely to be drinking and may use a firearm to take his or her life.  Guns and booze obviously don’t mix so why is the National Rifle Assn. (NRA) lobbying so hard for its members to be allowed to carry guns into bars across the country?  Just one more of those ideas that common sense tells you is stupid but Wayne LaPierre, head of the NRA, apparently suffers that distinguishing characteristic.



55% by firearms



From 2003 to 2009, around 20 percent of U.S. citizens committing suicide had blood levels that satisfied the standard definition of intoxication, according to family Practice News.  Shocking?  Not really when you consider 72 percent of those age 35-54 drink; same for 18-34; 59 percent for 55+, and the fact that there are 270 million guns in the hands of U.S. civilians.  That’s 88.8 firearms per 100 people, close to one per person.

Suicide and alcohol

The U.S. is number 41 in the world in the number of suicides with 11.8 per year per 100,000 population.  In a 2011 study of suicides by city, Business Insider listed the top 15 with Las Vegas, NV as number one.  Interestingly, Arizona with the loosest gun laws in the country was the only state to have three cities listed: Phoenix, Tucson and Mesa.  According to the American foundation for suicide Prevention, someone commits suicide in the U.S. every 14.2 minutes.

Interesting video on suicide prevention:

Mitchell Zoler of Family Practice breaks it down by gender with 24 percent among men and 17 percent for women.  But the possibility increases among young adults where suicide is more impulsive.  As Zoler puts it, Alcohol serves as the “disinhibitor.”  And alcohol is also the number one instigator for abuse because it is so readily available.  Drinking reduces inhibition and increases aggression which is present in both domestic abuse and suicide.

Here are some more startling statistics from the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention and Suicide Awareness Voices of Education:

• Recent data puts yearly medical costs for suicide at nearly $100 million (2005).

• Men are nearly 4 times more likely to die by suicide than women. Women attempt suicide 3 times as often as men.

• Suicide rates are highest for people between the ages of 40 and 59.

• There are twice as many deaths due to suicide than HIV/AIDS.

• Suicide rates in the United States are highest in the spring.

• Over half of all suicides are completed with a firearm.

• Suicide rates among the elderly are highest for those who are divorced or widowed.

• The strongest risk factor for suicide is depression.

• 80% of people that seek treatment for depression are treated successfully.

• There are an estimated 8 to 25 attempted suicides to 1 completion.

• 1 in 65,000 children ages 10 to 14 commit suicide each year.

• Suicide is the 11th leading cause of death in the U.S.

• An average of one person dies by suicide every 16.2 minutes.

These are raw, startling facts re. how suicides occur in the U.S. and some of the avenues taken to achieve the act.  What is really alarming is the fact that over half of suicides are accomplished using a firearm.  What is equally alarming is how many guns are available in this country (270,000,000) that gives the person the means to do harm to themselves.  At some point the gun public must realize just how much the 2^nd Amendment infringes on the right to live of non-owners.

Loose guns…an Arizona staple

The typical Arizona
machine gun adventure

Arizonans love their guns and adore their Republican lawmakers who make it possible for anyone to own a gun and take it anywhere with little or no training.  The GOP legislature is proud of this, as well as the gun worshipping public that sport their firearms around the state like a bunch of sophomoric Wyatt Earps.  Some companies even hold their conventions in the capital city of Phoenix just so they can participate in the newest fad, the Machine Gun Adventure.

But this post is about a 22-year old woman who took her lunch break to buy herself a gun and get a concealed weapons permit. 

As Kellie Mejdrich describes it, that short amount of time plus $100 was all it took.  Mejdrich is a senior at the University of Arizona and is the Bolles Fellow this semester covering the Legislature.  She’ll now be able to carry that concealed weapon into restaurants that serve alcohol, most national and city parks, near schools—and 36 other states that recognize that permit.  The rest of her story is still more bizarre, even in Arizona.

Of course there are some restrictions in getting the concealed carry permit, she says, like “citizenship, being 21 years old, not suffering from mental illness (this isn’t ever evaluated though), never have been convicted of a felony, and having ‘satisfactorily completed a training program or demonstrated competence with a firearm,’ according to state law.  I’m using a lot of Kellie’s article text in this post because of its tone; the “can you believe this?” approach.



Kellie Mejdrich



Here are some examples of “can you believe this?”  A prior 8-hour training course has been reduced to only 1 by the state.  Kellie took her one-hour course from Bob Denis of CCW AZ School, LLC.  Their website proudly advertises “1hr Law Gets Permit.”  The site does say you should have experience, but Denis didn’t even ask Kellie if she had shot a gun or test her proficiency.  And, of course, there is nothing in Arizona law that requires that.

Denis is DPS (AZ Dept. Public Service) and NRA certified, and he showed them a PowerPoint presentation which included the phrase, “Now that I’ve taken human life, what’s next?”  The instructor also provides a business card to be given to police in a situation where Kellie used her weapon.  It says:

“If I have given this to you, it has been necessary to take actions to defend innocent life,” and continues to set out legal parameters: “I wish to make no further statements until I have contacted an attorney and composed myself.”

Kellie asked Denis why he didn’t quiz the class on their gun experience.  His answer, “I can’t ask 20 or 30 people independently, I have to cover it as a blanket statement,” Denis said. “Plus my attorney told me that the website does in fact cover me, as far as the legality of that, if anybody ever tried to come against CCW AZ School.”  He later admitted that without adequate training, the gun owners are “hurting themselves.” 

And even more “can you believe this?”  Denis advised his students to “…shoot first and deal with the consequences later in the event of a home invasion.”  Not, attempt first to confirm that it isn’t your wife or children you are shooting, just shoot first.  Precisely what George Zimmerman did in killing Trayvon Martin, but he wasn’t even in his home.

Kellie eventually gets around to the dim-witted GOP legislators {my words} that enacted these stupid laws.  One such state lawmaker, Rick Murphy, R-Glendale, raved over the fact that concealed carry holders were “trained and following the law.”  She asked Murphy his opinion of her ability to defend herself in public, I am assuming based on her descriptions of Denis’ training.  Just what you might expect from a politician, particularly one who passes idiotic gun laws {my words}:

“I think it would be irresponsible of you to try,” Murphy said. “But then again we cannot always legislate responsibility and when we try we always fail. You cannot legislate common sense any more than you can legislate responsibility.”  What the hell did he say?   

“Rep. Jack Harper, R-Surprise, expressed his support for concealed carry on college campuses on Twitter the day of the Oakland shooting at a small religious college that killed seven.”  But when Mejdrich told him of her experience with training, Harper replied, “well, you know, it’s still a background check. That’s important. Obviously you took a one hour course, that is some kind of training.”



The perfect twins



Kelly countered with the question of whether or not “…he thinks the law should be changed back to the training requirements he boasted the CCW involved, he defaulted to the Second Amendment.”  He continued, “You’ve been influenced by academia.  The constitution is absolute.”  Pathetic!

When Mejdrich asked House Minority Leader Chad Campbell, D-Tempe, if a 22-year-old woman holding a permit without having ever fired a gun was too much, Campbell answered: “That’s a problem.  And that’s why I have a problem with some of the gun bills down here.  Previous CCW law required ‘good training, good background checks.’  We basically gutted it.  The CCW program is irrelevant now in this state.”  Amen!

The epitome of understatements!

Bullying and a lack of gun control go hand in hand

New Jersey’s Ramsey School District just paid $4.2 million to the family of Sawyer Rosenstein for bullying he experienced with a punch to the stomach while he was in Eric Smith Middle School that left him paralyzed from the waist down.  The bully had struck before and was known by the school.  Three months before the incident Rosenstein warned the school he was being bullied, asking for help.  Sawyer is now a freshman at Syracuse University.

Proactive Behavioral-Management exclaims, “If anyone believes that bullying doesn’t take its toll on families, schools, and society take a look at the statistics below:”

·       60% of middle school students say that they have been bullied, while 16% of staff believe that students are bullied.

·       160,000 students stay home from school everyday due to bullying. (NEA)

·       30% of students who reported they had been bullied said they had at times brought weapons to school.

·       A bully is 6 times more likely to be incarcerated by the age of 24.

·       A bully is 5 times more likely to have a serious criminal record when he grows up.

·       2/3 of students who are targets become bullies.

·       20% of all children say they have been bullied.

·       20% of high school students say they have seriously considered suicide with the last 12 months.

·       25% of students say that teachers intervened in bullying incidents while 71% of teachers say they intervened.

·       The average child has watched 8,000 televised murders and 100,000 acts of violence before finishing elementary school.

·       In schools where there are bullying programs bullying is reduced by 50%.

And here’s another fact that should make the public take another look at the National Rifle Assn.’s crusade to loosen or eliminate gun laws.  “Bullying was a factor in 2/3 of the 37 school shootings reviewed by the US Secret Service.”  Fortunately, Arizona’s latest stupid gun law to allow guns in colleges was vetoed by the Governor.  Add to that a loss of employment amounting to $19 billion and a drop in productivity of $3 billion due to workplace bullying.




According to the Bully Free Program, “Bullying is a form of aggressive behavior that is intentional, hurtful, (physical and psychological), and/or threatening and persistent (repeated). There is an imbalance of strength (power and dominance).”  Further, the mistreatment must be intentional, hurtful (physical or psychological), threatening, fear of harm and safety, and occur more than once, although some think once is enough.

Bullying by exclusion

There is both physical and verbal bullying and the above site, which I urge you to see if you have a problem or are just interested, explains what each is about.  It shows the social/relational downside that can humiliate, embarrass and destroy reputations.  Boys and girls are both bullies and there is cyber bullying which I will cover at more length later.  Every 7 minutes an elementary child is bullied on the playground but the onset is actually between 3 and 4 years of age.

It is a common theme in school shootings as students retaliate for the bullying; roughly two-thirds of school shooters “felt persecuted, bullied, threatened, attacked, or injured by others. 

Thirty percent of all child suicides can be directly related to bullying, some of which use a gun.  As an example, the worst school shooting ever at Virginia Tech in 2007 resulted in part by bullying of the shooter, Cho Seung-Hui, according to students who knew him. 

The Bully Free Program study covers the typical characteristics of the bullied as well as warning signs that your child might bully someone.  Folks, these are startling facts.

And here’s the most onerous fact of all: “Twenty-five percent of teachers see nothing wrong with bullying or put-downs and consequently intervene in only 4 percent of bullying incidents.”

And then there is cyberbullying, which is deliberately using digital media to communicate false, embarrassing, or hostile information about or to another person, according to the Breaking Free Blog.  Luke Gilkerson provides facts and statistics that cover everything from types of online bullying to the warning signs of being bullied. 

He says “38% of online girls report being bullied, compared with 26% of online boys;39% of social network users have been cyberbullied in some way, compared with 22% of online teens who do not use social networks.  “’Hyper-networking’ teens (those who spend more than three hours per school day on online social networks) are 110% more likely to be a victim of cyberbullying, compared to those who don’t spend as much time on social networks.”

Suicides from cyberbullying are prevalent and Gilkerson lists several to make his point including Tyler Clementi in 2010, Alexis Skye Pilkington in 2010, Phoebe Prince in 2010 and Amanda Cummings in 2011.  Tragedies that did not have to happen.

So what have we learned so far?  One disturbing fact is that loose guns contribute to the bullying problem in both victims’ retaliation and from those who commit suicide.  It seems that guns play a part of most everything that is bad and contribute little to the protection of those who carry them.  Also, schools do not understand nor do they take this issue seriously enough.  Parents are aware but need to counsel their children more.  It is a problem that will not go away.

Warren Buffett for President? Read on

Buffett/Secretary taxes

I received one of those forwarded emails recently that I usually delete without reading but when I noticed Warren Buffett’s name in the headline I took notice.  I am a big admirer of Mr. Buffett because he is one of us; the simple folk who try to keep this insane country headed in the right direction.  When Buffett said he shouldn’t pay less taxes than his secretary, I thought there would be a major rush to sign him up for the nation’s number one job.

The "Big Guys" discuss money

But the cagey investor knew, as most of us progressives do, that we have a great President in Barack Obama and all he needs is some support.  Hence, the “Buffett Rule” was born and the man told the President he could run with it and he did.  It is well known by most that this tax on millionaires would make only a small dent in the deficit, but it is the nature of the inequity between what the wealthy pay in taxes and what the simple folk like you and I do.

Mitch McConnell

Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, poop pooped the idea when it was introduced and even some Democrats were soft in their support.  But the American public was solidly behind the concept.  A Gallup poll in April found that 60 percent of Americans supported the proposal, including 63 percent of political independents.  Chuck Schumer, a Democratic Sen. from New York said it’s “proof positive” the GOP is on the defensive over taxes.

So it’s agreed that Barack Obama is the one for November.  So what else could Warren Buffett do to help the President in his re-election?  In a recent CNBC interview he claimed, “I could end the deficit in 5 minutes.  You just pass a law that says that anytime there is a deficit of more than 3% of GDP, all sitting members of Congress are ineligible for re-election.”

How the Buffett Rule works by Warren Buffett:

In another Gallup poll taken in February, Congress was at a record-low of 10 percent, down from 13 percent in January alongside another previous low of 11 percent.  Congressional approval averaged only 17 percent in 2011.  With all of these facts in the books, it was only natural that the financier would come up with some proposed legislation of his own.  His idea is the “Congressional Reform Act of 2012.”  Here are the sections of his bill.

1.    No  Tenure / No Pension.

A Congressman/woman collects a salary while in office and receives no
pay when they're out of office.

2.    Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social
Security.

All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the
Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into                 
the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the
American people. It may not be used for any other purpose.

3.    Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all
Americans do.

4.    Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise.
Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

5.    Congress loses their current health care system and
participates in the same health care system as the American people.

6.    Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the
American people.

7.    All contracts with past and present Congressmen/women are void
effective 1/1/12. The American people did not  make this contract with

Congressmen/women.

Warren Buffett comments that “Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career.  The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.  Right now there is 90 percent of the country that would agree.