Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman says the NRA is insane… many of us agree

As have many other celebrities done, now Paul Krugman, from the field of economics, has pronounced his feelings about the leading U.S. gun lobby, the National Rifle Assn. (NRA).  They are an “insane organization,” he laments, in a situation where the pro-gun rights groups have suddenly been placed on the defensive.  Krugman didn’t say it but I will.  Wacky Wayne LaPierre, head of the NRA, is the craziest of them all with its President, David Keene, not far behind. 

 

Unfortunately these two gun fanatics are surrounded by a minority of the NRA membership that worships their weapons over human life.  This is no doubt what Krugman refers to when he says, “the craziness of the extreme pro-gun lobby has been revealed, and that has got to move the [gun control] debate and got to move the legislation at least to some degree.”   More alarming is the fact that he thinks the NRA “is pushing the country towards dystopia.”

 

See video where Paul Krugman calls NRA "insane:"

“What strikes me is we've actually gotten a glimpse into the mindset, though, of the pro-gun people…It's bizarre,” Krugman said, adding that the NRA believes “America cannot manage unless everybody's prepared to shoot intruders and that the idea that we have police forces that provide public safety is somehow totally impractical…”  The man is echoing the sentiments of most gun control advocates who see the NRA for what it is, a self-serving group protecting the profits of themselves and gun manufacturers.

 

Krugman is a liberal, ranked high in the field of economics and is rated as one of the most influential academic thinkers in the U.S.  That places the man way above the limited aptitude of a LaPierre or Keene, particularly their gun nut membership.  So it is no doubt that Krugman’s predictions would not impress them; that is considering they can even understand his logic.  In his book, “The Conscience of a Liberal,” Krugman proposes a “new New Deal” for America.  He takes American conservatism to task.

 

The gun rights movement and LaPierre’s combined interests of protecting his million-dollar salary and gun manufacturers’ billion-dollar profits is rooted in this brand of conservatism that, among other things, used fear to win elections.  Along the same lines, the NRA has constantly instilled fear in its membership to prime them to run out and buy more guns.  This keeps the gun companies happy and lets LaPierre maintain his lavish lifestyle.  This alone should wake up these clueless NRA members.

 

But Krugman is optimistic.  He feels the demographic trends, emphasizing race and culture and the conservative “overreach” of the Bush years, has created “a new center-left political environment and are slowly undermining the conservative movement.”  He wants to concentrate on social and medical programs, playing down national defense.  And Krugman confirms the rise of progressives in a political atmosphere where the term “liberal” was turned into a dirty word by conservatives.

 

Many will not agree, but I personally believe that the NRA, particularly Wayne LaPierre’s “absolutist” type, will soon lose its clout over Congress through those new progressives mentioned earlier going to the polls in 2014 and voting the bums out of office.  It’s hard to say if there will be a central character that breaks the backbone of the gun lobby, or if it will be the combined efforts of the staunch gun control groups.  The fact is that the momentum is on and we must take advantage of it.  Paul Krugman did his part.

Cherokee activist Albert Bender believes that guns are the root of America’s problems

Albert Bender is a journalist and Cherokee activist taking the position that you can blame guns for most problems that face Americans today.  From slavery to Native Americans, it is a gun culture in the U.S. fostered by white Americans that has created the dilemma that we are in.  Bender, as many others are beginning to do, is bringing the crisis with gun violence closer and closer to the health care system, particularly mental health.  Mr. Bender takes aim at what he calls a “monolithic” weapons industry that is “opting for profit over humanity.” 

 

Gun control pieces missing in health care

And now public health experts are saying a gun is like a virus, a car, tobacco or alcohol.  It is a social disease that needs to be treated, and they liken it to reducing car crashes and deaths years ago with safety measures, product changes and driving laws that improved automobile safety dramatically.  When you compare this with the firearms industry, they have resisted safety changes due to cost and the NRA has prevented any research on gun deaths as well as stopped all gun control legislation in its tracks.  All accomplished through buying off Congress and spreading fear among its membership.

 

Although mass shootings don’t account for most of the gun deaths, they are the most visible in the media, and even more so when the victims are 20 little children ages 6 and 7.  Unfortunately, police reporting of these incidents often lags by more than a year, so we don’t really have the true picture.  This follows suit to the National Rifle Assn. (NRA) efforts that have prevented any reliable research on gun violence for years.  Even the automobile industry was solidly behind the research that brought down car deaths.  In comparison, the gun lobby fights gun violence research with millions of dollars.

 

Here’s another shocker on how the gun lobby has prevented firearms violence research:

 

One source reports, “The Consumer Product Safety Commission regulates over 15,000 products in all, but federal law prohibits them from controlling the safety of firearms.  In fact, there is next to no regulation of firearm manufacture, and only the gun manufacturers themselves can issue recalls.  What's more, gun makers, dealers and trade groups are immune from negligence and product liability lawsuits.” 

 

In this public health approach, “One recent study found firearm owners were more likely than those with no firearms at home to binge drink or to drink and drive, and other research has tied alcohol and gun violence. That suggests that people with driving under the influence convictions should be barred from buying a gun,” said  Dr. Garen Wintemute, an emergency medicine professor who directs the Violence Prevention Research Program at the University of California, Davis.  This group once again quoted the study that says 40% of guns are purchased without a background check.

 

Daniel Webster, a health policy expert and co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research in Baltimore says "There's sort of a contagion phenomenon" following a shooting.  I liken this to when the gun bubbas come out of the woodwork screaming 2^nd Amendment rights and rushing out to buy several more guns for a household that already closely resembles a military arsenal.  It is all so ludicrous that one might wonder about the mentality level of a group of fanatics who have to repeatedly re-live the Revolutionary War to justify their worship of guns.

 

Dr. Mark Rosenberg, president and CEO of the Task Force for Global Health, an Atlanta-based nonprofit public health organization along with Jay W. Dickey Jr., a former Arkansas congressman, says, “The same evidence-based approach that is saving millions of lives from motor-vehicle crashes, as well as from smoking, cancer and HIV/AIDS, can help reduce the toll of deaths and injuries from gun violence.”  Dickey was once the point-person in Congress for the NRA.  Rosenberg at the time was director of the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, which had conducted firearms research.

 

The CDC has all the data necessary to analyze gun violence and draw several conclusions on how it could be prevented.  But, “The CDC doesn’t analyze gun violence because it can’t use federal money to advocate or promote gun control.”  And that comes to your regular mass shootings and every day gun murders compliments of Wayne LaPierre and his National Rifle Assn. (NRA).  There is no excuse for this negligence but it will continue as long as the American public refuses to react and allow the NRA-controlled Republicans and Democrats to stay in Congress.  Amen!

New surveys confirm Americans want more gun control…even NRA members

The studies keep pouring in on gun control vs. gun rights and they keep saying the same thing.  The American public wants more gun regulations, and this includes members of the National Rifle Assn. (NRA).  The time has come for the gun rights fanatics like Wayne LaPierre, head of the NRA, to prove these studies bogus or admit defeat and get on with saving people’s lives with reasonable gun control laws.  LaPierre’s “absolutist” hogwash on gun owners’ rights under the 2^nd Amendment is long overdue for an overhaul, and wacky Wayne knows it; except he’s trying to save his cushy million dollar job.

In the most recent poll by Johns Hopkins University, “89 percent of all respondents, and 75 percent of those identified as NRA members, support universal background checks for gun sales.”  Now this would include private sales at gun shows where 40% of U.S. gun sales come from.  Since there were 10,800,000guns sold in 2011 in the U.S., that means that 4,320,000 of those firearms went on the street knowing absolutely nothing about the individual buying them.  He or she just walked in, made the purchase, and walked out the door with a means to kill someone.  That is scary as hell.

 

 

There’s more.  Close to “70 percent of respondents supported bans on military-style semiautomatic weapons and high capacity ammunition magazines,” and “80 percent  backed measures restricting those who could buy guns, such as people with histories of domestic violence or serious juvenile crimes.”  The sampling also checked to find out if there were any differences between gun owners and non-gun owners.  There weren’t, which shows a consistency throughout the U.S. that more gun regulations are needed.

The above becomes even more significant when you consider the fact that a large majority of NRA members are included.  This majority also would prohibit, “people with recent alcohol or drug charges to purchase guns, and 70 percent supported a mandatory minimum of 2 years in prison for selling guns to persons who are not legally allowed to have one.”  The survey also found that Americans want more spending on mental health in relation to gun violence.    

But that’s not all.  A new Gallup poll found that two-thirds of the American public support heavy new restrictions on gun purchases, supporting all nine of President Obama’s key proposals.  They were:

 

• 91% for criminal background checks
• 82% want increased government spending on mental health programs
• 79% are for increased government spending for law enforcement and school officials for armed attacks
• 75% think criminal penalties should be increased for those buying guns for someone who hasn't passed background check
• 70% want the feds  to spend $4 billion to help keep 15,000 police officers on the street
• 69% would like the government to spend $30 million to help schools develop emergency response plans
• 67% want to ban the possession of armor-piercing bullets by anyone other than the military or law enforcement
• 60% would strengthen the ban on assault weapons that expired in 2004
• 54% want to limit the sale of ammunition magazines to 10 rounds or less

 

In some additional findings the respondents opted for school security over new gun laws and “Seventy-five per cent favor increasing criminal penalties for so-called 'straw purchasers', people who buy guns for others restricted from having weapons of their own.”  You might recall that it was these straw buyers in Arizona, where gun control almost doesn’t exist, that purchased firearms that ended up in the hands of the Mexican drug cartels.  Arizona not only is still passing laws to relax gun control even more, but now the state’s legislature is presenting a bill that would allow Arizona to ignore new federal gun laws.

Finally let me leave you with the fact that there have been 1,280 gun deaths since the Sandy Hook Elementary School carnage, as reported by the Huff Post. 

Newtown bereaved father just doesn’t get it

No one can feel the grief that MarkMattioli feels, except the other nineteen families whose children ages 6 and 7 were slaughtered by Adam Lanza in the Newtown Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting last December.  But the father is way off base when he said, “there are more than enough gun laws on the books.”  Although the proposed legislation by President Obama for universal background checks, including private sales at gun shows, wouldn’t have helped in this instance, it will certainly help identify responsible gun owners in the future.

 

True, Mattioli’s plea for improving the mental health system could have prevented Lanza from having access to the weapons he used; although since they belonged to his mother, that is debatable unless we extend the mental health requirements to forbidding any firearms in a home where there is a known mental health problem.  Wouldn’t that just drive wacky Wayne LaPierre, head of the National Rifle Assn. (NRA), right up the wall?  But when you think about it, there is really no other way to keep someone who is mentally incompetent away from guns.

 

Adam Lanza was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome and according to the National Institute of NeurologicalDisorders and Stroke, “Some individuals with ASD are severely disabled and require very substantial support for basic activities of daily living.  Asperger syndrome is considered by many to be the mildest form of ASD and is synonymous with the most highly functioning individuals with ASD.”  And most experts agree that Asperger’s syndrome doesn’t cause violence.  Since autism, which is what AS is a part of, is not considered a mental illness, is Sandy Hook even a mental health issue?

 

Yes, that's wacky Wayne LaPierre behind the sign

 

Contrary to Mattioli’s  position, a large group of Newtown residents voiced their opinions to Connecticut lawmakers to take state action that would prevent another tragedy like the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary.  But other residents were concerned about their 2^nd Amendment rights at about the same time Wayne LaPierre was frothing at the mouth again over the NRA’s “absolutist” rights, which was in response to President Obama reminding the gun fanatics you cannot “mistake absolutism for principle.”  Apparently they just don’t get it either.

 

One Newtown mother said, “there's a national misperception that Newtown residents want to repeal the Second Amendment. Rather, Newtown residents want to protect people's rights while also protecting children and their safety.”  It is this belief by the gun nuts that gun control advocates want to take their guns away that has been instilled in them by LaPierre for years.  Fear works when you are trying to initiate action, like raising more money for the NRA.  I liken it to the selling of cancer insurance by junk mail years ago.  Scare the hell out of them to induce buying the insurance.

 

And then there was this classic statement by Bill Sherlach, whose wife, Mary, the school psychologist, was killed in the carnage:

 

He said he respects the 2^nd Amendment “but it was written in a long-ago era where armaments were different.  I have no idea how long it took to reload and refire a musket," he said. "I do know that the number of shots fired in the Sandy Hook Elementary School in those few short minutes is almost incomprehensible, even in today's modern age." 

 

David Wheeler’s 6-year-old son was killed in the massacre and cited the mental health angle again:

 

"That a person with these problems could live in a home where he had access to among the most powerful firearms available to non-military personnel is unacceptable," he said. "It doesn't matter to whom these weapons were registered. It doesn't matter if they were purchased legally. What matters is that it was far too easy for another mentally unbalanced, suicidal person who had violent obsessions to have easy access to unreasonably powerful weapons."

 

If the Newtown incident is ruled to be mentally incompetent connected, it will certainly be a clear sign that it is necessary to evaluate every home in which firearms are housed.  And that would significantly apply to those having assault-type weapons since this seems to be the weapon of choice for the mass gun murderers.  Once again this raises the need for a national database of firearms owned and with the improvement of identifying the mentally challenged, there could be an instant cross-reference that would identify any potential problem households.

 

To some gun owners and wacky Wayne LaPierre, that is blasphemy toward their sacred toys.  To me it is just common sense.

Immigration reform will happen this time

 

President Obama says “Now’s the time” and he is talking about making immigration reform a reality for the U.S. in a way that will benefit both the 11-plus million who are undocumented and our country as well.  Keep in mind, this legislation does not apply just to Hispanics but also to Asians, Europeans, etc.  Those of us who came here like Obama said for a better life, which includes everyone but Native Americans.  It is easy to forget the heritage of our ancestors who came to the U.S. through Ellis or Angel Islands to work and contribute in the new country.

 

It is true of course; they were legal, at least most of them.  And the 11-plus million undocumenteds are illegal.  But according to a CNN/ORC International poll conducted this month, 53% of Americans favor allowing this group to become legal residents opposed to 43% who don’t.  And what if we followed the latter’s advice and deported the illegals?  Restaurants and the hospitality industry would be without help; there would be no gardeners to take care of your yards; no one to clean your house; and agricultural fields would have no one to work them and the crops would rot.  Do we want that?

 

FACT CHECK reports that “Economists say immigration, legal or illegal, doesn’t hurt American workers.”  But a new House Caucus, Reclaim American Jobs consisting of 41 members says otherwise.  The economists counter there is little to support their claim that these undocumenteds take American jobs.  At least those in which Americans are willing to work.  With this obstacle out of the way you would think that most states would understand the need for this group of workers.  But a clueless Arizona Governor is still fighting to prevent illegals from getting driver licenses, even under Obama’s deferred action plan.

 

The President has a plan that is a broadly sweeping outline of what needs to be accomplished in immigration reform.  He advocates focusing on enforcement while strengthening border security then insuring that businesses don’t knowingly hire illegal workers.  Obama is convinced we must deal with the 11+ million illegal immigrants, but at the same time feels this group must have hope for citizenship.  And he would update and upgrade the current immigration system to the point that it is more user-friendly in accommodating legals to get their families into the U.S.

 

The Gang of Eight Senators

 

But CNN chief political analystGloria Borger said, “…she believes Obama is playing good cop-bad cop, with his own left-leaning proposals being the bad cop and his Senate colleagues being the good cop. He's essentially saying, if you don’t deal with them, you’re going to deal with me.”  So enter the on-and-off Senator from Arizona, John McCain.  He was for immigration reform when he wasn’t running for office but changed his position radically to conform to the demands of the AZ Tea Party when a presidential candidate.  Now he’s back on the side of immigrants again.  The classic flip-flop.

 

Time’s Swampland exclaims that John McCain has been a determined opponent of Barack Obama since the scathing loss to the President in 2008.  The Gang of Eight Senators includes 4 Democrats, Bob Menendez, NJ, Dick Durbin, IL, Charles Schumer, NY, and Michael Bennet, CO.  Republicans are McCain, AZ, Marco Rubio, FL, Lindsey Graham, SC and Jeff Flake, AZ.  Swampland says this bunch has a blueprint introduced the day before Obama’s but very much a parallel to what he proposed, as follows:

 

“It would create a ‘tough but fair’ path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants while beefing up border security. It would streamline the legal immigration system and create incentives to lure sought-after tech and science whizzes. It would establish a mechanism for employers to check the immigration status of potential hires. And it would try to create ways for employers — particularly in the agricultural sector — to find low-wage undocumented workers when Americans are not available.”

 

Any bill will have a hard time getting through the GOP-held House, particularly up against the Tea Party fanatics.  The House is also apparently working on a plan of its own.  Norm Ornstein, longtime political analyst and co-author of "It's Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided with the New Politics of Extremism” had reservations:

 

“Will this compromise make it through the Senate, once the details are hammered out (always more difficult than frameworks) and with a lot more than 60 votes? Next, will House Republicans, who have very different impulses and constituencies, be supportive? Finally, if not, will (House Speaker John) Boehner bring an immigration bill to the floor that will get many more Democratic votes than Republican?"

 

If I were a Republican in Congress (God forbid) and I looked at the dynamics of the Hispanic demographic that is exploding throughout the country, I would figure some way to get on the bandwagon.  With the total Congress hovering around a 10% approval level, and Republicans who have repeatedly been identified as obstructionists, putting them at even a lower level, my gut tells me that immigration reform will happen this time.

 

 

Religious leaders say the worship of guns is a form of idolatry

 

This never occurred to me when I wrote about the gun worshippers out there that value their firearms over life itself.  These are the die-hard fanatics that refuse to negotiate at all over even the smallest new gun control laws.  Fanatics like Wayne LaPierre who heads up the National Rifle Assn. (NRA), this country’s major obstacle to enacting sane, reasonable gun control legislation.  But Rabbi David Saperstein said on CNN, “The religious community is capable of ‘mobilizing people to be a political force that we have done on issues of conscience since the beginning of this country.’” 

 

The bells of the Washington National Cathedral rang 28 times recently to honor the 28 dead in the Newtown, CT shooting.  At the same time, wide spectrums of religious leaders were asking their congregations, President Obama and congressional leaders to do something about the gun violence that has overtaken the country.  Consisting of evangelicals, mainline Protestants, Catholics, Jews, Islamists and Sikhs, they want the outlawing of assault weapons and high capacity magazines, tightening the access on all guns and improved mental health care.  Who could argue with this, except wacky Wayne?

 

Rev. Gary Hall, dean of the Washington National Cathedral, said, “Everyone in this city {Washington} seems to be in terror of the gun lobby. But I believe the gun lobby is no match for the cross lobby.”  Rabbi Saperstein, primary organizer of the event and director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism added in quoting from Leviticus 19:16: “Do not stand idly by when your neighbor’s life is threatened.”  Then the Rabbi asked himself a question and answered it.

 

“Is the need for sensible gun control a religious issue?  Indeed, it is, for our worship of guns is a form of idolatry, the random distribution of guns is offense against God, and the only appropriate response is sustained moral outrage.”  

 

What the religious right extremists

would have you believe

 

And as you might expect, the religious right extremists “have found a new demon to slay: gun control,” reports the Sothern Poverty Law Center’s Hatewatch.  Quoting this group:

 

“It might seem odd that those who profess allegiance to the teachings of Jesus Christ would be so vociferous about making sure that Americans have continued, unfettered access to assault rifles. But in the wake of the massacre of schoolchildren in Connecticut, which ignited the most heated debate about gun control in this country in a decade, some of the religious right’s most rabid voices are joining the fight.”

 

This clearly underscores my admonition that these gun nuts love their guns more than the adults and children they kill.  To Bryan Fischer, atty. for the American Family Assn., Barack Obama is “blatantly disingenuous when he says he believes in the Second Amendment.”  Hatewatch also reports that Fischer is the guy who claims:

 

“…that Adolf Hilter’s Nazi Party relied on gay men because of their innate brutality, to turn {that} debate straight on its face.  Not only has he banned the use of the words ‘assault rifles’ on his Focal Point radio show in favor of ‘sporting rifles’ – and threatened to fine any member of his staff who uses the wrong term – he has defined the debate on gun control as a thinly veiled plot to target Christians.”

 

 These people are obviously nuts, but considering their close ties with the National Rifle Assn. (NRA), it is easy to understand where all this vicious doctrine comes from.  It is unfortunate that we have all these crackpots out there spouting off on a subject that needs sane minds in control.  However, I do not believe these fanatical efforts will undermine what the mentally sound religious leaders are proposing.  And that is what the majority of Americans want.  They want reasonable gun control that will stop the gun violence that is sweeping the country.  And they want it now.

 

Why we should really worry about some gun owners

 

Gun fanatic James Yeager

For the most part, the gun-owning-public is a safe bunch using and maintaining their guns properly and are a credit to this lifestyle.  However, in my mind at least, this does not include the cowboys with concealed carry permits that take their firearms out on the street to protect the citizenry of this country.  I don’t care if it is legal—it shouldn’t be—probably none of this group is fully trained as in law enforcement and some have no training at all.  Like in Arizona where all it takes to buy a gun is a warm body.  And there are several other states nationwide that do not require training to purchase a gun.

 

So that’s my soapbox on the concealed carry permit for the day, but there’s more to this story.  It is my way of illustrating the need for more control in the purchasing of firearms, particularly in the training the new gun owner should undergo.  In addition, a written and hands-on test should be given at the end and if the person doesn’t pass, he or she loses their gun until they do.  This should be retroactive to include all current gun owners, an unfortunate demand on states, but certainly worth the effort.  Gun owners will scream but it is the only way to insure responsible gun ownership.

 

And this need becomes so evident on a daily basis through the bizarre things that take place in relation to people and firearms. 

 

As an example, a mother in New York added some interesting items to her 7-year-old kid’s lunch in his backpack.  Along with a peanut butter sandwich, she placed a flare gun, a 22-caliber pistol, a loaded magazine, and 14 extra bullets, just in case.  The mother, Deborah Farley, said she had been out walking the streets of Queens earlier in the week when she had placed the guns in her son’s backpack, forgetting to take them out.  She was arrested for child endangerment and criminal possession of an unregistered firearm.  Police also found marijuana in her home.  So where did she get the gun?

 

And then those who are so eager to protect all of us by packing heat on the streets, can’t even participate in a rally for the support of gun rights without accidentally injuring themselves and others around them with their firearms.  

 

In Raleigh, NC, at the Dixie Gun and Knife Show, Gary Lynn Wilson had brought his 12-gauge shotgun to the event to sell to a private buyer; it discharged when being inspected at the entrance to the show.  Three people were injured.  The show shut down early.

 

Emory L. Cozee was loading his 45-caliber semi-automatic when he shot himself in the hand at the Indy 500 Gun and Knife Show.  What is interesting is that loaded personal weapons aren’t allowed inside the show.

 

Then in Ohio, a gun dealer was checking a semi-automatic handgun he had purchased when he accidentally pulled the trigger injuring his friend when the bullet ricocheted off the floor hitting him in the arm and the leg.

 

Now, I am certainly no expert on firearms but common sense does ring through loudly in all the above cases.  Shouldn’t Wilson have emptied the shotgun of all ammunition before even packing it up to bring to the show?  Shouldn’t Cozee have known loaded weapons were not allowed in the show and removed the rounds from his 45?  And shouldn’t the Ohio gun dealer have had the proper firearms training and known to be more careful in the handling of his weapon in public?  This is exactly why I worry about these gunslingers walking the streets with guns many have no idea how to use.

 

And then the ultimate example.  James Yeager, a wacko from Tennessee who is the CEO of Tactical Response, a firearms and tactical training company, said he would start killing people if further gun control policies are passed.  It was in a video posted on You Tube and Facebook, later revised to take out the killing part.  The Tenn. Dept. of Safety has now suspended Yeager’s handgun carry permit.  He was called irresponsible, dangerous, and deserving immediate attention by the Dept. Commissioner.  If ever there was a case of a disturbed individual with a firearm, Mr. Yeager fits the bill.

 

But all of the above no doubt continue to walk around with their weapons, except for Yeager, who probably still maintains an arsenal at his business and home.  Equally as wacky as Yeager, the head of the National Rifle Assn. (NRA), Wayne LaPierre, has instilled the kind of absolutist mentality in some gun owners, the gun nuts, that produces the fanatical reactions to any kind of gun control as evidenced by Yeager.  Another fanatic that comes to mind is Larry Pratt, exec. Dir. Of Gun Owners of America, a group known to be even more radical on gun rights than the NRA. 

 

The time for gun control has definitely arrived.