On Fox News—where else?—Andrew Napolitano, a senior judicial
analyst, said on Jan. 10, “If the Jews in the Warsaw ghetto had had the
firepower and the ammunition that the Nazis did, some of Poland might have
stayed free and more persons would have survived the Holocaust.”Anthony Polonsky, a professor of Holocaust
studies at Brandeis University, questions another comparison of the 1943 Warsaw
Ghetto Uprising, in which about 750 Jews took up arms, killed about 25 Nazis
and briefly slowed the deportation of Jews to concentration camps.
Polonsky admits in a Religious Newsarticleby Lauren Markoe that “this uprising was the largest single
Jewish revolt against the Nazis. But the Nazis killed thousands of Jews in the
Warsaw ghetto, and the 50,000 who survived were sent to concentration camps.”Polonsky added, “The people who participated
in it were killed.”More comparisons by
gun rights advocates over the years have used the Russian pogroms from the
early 20th century and also the American slavery movement after the
Civil War.
Others have joined the chorus of lunatics, one such was John
Rocker, former major league pitcher who wrote on WorldNetDaily.com about “the
undeniable fact that the Holocaust would never have taken place had the Jewish
citizenry of Hitler’s Germany had the right to bear arms and defend themselves
with those arms.”Rocker was also accused
of being racist, homophobic, and sexist for comments he made about New
York.And then Jonathan E. Grant railed
on about pro-gun control Jews using the Holocaust once again.
Cartoon video of NRA gun nut blasted on Holocaust theory:
There were others like Tea Party backed Samuel Wurzelbacher,
“Joe the Plumber,” who related, “In 1939 Germany established gun control; from
1939 to 1945 6 million Jews, 7 million others, unable to defend themselves,
were exterminated.”And once again,
Wurzelbacher is the same one who proposed in Prescott, AZ, that we should start
shooting at the border to prevent illegal immigration.All loosely connected (LaPierre, Napolitano,
Rocker and Wurzelbacher) but each an extremist in his own way, and a threat to sanity.
On Piers Morgan Tonight, conspiracy peddler Alex Jones
ranted on about how "Hitler took the guns, Stalin took the guns, Mao took
the guns, Fidel Castro took the guns, Hugo Chávez took the guns, and I'm here
to tell you, 1776 will commence again if you try to take our firearms.”The “Hitler” approach dates back to “when
opponents of a Chicago proposal to ban handguns invoked it in the largely
Jewish suburb of Skokie by "reminding village residents that the Nazis
disarmed the Jews as a preliminary to sending them to the gas chambers.”
A new pro-gun group called Jews for the Preservation of
Firearms Ownership in 1989 began arguing that the 1968 federal gun control bill
once favored by the NRA's old guard "was lifted, almost in its entirety,
from Nazi legislation."It wasn’t.And then in 1994 JPFO founder Aaron Zelman
called on the NRA to take a shot at the alleged connection between gun control
and the Holocaust.Zelman made his case
which you can read in a Mother Jones articleby
Gavin Aronsen.Aronsen isn’t sure Zelman’s
plea helped but comments:
“Whether or not the NRA was
influenced by his advice, that same year its CEO, Wayne LaPierre, published
Guns, Crime, and Freedom, in which he claimed, ‘In Germany, firearm registration
helped lead to the holocaust,’ leaving citizens ‘defenseless against tyranny
and the wanton slaughter of a whole segment of its population.’”The following year, President George H.W.
Bush famously resigned from the NRA after LaPierre attacked federal law
enforcement officials as ‘jack-booted government thugs’ who wore ‘Nazi bucket
helmets and black storm trooper uniforms.’”
Whatever conclusions one might draw from these
conspiracy theories, it is clear they all originate within a sick gun culture with
Wayne LaPierre and his band of gun worshippers always at the root of the
problem.Unless we get rid of wacky
Wayne and his gang of gun nuts, mass shootings will continue, daily shootings
will blossom even further with more and more guns on the street, and Americans
will be forced to endure the tragedy of gun violence.How many more little children ages 6 and 7
must be massacred to make this point clear?
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.
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 sayinga 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) effortsthat 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 2nd 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!
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 2nd 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 percentbacked
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 pollfound 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.
No one can feel the grief that MarkMattiolifeels, 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 2nd 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 2nd
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.
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 reportsthat
“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 Borgersaid, “…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 Swamplandexclaims
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.
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.