Society of Sheep?

Image: Matt Collins

The San Angelo Standard-Times author W.D. Perkins recently published an article about the debate on gun control being less about controlling the weapons and more about controlling the American people, which you can read here. I think that he does a very good job in shedding light on the fact that the fight doesn't lie with the actual ownership of weapons, no. These are only martyrs to be held in public spectacle and paraded around in a pervasive dog and pony show. The real fight, which is very disturbing in itself, lies with the ability of the people to exercise their rights. As the people of a nation founded on the idea that tyrannical oppression stifles the very lives that we live in, you would think that we would not let history repeat itself. One point I will concede to is that government and some order of it is needed and I lend to it the fact that the United States would not have survived immediately after the American Revolution if it wasn't for some form of control. However, as history marches on, the freedoms and liberties that we have all taken for granted have slowly been subjected to more and more governmental scrutiny and then control. Even the states have slowly given up many of the freedoms that they have fought so hard for but I digress. Mr. Perkins makes a very short but persuasive argument that in only a few lines compels you to rethink the governments motivations. Undoubtedly intended for pro-Second Amendment Americans his audience is quite clear from the outset. Let me also point out however that Mr. Perkins uses the line from Thomas Jefferson stating that "no man shall ever be debarred the use of firearms" quite wrongly in my opinion. The government seems to want to limit the use of high speed and high capacity magazines and weapons, not actually debar them completely. In a recent Guns Across America rally Dan Bongino says, "We live in a society of wolves. We do not fight back by creating more sheep." So which are you, a wolf or a sheep?

Diverging Gunvernments

Courtesy eMendment.org, all rights reserved.

A very interesting article over at the Battalion caught my attention, most notably the very different actions being taken by Federal and State Governments concerning guns. The article outlines the differing opinions of the Obama Administration and the Texas Legislature and the actions currently being taken or proposed by the two parties. The Obama Administration has taken several courses of action including presidential memoranda and 23 executive actions. The three presidential memoranda called for by Obama "require federal agencies to make relevant data available to the federal background check system, require federal law enforcement to trace guns recovered in criminal investigations and direct the Centers for Disease Control to research the causes and prevention of gun violence." On the other hand, over 20 bills had been proposed almost two weeks into the 83rd Texas Legislative session that covered issues on gun control. Among the bills being discussed are concealed handgun permits, concealed carry at public schools, and a bill that would allow Texas A&M students and faculty who hold concealed weapon permits to carry on campus and even inside the buildings. Many of the students at Texas A&M seem to approve of concealed carry on the campus including the Student Senate citing "[Senate] feels that it would make the University safer and give people the security so that they can protect themselves on campus.”

Another issue being tackled is background checks; gun stores are currently required by federal law to enforce background checks when selling a weapon. Most use gun shows or private selling as a way to circumvent the law surrounding background checks. The Obama Administration is proposing universal background checks no matter where the transaction takes place, why wasn't this already being done? "U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said the need is not for tighter background checks, but for the Justice Department to hold gun buyers who do not follow the law more accountable for their actions, according to the The Huffington Post."

The last issue in the gun control package deal is mental health. Obama is calling for the Attorney General to research the issue of mental health in gun violence through the use of Executive actions. Also to make sure that dangerous people are not being allowed to purchase weapons. Another look at mental illness reveals that although some mentally ill people have a slightly higher proclivity towards violence than the average person, “looking at mass murders, only 20 percent are committed by persons with serious mental illness in their history, on the other hand, 60 percent of mass murder episodes are committed by middle aged working class men who are down on their luck — laid off, divorced, etcetera.”

In retrospect what could we have done to prevent violent crimes involving guns? Should we make stricter laws for people with mental health and require universal background checks? Should we require a database that tracks every weapon in the United States? Are the Federal and state governments creating problems for each other? If you are interested in 2nd Amendment rights or gun control or you just want to know where the state and federal governments stand on these issues then I highly recommend reading this article. Leave your comments below.

Check out the original article here.