Sort of an Apology
Ten years ago, these were excellent skills, but today, they do not gain me entry into the field of social media. I dropped out of Facebook recently because I
felt it intruded on my privacy … but also, it was a cluttered, confusing mess
of postings which in the final analysis, were a waste of time. I am not on Twitter, Instagram nor other things
like that because I am too busy with other things, like reading books,
magazines, newspapers (real ones, not online versions), writing, occasionally painting and watching
plain old fashioned TV, mostly news and sports. That’s about all I have time
for, so excuse any technical shortcomings you might find in www.Jackspotpourri.com.
After that, I am maxed out. (But
please click on the ads.)
Jack Lippman
Jack Lippman
The Sad Future of Reducing Gun Violence
This
is a very tough posting to write. But
what I am saying must be said.
Up
to now, groups aiming to reduce gun violence have pushed for taking military
style assault weapons out of the hands of civilians, primarily because such
weapons have been used in mass killings, including those in schools. Conceivably, such a ban might even be permissible
under the Second Amendment as being unusual weapons, not in existence at the
time nor anticipated by those who designed the Amendment. That has been my position for what it is
worth.
Shotguns are the most common weapon owned by
civilians and have many acceptable uses, such as hunting, on farms and ranches
and for home protection. While they
can’t fire with the rapidity of assault weapons, the can spray deadly
projectiles with each squeeze of the trigger.
They did this in Santa Fe quite effectively.
So
we are left with a problem. It is
estimated that there are about 310,000,000 people in the United States. Discounting children under age 17, that
leaves about 225,000,000 adults in this country. There are at least that number of guns of all
sorts in the hands of civilians. Americans have a right to have them according
to the Second Amendment of the Constitution.
To
deal with this problem without violating the Second Amendment, several
approaches are available. They include “hardening” soft targets such as schools
and theatre and concert venues with armed guards, metal detectors and armed
faculty and staff. They also include
increased background checking, screening and waiting periods at the point of
purchase of weapons, and that would have to include gun shows and personal
private sales as well as weapons purchased over the counter in stores. They include requirements that guns in
families with children be kept in locked cabinets. Finally, because those who carry out these
acts are usually disturbed in some manner, vast increases in mental health screening,
diagnosis and treatment are proposed to enable potential “shooters” to be
identified and monitored, including those in school settings as well as those
elsewhere in society, where far more shootings occur than in schools.
Another
approach, which I haven't heard much about yet, might be to attempt to modify the “gun culture,” the routine
acceptability of civilians having weapons, which pervades American
society. It starts with toys. Check out the toy shelves in Target and
Walmart stores and you will find “toys” intended for boys as young as age 3
which simulate weapons and have triggers.
It might be more than coincidental that toys intended for girls, with
rare exceptions, do not include simulated weapons, and with rare exceptions,
most mass killings are carried out by males, who have been raised in, and
remain submerged in, our “gun culture.” Something to think about.
Honestly,
while these approaches have merit and will reduce gun violence to some extent,
they are not the solution. If mental
health screening can successfully identify even one percent of our population
as potential shooters, that would give us a pool of over two million Americans
which would have to be monitored and followed closely on a daily basis. And
really, I believe that there are more than one percent with such problems. That would be a impossible task. And this would not include the quiet, silent
disturbed ones harboring grudges and evil thoughts of which no one around them
might be aware. Odd behavior might be
entirely innocent, but then again it might be an ominous warning. Who can tell?
They couldn't in Santa Fe. They could in Parkland and it made no difference.
They couldn't in Santa Fe. They could in Parkland and it made no difference.
No,
the solution does not rest in seeking to pick out potential shooters from a
pool of 225 million Americans. At great
cost, that will be of minimal help. The
bottom line is that a solution rests with the weapons they use. What it comes
down to, and this would be a hard pill for many Americans to swallow, would be
the repeal of the Second Amendment, or at least a drastic reinterpretation of
it by the Supreme Court.
We
have national armed forces today. There
is a state component to them in the form of National Guard units, but these are
really indistinguishable from the Army, the Navy, the Air Force and the Marine
Corps. Therefore, there is no need for
what the writers of the Second Amendment called “militias.” No one is going to
“call out the militia” telling them to bring their guns with them. The closest we come to that is activating
National Guard units, and they don’t bring their own weapons from home with
them. Once that fact, and it is a fact,
is accepted, the rest of the Amendment’s language isn’t worth anything. Any interpretation of the Amendment by the
Supreme Court to the contrary is wrong, and incidentally, covered with the
blood of those massacred at Santa Fe, Parkland, Sandy Hook and elsewhere. The Supreme Court is not God. Their decisions have caused deaths. For those of you who are not familiar with
it, here is the Second Amendment. Read
it. Try to understand the words. Pretend you are on the Supreme Court.
“A
well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the
right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
Get
it? This right of the people to keep and
bear arms was protected from being infringed upon because that was, back in
1789, a requirement in order to have a well regulated Militia, which was
necessary for the security of a free State.
That was written to appease some of these new “free States” (which up to
then had been the thirteen colonies), particularly the ones where human slavery
was part of their economies, and which did not trust the Federal government and
wanted the ability to have their own militia, if it ever came down to needing
one. Well it never did (until the Civil War), but certainly, “States” now neither
have nor need “militias” any longer other than National Guard units so no one
ought to object to the repeal of the Second Amendment. It is that simple. One cannot take the Amendment’s final
fourteen words as gospel and totally ignore its first thirteen words, which is
what most defenders of the Second Amendment do.
Once the necessity of the first
thirteen words of the Amendment disappear, and they have, the rest is
superfluous rubbish, except to the National Rifle Association, a lobbying group
for the gun industry. It’s written in
English. Read it! Make up your own mind. Pretend you are on the Supreme Court.
“A
well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the
right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
Repealing
the Second Amendment or waiting for the Supreme Court to drastically reinterpret
it in a nation where there are probably close to 300,000,000 weapons in the
hands of civilians would have to be done very gradually, over many decades of
presidencies and sessions of Congress and State legislatures.
Those
who have a legitimate need for weapons for self-defense, hunting, farming and
ranching uses and sporting activities would always be able to have weapons, but
they would have to be licensed to do so.
Others would have to have good reason to possess weapons. Yes, the NRA's fear that "They're coming to take your guns" will be partially validated. So what. Lives will be saved. Children will not be shot in schools. Gradually, over the years, existing weapons
would be “bought back” by the government at premium prices. Ultimately, this is the way our country can
reduce gun violence.
This
is the only way we will reduce gun violence in this country and I confidently predict this process will be fully
completed by the end of this century. All readers of this blog posting will be dead by then. (Some of them will be silently watching from wherever they end up, depending on their religious persuasion.) It will take that long. Any other
solution is delusionary, and sadly, a lot of blood is going to be shed before
the country recognizes that.
JL
Trump's Counter-Attack
It’s
a counter-attack on many fronts. The President
insists that it is, and always has been a witch hunt. The latest attacks are on FBI investigations
related to individuals having something to do with the Republican campaign and the Bureau's using its usual tools and methods of investigators. That’s what law enforcement does when they
believe a law has been broken. The attacks on the Special Counsel, his ethics,
his background and his methods, accelerate daily. House Intelligence Committee
Chair Nunes continues his partisan whitewashing of the President. The integrity of the Department of Justice
and its head by default, Ron Rosenstein, is questioned daily. Sometimes-incoherent Rudy Giuliani keeps
proclaiming that it all will be over soon since there is nothing to be revealed. Fox TV and chief cheerleader Hannity is
aflame nightly with weighty accusations which when put on scale, won’t move the
dial an ounce.
If
any of these arguments had any merit whatsoever, a normal government would turn
them over to a “Special Counsel.” Well,
that’s where we are, gang. We did that,
appointing one a year ago, but the “government” doesn’t like where he is
going. It scares them.
ONE
QUESTION REMAINS: WHAT DO THEY HAVE TO
HIDE, NECESSITATING SUCH A BROAD ATTACK AS DESCRIBED ABOVE? It’s right out of Trump’s ghost-written book,
“The Art of the Deal,” where Trump says that “when
people treat me badly or unfairly or try to take advantage of me, my general
attitude, all my life, has been to fight back very hard." THE ONLY POSSIBLE CONCLUSION IS THAT HE HAS SOMETHING DESPICABLE TO HIDE AND WHEN IT IS
REVEALED, THAT WILL BE THE END. AS IN A
GAME OF CHESS, WE ARE NOW ENTERING THE “END GAME.”
(A
random thought. In history, when a bad
ruler is gotten rid of, and severe punishment would seem to be out of the
question, an alternative has always been exile.
[Napoleon ended up on St. Helena.]
Once we no longer have need for Guantanamo Bay as a facility for
captured Islamic terrorists, it can be turned into a luxurious site for the exile
of the 45th President and those of his immediate family and
associates who fear that the criminal justice system would put them in a less
hospitable environment. It might even be
re-named Mar-a-Lago South, and catering would be permitted to keep the exiles
occupied along with a mall of upscale shops managed by Ivanka. Don Jr. could be in charge of the pool and the beachfront.)
The Beach at Guantanamo Bay
JL
The Publix Boycott - Read the Editorial
The
big grocery shopping chain down here in Florida is Publix. Last week, the Palm Beach Post published an
editorial revealing Publix’s extensive support of a conservative Republican
candidate for Governor, Adam Putnam. I had seen some of his TV commercials and recognized that he is one horrible candidate. (Right now he is Florida's Commisioner of Agriculture, a quite suitable job for one with great expertise dishing out bovine manure.) Check it out by CLICKING RIGHT HERE.
JL
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Jack Lippman
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