Gun control

After this most recent mass shooting, the call for gun control is going to become very loud. Even my wife told me yesterday that she favored making ownership of ALL firearms illegal. I understand the concept behind the limiting access of firearms.

IF (A very big if) nobody could obtain firearms and/or ammunition, you would think that mass shootings like this would never happen. I not only disagree, but I believe that taking firearms away from law abiding citizens will only make the situation worse, not better.

Mass murder can be achieved in many ways besides going on a shooting rampage. Just look at Oklahoma City. And he got away from the scene without killing himself.

What about “Saturday night specials”? I am certain that we have plenty of people in this country would can forge their own firearms with materials commonly available. The firearms would simply move underground, in a way similar to the way prohibition moved drinking alcohol underground. What you end up doing is taking away the ability of people like me from ever having the training and practice needed to defend myself and or my family.

My wife does not see what I see in this regard. You need to look to see how many would be assaults with firearms are defeated every week. Conceal and carry works far better. Just look at the statistics in the states that are enacting this measure. Violent crime is down, although many critics say that crime is down across the country anyway. But the key is foiled attempts at the use of firearms. We see two or three a week, but they are not on the nightly news because generally only one or two people are killed and sometimes no one. Not big enough to make the papers, yet effective. How many shootings like we saw last week in the school? They tend to come in groups, yet average out to less than one a year. We have dozens of foiled attempts every year in concealed and carry states. This is because we have honest, law abiding citizens who are present at the scene who are willing to risk their life in order to at the very least, to force the shooter to direct their attention to them. Even if they fail, they at least direct the attention of the shooter away from the targets that they would select. This buys time for the others to run away. Many times they are successful and stop the violence immediately.

Have you noticed how these successful shooters are ALWAYS in a situation where no one else has firearms to shoot back? In the situations where someone else does have the ability to shoot back, they do and generally it is successful. Yet we do not hear about them because the death toll is so low, if anyone did die. Then we have the Constitution.

The U.S. Constitution enabled our people to defend themselves with the right to bear and CARRY arms. And the reference is to firearms. This was set up this way to enable us with the ability to defend ourselves from not just tyranny, but from ANY threat where we are outnumbered or outsized. I do not know about the other states that have allowed conceal and carry, but I do know that in Wisconsin, 80% of the new applications for concealed permits have been submitted by women. I expect similar results in the other states that have allowed this practice. A woman attacked by a man can really stand her ground if she did not have to use her fists to protect herself. A firearm goes a long way to even the odds and examples of justified shootings in conceal and carry states are plentiful.

The idea of taking firearms away from law abiding citizens is at best misguided. Other factors could be at play here and they are far worse, which is why we have the 2^nd amendment in the first place.  

Health Care

I recently saw a comment that claims that most people in other countries believe the health care system in the United States is a joke. Frankly, I really don’t care what they think. What I KNOW is that the United States has led the world in medical breakthroughs and innovation for the past century. The very fact that people are living longer today than ever before is in large part because of the United States. The sad part about all of this is that our President seems to think that this was all a big mistake and that we should CHANGE this. The cost just is not worth it for me, but then again, our President does not seem all that concerned about cost. 

Egypt

Egypt just may be undergoing a similar process that Iran underwent back in 2010. Iran had protests after an election that was seen as being rigged. The end result was those who were brave enough to stand up and expose themselves were then identified. Over the course of the next few weeks, these people were dealt with. There are lots of ways of dealing with people without resorting to actual elimination, although I am certain that torture and murder were used frequently. However, Iran is different from Egypt.

Egypt was controlled by England for generations. Although the Islamic influence is still ever present, the ideas of a different economic and legal system were established long enough to make some roots. We are seeing this today with the large protests against the government that had been recently elected. The current leadership of Egypt is largely influenced by Islamic ideology and law. The moves being protested against are logical but enough of the population has accepted a different way of rule that we are seeing larger protest than what was witnessed in Iran. What I worry about is a similar reaction by the government. Although Egypt appears to have a larger population that is in conflict with the government, the response will most likely be similar. Identification of those who are the most visible and most exposed. I would expect the initial moves by the Egyptian government to be fairly quiet. Once people begin to shut up, (Threatening families is a good way to do this) it is easier to be open with the moves that follow. People disappearing tends to get others thinking about their own best interests. Islam is good at forcing submission and the influence has not been eliminated altogether, by any stretch.

It remains to be seen what will result in Egypt, but the pattern that I see throughout the Middle East today is victory by Islamic forces and influence. I expect the same in Egypt although it may take longer than in some of the other countries.