Guns In America – The Ultimate Solution

 The United States Of America has a population of more than 300 million.  It is estimated that more than 350 million firearms are in distribution within America.  Thousands of Americans are killed by firearms every year.  Since 1968, more than 30,000 Americans a year have been killed by guns in our country.  The high-water marks were hit in 1993 and 2017 when almost 40,000 perished by guns. 

 Wild West In Contemporary America   

No Background Checks or Bills-Of-Sale

We can study (many manipulate) the statistics in attempting to understand why America has this enormous problem.  In the final analysis, the statistics always lead us to the same inescapable conclusions.  Guns in America are too Plentiful, totally untraceable  and therefore way too easy for anyone to possess.  

 We also have learned that America will, in all likelihood, never be able to end all firearm related deaths, permanent physical injuries and paralysis or the awful scourge of psychological and emotional horror that victims and their loved ones will have to endure for a lifetime.  Yet, we know we can save lives and vastly curtail, lessen and limit the lifetime horrors of suffering through gun violence.   

We have accumulated a mountain of evidence as to what does NOT provide relief or save lives.  We have also evolved into a society where laws pertinent to the sale and distribution of firearms are, for the most part, ineffective in curbing that violence.   

 The Brady Bill was enacted in 1993.  This was our most recent effort in attempting to deny unlimited access to guns.  The bill has had little effect in saving lives nor, in any meaningful fashion, does it address our current and very unique brand of American Terrorism - spree shootings and mass murders - or gang and crime related deaths.  This daily validates that any further regulatory controls placed on expanded and universal background checks will not be effective.  Background checks will have no effect on Gun Show Purchases, private party sales or thefts.  Also, outlawing the sale and distribution of automatic and semi-automatic killing machines will do little to quell the carnage.  It is estimated that there already exists roughly four million automatic, machine gun style weapons – that we know of – on American streets. 

 That brings us squarely to the National Rifle Association (NRA).

  The NRA is strictly a governmental lobbying organization.  Like all other such entities, they are paid to represent a special interest group.  That group is the gun manufacturers and distributors in American, along with the splitter group of citizens who love gun ownership and possession.  As such, the NRA will say or do anything – even if it is deceitful or dishonest - to gain protection and support for those special interests.  They have virtually no interest in the American constitution or American rights.  They have deceitfully manipulated the interpretation of the Second Amendment.  They have done so to foster hatred for anyone who challenges their lobbying efforts to enrich the gun industry.  We have learned that we cannot place any credibility – any trust or faith – in their rhetoric.  It is dishonest and solely designed to disguise their never-ending goal of greater profits with no regard for the saving of human lives.

Examples: Slogan: “Guns don’t kill people; people kill people.” 

We have no foolproof method for determining who may be deranged at the time they purchase a gun or who may suffer from the illness after their purchase. 

What we know is that there is no cure for mental illness.  It can occur and manifest itself due to a number of environmental and sociological circumstances.  Our laws and culture do not allow us to take any preventative or punitive measures against anyone perceived to be unbalanced.  We must wait until they have ruined or destroyed lives to take any action to protect ourselves.  We know that, even if it is possible, it will take years to further curtail mental illness and its corresponding social behavior.  In the meantime, thousands more will die.  Eliminating the methods - eliminating firearms and most especially the most vicious of these totally unnecessary killing machines from our culture and society can be accomplish in a far shorter period of time, thus saving many more lives.

 This brings us to NRA philosophy of arming every citizen as a method of self-defense.  Such a proposal encourages placing these instruments of death in the hands of the mentally unstable.

We know further, that attempting to arm all Americans is counterproductive.  The altogether volatile nature of human beings makes such a proposal absolutely absurd and very dangerous.

Under Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law, enacted in 2005, it became unimaginably simple and easy for residents to obtain a conceal and carry permit.  Florida resident George Zimmerman possessed such a permit under that law. 

On February 26, 2012, Zimmerman approached and detained Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida.  Zimmerman thought Martin looked suspicious because he had never seen Martin on the grounds of the apartment complex before.  The unarmed Martin was returning from a convenience store to a relative’s home where he was staying.  The two men got into a physical confrontation.  Zimmerman drew his gun and shot Martin to death.  At the time of the shooting Martin was NOT breaking any laws.

Then on November 23, 2012 another unarmed, 17-year-old, Jorden Davis, was shot to death in Jacksonville, Florida because he was playing his music too loud. 

 It was recently reported that violent altercations between passengers on a cruise ship were unrelenting.  Security guards were unable to control all the violent outbursts.  As such the captain ordered the ship into the nearest port to have these passengers removed.   No one died.  The question now becomes; would the outcome have been exactly the same if any of these miscreants had access to guns?

We have now evolved into a society that is not responsible or disciplined enough to have access to firearms.  

These are the facts and realities as they have evolved in America.  Now comes the difficult task of developing a workable solution and program to deal with this daunting demands.

 New York Times Columnist David Brooks has summarized it best.  No question that his wisdom points us in the right direction.

“And so the more I look at it — and I'm not alone in this — the more you conclude the simple problem is we have too many guns in America. There's upwards of, some estimates, 350 million guns in this country. And so when you get a lonely 

young man who is detached and sociopathic, getting a gun for that person is not hard.

And so we spend a lot of time on these things like background checks and assault weapon bans. And that's fine. But a lot of effort has been put into things that aren't that effective. We just have to have a debate on, how do we reduce the total number of the guns in the country?

And other countries have done this, Australia and others, through buybacks and other things. It's obviously super difficult politically. But, to me, it's the only way to have a meaningful difference.” PBS News Hour – March, 26, 2021                                       

Yes, to be sure this will be “super difficult” but certainly not impossible – NOT IN AMERICA.

·        ·        First, we MUST repeal the second amendment. 

             Reference “Guns In America – The Second Amendment”

https://malatman-malatblogspotcom.blogspot.com/2021/10/guns-in-america-second-amendment.html 

  ·        Second, we MUST make the ownership of firearms illegal; with the exception of law enforcement officials, military personal, ranchers, farmers and anyone else who may need a weapon to protect property or life. 

The second proposal does NOT preclude the use of firearms for sportsman and sporting competitions.  IT PRECLUDES their OWNERSHIP and unlimited possession. 

Gun Club numbers and services would be expanded. Sportsman could rent whatever firearms they wished from these gun clubs.  Their rental would be predicated upon their possessing the necessary permits to handle and possess the gun they wish to rent.  It would also be predicated upon a recent background check that would, if at all possible, also incorporate a statement, of some sort, on the mental competence to possess a dangerous weapon.  The gun could then be rented for a specific period of time and MUST, under severe penalty of law, be returned on the proscribed date.    

 Training, practice, and competitions would all be conducted under the auspices and supervision of gun club personnel.  No weapons would ever be allowed to leave the gun club premises unless, of course, rented for hunting.

 ·        Third: We MUST confiscate the more than 350 million firearms now in circulation in America. This confiscation would demand we begin with the more than 200 million automatic and semiautomatic rifles and hand guns. A very elaborate buy-back and/or comparable programs would need to be developed and established. 

If the current gun massacre in America is not halted in short-order, the above agenda is clearly where we are going.  Our refusal to commit to an aggressive agenda to severely limit the number of guns in The United States unmistakably defines us as a people who no longer consider “the right to life” as sacrosanct and the cornerstone of our way of life.  

Under our prevailing and very unique brand of American Terrorism, we are not safe attending a movie, a concert, a night club, a food festival.  We are not safe in our churches, restaurants, while at work or shopping and the most hideous of all, our children are not safe in their schools. If this continues and goes unabated, can we even imagine what our country will evolve into and what awaits our grandchildren?; if they can survive.