Doesn’t someone on WH staff have the common sense to brief Trump on facts on gun violence, assault rifles, handguns and school shootings? Apparently not! There is a good reason Trump’s lawyers are not keen on an interview with chief witch hunt czar Mueller—or the next time he’s put in a room with Senators Dianne Grandstand and Jeff Flaky with the TV cameras rolling.
The most violent school attack in US history was the 1927 Bath School Townshipmassacre of 37 elementary school children and 6 adults in Michigan initiated by detonating dynamite when a deranged failed politician took revenge—perhaps we need to take politicians’ guns only to make us safer..
SUMMARY
The recent Parkland, FL shooting has reignited the push from liberals, RINOs, DIMMs, and anti-gun advocates to control the 2nd Amendment through measures that violate the constitution and prevent law abiding citizens from access to guns, both long rifles and handguns. The left shamelessly marches young mush minds in front of cameras with rehearsed statements from the left’s MSM extension of the DIMMs-CNN and MSNBC. The majority of the recommendations are for optics only, since, gun deaths due to mass school shootings are very rare compared to other incidences of violence in the US. The cosmetic changes to state and national gun laws such as increasing age limits to 21 for gun purchase and limiting magazine sizes will not impact gun deaths in the school environment. So called assault rifles are involved in less than 2% of gun related lethal incidents. Improving mental health tracking is a great idea but how do you implement in a 1st Amendment nation that requires due process. The Parkland shooting was avoidable if the FBI and local law officers had done their jobs as mandated by law.
Guns are not uniquely lethal. We live in a world filled with extremely lethal objects from chemical compounds to big trucks. We can license and regulate some things. But we can’t regulate everything. The French authorities seize some 1,200 “assault rifles” every year. Meanwhile in the capital of the European Union, you can get a “military weapon” for $500 in half an hour.
Gun control works as well at keeping guns out of the hands of terrorists as enforcement does at keeping drugs out of the hands of criminals.
Legal firearms make it easier for people to defend themselves and for the authorities to track criminals. Criminalizing firearms just creates a massive black market in which anything goes. Additionally, why should we deprive a 20 year old single mother living in the inner city from obtaining a legal firearm under that state’s CWP law? If increasing the gun purchasing age to 21 is expected to impact positively on school violence, then using that same logic the age to drive should be increased to at least 21. Since 1764 there have been 228 homicides caused by mass school shootings. By comparison, in the last decade, alcohol is linked with an estimated 5,000 deaths in people under age 21 each year and more than 50,000 over last decade--more than all illegal drugs combined. Motor vehicle crashes and collisions are the leading cause of death in people aged 15 to 20, not school shootings.
Ø In a comparison of the number of privately owned guns in 178 countries, the United States ranked at No. 1 and in rate of privately owned firearms per 100 ranksat No. 1. (105.5 per 100)
Ø The US, which ranks number one in gun ownership, ranks 31st in Rate of Gun Homicides per 100,000 people (3.43).
Ø If gun access, pushed by the anti-gun movement, was the primary factor in gun related homicides you would expect the US to rank higher than 31st, in fact why not NUMBER ONE!
Ø Since 1764, there have been 228 mass school shooting deaths in schools and on school buses, I repeat 228-not 2,800,000.
Ø The most violent school attack in US history was the 1927 Bath SchoolTownship massacre of 37 elementary school children in Michigan initiated by detonating dynamite when a deranged failed politician took revenge—perhaps we need to take politicians’ guns only to make us safer..
Ø Alcohol is linked with an estimated 5,000 deaths in people under age 21 each year and more than 50, 000 over last decade--more than all illegal drugs combined.
Ø Based on figures from CDC’s 2015 report, over the past decade over 7,000 American teenagers aged 15 to 19 died from drug overdoses.
Ø Extrapolating statistics, an illegal alien population of just over 3.9 percent residing in the U.S. unlawfully committed 22 percent to 37 percent of all murders in the nation-this is astounding.
Ø In California alone, over 2,400 illegal immigrants out of a total prison population of 130,000 are imprisoned in the state’s prison system for the crime of homicide.
Ø Progressive policies have crippled the laws meant to fight gangs and drug dealers. Obama initiated a drug dealer pardon amnesty even while calling for more gun control.
Ø But the only way to control gang violence is by cracking down on gangs, not on guns.
Ø America’s murder rate isn’t the work of the suburban and rural homeowners who shop for guns at Dick’s Sporting Goods or Walmart Stores, at gun shows, and whom news shows profile after every shooting, but by the gangs embedded in the urban areas controlled by the Democratic machine.
Ø The gangs who drive up America’s murder rate look nothing like the occasional mentally ill suburban white kid who goes off his medication or should be on medication and decides to shoot up and murder in a school.
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Trump, The Day After: “Respect 2nd Amendment!”
ED MORRISSEYPosted at 8:41 am on March 1, 2018
Pontificate in haste, repent at leisure. Or perhaps Donald Trump didn’t have as much leisure as he might have surmised. After a disastrous performance in a “listening session” yesterday in which Trump ridiculed Republicans for being controlled by the NRA and suggested grabbing guns without due process, the president offered a hint of a walkback today on his favorite medium:
✔@realDonaldTrump
Many ideas, some good & some not so good, emerged from our bipartisan meeting on school safety yesterday at the White House. Background Checks a big part of conversation. Gun free zones are proven targets of killers. After many years, a Bill should emerge. Respect 2nd Amendment!
“Some good & some not so good,” indeed, and the latter puts it mildly. One not-so-good idea was his attack on the NRA, an organization that jumped in early to back Trump and has been stalwart in his defense ever since, and on his fellow Republicans in the room. Castigating them for agreeing with the organization that embraced Trump was … a bit surprising, to say the least:
Sitting with a group of Democrats and Republicans, including some who are backed by the NRA, Trump made what sounded like an extraordinary break with the powerful gun-rights organization. He accused lawmakers of being so “petrified” by the NRA that they have not been willing to take even small steps on gun control.
“They have great power over you people,” Trump said. “They have less power over me.”
That certainly caught the attention of the NRA, which had to be wondering what hit it. They were careful not to aim any personal criticism at the president, but did snark that Trump’s remarks “made for great TV”:
“While today’s meeting made for great TV, the gun-control proposals discussed would make for bad policy that would not keep our children safe,” NRA public affairs director Jennifer Baker said. “Instead of punishing law-abiding gun owners for the acts of a deranged lunatic, our leaders should pass meaningful reforms that would actually prevent future tragedies.”
Lawmakers should focus on “fixing the broken mental health system, strengthening background checks to ensure the records of people who are prohibited from possessing firearms are in the (National Instant Criminal Background Check) system, securing our schools and preventing the dangerously mentally ill from accessing firearms,” Baker added.
The attack on his close ally and key connection to middle-America voters was stunning and inexplicable, except as a demonstration of Trump’s whimsical and arbitrary temperament. Republicans will face a tough midterm election in 2018, and it may be even tougher in 2020 to hold the White House. Trump’s not going to win converts on the Left by cutting ties with the NRA, but he’ll lose lots of votes by attacking the NRA as a big conspiracy and casting them in the same light as the mainstream media that Trump loves to attack. And Trump doesn’t have that many votes to spare.
Going the Full Authoritarian didn’t help, either:
“Take the firearms first, and then go to court,” Trump said, cutting off Vice President Pence as Pence articulated a version of the due-process arguments that the NRA and other gun-rights advocates have used to derail past gun-control measures. “You could do exactly what you’re saying, but take the guns first, go through due process second.”
That prompted a stunning rebuke from Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), who accused Trump of flouting the Constitution.
“Strong leaders don’t automatically agree with the last thing that was said to them,” Sasse said in a statement. “We have the Second Amendment and due process of law for a reason. We’re not ditching any Constitutional protections simply because the last person the president talked to today doesn’t like them.”
By the time the meeting was over, Senate Republicans made it plain that they planned to ignore Trump’s suggestions altogether:
Senate Republicans say President Trump’s comments Wednesday calling for more ambitious gun-control proposals won’t change the political calculus in their conference, which supports a limited response to the shooting at a Florida high school.
Senate Republican Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas), who is leading the GOP response to gun violence in the upper chamber, told reporters after the meeting with Trump at the White House that he still favors a limited approach.
By this morning, White House advisers must have made the political damage clear to Trump, hence the “some not so good” admission. He’s reverted back to the “Respect 2nd Amendment!” position. For now, anyway. Until the next time he’s put in a room with Dianne Feinstein with the TV cameras rolling.
We certainly feel much better now.
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Terry Payne
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