The Pro-Life (?) Party

In response to Robert Reich’s latest Substack post, an individual named Keith Olson made the following comment that I felt totally pinpointed the political scene today regarding guns.

Guns were invented for one purpose. TO KILL!!!

Many on the right say that “guns make us safer”. If that were the case the U.S. would be the safest country on Earth!! Well guess what, our country is the most dangerous country on earth! The NRA’s Wayne LaPierre said “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.” Well how did that work in Uvalde, Texas?

In the USA in 2020 including accidental deaths, suicides, and homicides – guns killed 4,357 CHILDREN (ages 1-19 years old) or roughly 5.6 per 100,000 children! There have been 547 mass killings since 2006. There have been 2,847 victims as of April 29, 2023.

America’s mass shootings: Virginia Tech, Columbine, the Aurora movie theater, the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, the El Paso Walmart shooting, Parkland, Las Vegas, Binghamton, San Bernardino, Sutherland Springs, Thousand Oaks, Virginia Beach, Monterey Park, Santa Fe, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Uvalde, the Covenant School in Nashville in March and Louisville in April.

The latest execution in Texas by a drunken idiot is just another example of how dangerous our country has become. The victims asked him to stop shooting his weapon because they had a newborn child that couldn’t sleep. This was after 11 pm!

He took exception to their complaints and proceeded to execute 5 of them! This loser had been visited by authorities previously for gun issues. PURE EVIL

Here’s where the majority of Republican Politicians stand after each and every school shooting: “You get gunned down, we send you thoughts and prayers, and then you shut the Hell up about it!”

Yet they claim to be PRO-LIFE PARTY = Hippocrates All!!

How can any human being care more about owning a gun than they care about the lives of children???

All of Our elected members of Congress need to emulsify to come up with ideas to address senseless killing of people young and old.

In other words show the American people you truly are PRO LIFE !

We are becoming more and more unCIVILized thanks to our political dividers in Congress!!

One can’t help but wonder why some are unable (unwilling?) to see the common sense in this person’s remarks.

Caution: VERY Disturbing Video

I subscribe to an email newsletter from NPR. In today’s issue was the following blurb:

National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre’s carefully cultivated image as a hunter and outdoorsman is taking a hit this week after a leaked video showed his clumsy marksmanship.

Since I have fairly strong negative feelings about LaPierre, I was interested to see what the video showed so I clicked on the link.

–MY MISTAKE–

The headline on the linked page was: “Video Leaks of NRA’s Wayne LaPierre Missing His Mark on Elephant Hunt.” Sadly … disgustingly …  the headline was correct. He definitely missed the mark. The video shows him taking FOUR shots at the elephant … and it still wasn’t dead. The final –and deadly– shot was made by another member of the hunting party. NOT LaPierre.

What was even more sickening was the “praise” by the individuals accompanying LaPierre on the hunt – “Well done. Great shooting. Good stuff.”

(After LaPierre’s messed-up shots, the video also includes images of his wife shooting an elephant. Although she achieved her goal much quicker than her husband, the video images are even more disturbing.)

As I have expressed on numerous occasions, I’m not totally against guns, per se. I personally don’t like them, but I know there are many who enjoy and use them for non-nefarious reasons (such as target shooting or collecting various models, usually older ones). I do, however, condemn those who have them strictly for bragging rights. Or to mock the Second Amendment.

Or to conduct mass shootings.

But above and beyond that — I DEFINITELY do NOT support using guns for “Big Game” hunting! Especially elephants, which have been proven to be very intelligent animals.

Although the article blurb indicates LaPierre is “taking a hit,” I truly wonder how many will see it this way since he has achieved a “god-like” reputation within the NRA.

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If you have the stomach for it, here is the link to this VERY disturbing video/article.

LaPierre Says Obama Has All the Gun Laws He Needs

Just listened to a video on Facebook made by the darling of the NRA, Wayne LaPierre. He was adamantly claiming the “carnage” in the U.S. would stop if Obama would simply enforce the current U.S. gun laws. (I’m not posting the video itself as I don’t want to give LaPierre any more publicity than necessary.)

President Obama has all the laws he needs to stop the bloodshed now …

Coincidentally, just a few hours before listening to this message, I had typed in Google search: “Gun laws in the U.S.”

Here is what I found on Wikipedia:

Most federal gun laws were enacted through one or more of these acts:^[1][2]

• National Firearms Act (NFA) (1934) – Taxes the manufacture and transfer of, and mandates the registration of Title II weapons such as machine guns, short-barreled rifles and shotguns, heavy weapons, explosive ordnance, silencers, and disguised or improvised firearms.
• Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (1968) – Prohibited interstate trade in handguns, increased the minimum age to 21 for buying handguns.
• Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA) (1968) – Focuses primarily on regulating interstate commerce in firearms by generally prohibiting interstate firearms transfers except among licensed manufacturers, dealers and importers.
• Firearm Owners Protection Act (FOPA) (1986) – Revised and partially repealed the Gun Control Act of 1968. Prohibited the sale to civilians of automatic firearms manufactured after the date of the law’s passage. Required ATF approval of transfers of automatic firearms.
• Undetectable Firearms Act (1988) – Effectively criminalizes, with a few exceptions, the manufacture, importation, sale, shipment, delivery, possession, transfer, or receipt of firearms with less than 3.7 oz of metal content.
• Gun-Free School Zones Act (1990) – Prohibits unauthorized individuals from knowingly possessing a firearm at a place that the individual knows, or has reasonable cause to believe, is a school zone.
• Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (1993) – Requires background checks on most firearm purchasers, depending on seller and venue.
• Federal Assault Weapons Ban (1994–2004) – Banned semiautomatic assault weapons and large capacity ammunition feeding devices. The law expired in 2004.
• Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (2005) – Prevent firearms manufacturers and licensed dealers from being held liable for negligence when crimes have been committed with their products.

Maybe I’m missing something, but does anyone see something in here that confirms LaPierre’s statement that Obama has all the laws he needs?

The laws talk about taxes, interstate trade, interstate commerce, guns that contain less than 3.7 oz. of metal content, gun-free school zones, background checks, and negligence liability related to manufacturers and dealers. The only Federal law that resembles any kind of gun control is the background checks — and we’ve seen the effect they have had.

Please. Someone enlighten me.

I’m aware there have been cases before the Court that addressed the various use of guns (mostly, it seems, related to state laws), but the above are the “Federal Gun Laws.”

It is important to note that state gun laws do vary considerably, and are independent of existing federal firearms laws. They can be broader or more limited in scope than the federal laws.

Also note that the one law that could have made a difference EXPIRED in 2004.