Dick Cheney was asked how many guns he owned.
He replied: “More than I need, fewer than I want.”
How Many?
WWIT (What Was I Thinking)
WWIT What Was I Thinking About Mass Shootings
Last week there were two shooting incidents in the US that made headlines, and required political responses. The shootings were horrible young white men used big guns to shoot innocent people in public places. Nobody wants this to happen. But how can we keep it from happening? Probably we can’t but a political response is required. Continue reading “WWIT (What Was I Thinking)”
Neal Armstrong
In 1969 I was in Vietnam making the world safe for democracy so I was out of town when Neal Armstrong took that first step. But that was the only year that I ever consistently kept a diary. (auto correct wants this to say dairy) so I thought I’d find my diary and see what I wrote about that historic event… Continue reading “Neal Armstrong”
Guns Guns Guns
My first thoughts on this hot topic:
We have all agreed that the Second Amendment has constraints. People should not be able to buy surface to air missiles at the local gun shop without a permit or a waiting period. So the argument is about where we draw the line not whether there should be a line. Tanks no. Hunting rifles yes. Automatic weapons no in most states. Assault weapons are on the cusp and banning them is like banning Pit Bulls. It’s the fashion but doesn’t accomplish much.
But banning certain types of guns isn’t the only choice. We can also restrict who can purchase guns, how long they have to wait before delivery and we can require registration.
All of these ideas have merits and dangers. My next post will be about the dangers of gun control.
Gun Control Four
Yesterday I reviewed the arguments for gun control and if your following you know I’m not convinced. But I also don’t want crazy people with guns shooting people.So here are my two ideas:
First allow (encourage) states to require that before a person can buy a gun they have to have gone through a training program that teaches them gun safety. The instructor of the class would have to certify that the student is not likely to do anything stupid with a gun. We already do this with drivers licenses so it is not a particularly onerous requirement. And there would be no need for registrations or master lists.
Second stop having “Gun Free Zones”! Keep the criminally minded guessing.
Wikipedia has a lot of facts about gun deaths and it turns out that mass shootings account for only 1% of the total. Suicide accounts for roughly 65% and homicide the other 34%. In 2013 about 32,000 people died in the country from guns. In the same year about 40,000 people died in automobile accidents.
Gun Control Three
In my first post on gun control I reviewed the arguments about where we should draw the line on guns. Ie who can own what. In my second post I looked at the arguments for allowing gun ownership.
Today I’m going to review the arguments for banning all guns. Guns are dangerous. They are no longer needed in a civilized society. Other countries have taken all the guns away and they are doing fine. We have to do something to protect the children. People and guns are a dangerous mix.
The arguments boil down to: We (the authorities) know what is best for you and guns are dangerous so we want to take them away. John Stewart Mill wrote about this in 1859 in his his famous work On Liberty. “Some whenever they see any good to be done, or evil to be remedied, would willingly instigate the government to undertake the business, while others prefer to bare almost any amount of social evil rather than add one to the departments of human interests amenable to governmental control.”
In the next and final post on Gun Control I’ll make my proposal to keep guns away from some of the people causing havoc in the schools and on the streets, while still honoring the founders intent to keep guns available and unregistered in our society.
Gun Control Two
Why did the founders put the Second Amendment into the Constitution? Because they had just gone through a bloody war with a country that had the worlds best army and they wanted the people to be armed in case it happened again. The founders knew that an armed populace is less likely to be subject to tyranny from the authorities or from fellow citizens who have run amok. We have lots of examples of this Condoleezza Rice gave one on The View recently:
“Let me tell you why I’m a defender of the Second Amendment. I was a little girl growing up in Birmingham, Alabama, in the late fifties, early sixties. There was no way that Bull Connor and the Birmingham Police were going to protect you. And so when White Knight Riders would come through our neighborhood, my father and his friends would take their guns and they’d go to the head of the neighborhood, it’s a little cul-de-sac and they would fire in the air, if anybody came through. I don’t think they actually ever hit anybody. But they protected the neighborhood. And I’m sure if Bull Connor had known where those guns were he would have rounded them up. And so, I don’t favor some things like gun registration.”
Hitler disarmed the Jews in Germany before he started to persecute them.
The Afghan rebels fought the Soviet invaders for years with personal arms before the USA started to arm them. Read Charley Wilson’s War for details.
Guns are a useful tool against tyranny so the founders enshrined the right to have arms in the Constitution.
But what about the children? How can we protect them? In my next post I’ll talk about what I think we can do.
Gun Control One
We have all agreed that the Second Amendment has constraints. People should not be able to buy surface to air missiles at the local gun shop without a permit or a waiting period. So the argument is about where we draw the line not whether there should be a line. Tanks no. Hunting rifles yes. Automatic weapons no in most states. Assault weapons are on the cusp and banning them is like banning Pit Bulls. It’s the fashion but doesn’t accomplish much.
But banning certain types of guns isn’t the only choice. We can also restrict who can purchase guns, how long they have to wait before delivery and we can require registration.
All of these ideas have merits and dangers. My next post will be about the dangers of gun control.
September 20, 2012 Maxim
“Peace is that brief glorious moment in history when everybody stands around reloading.”
Attributed to Thomas Jefferson
and others
Deer Population Control
In the last decade in the Northeast deer have gone from being an enchanting, occasional sighting to being a pest. They eat crops, invade gardens, eat small trees and keep wandering in front of cars. There are less sport hunters and “culling” services are expensive and unpalatable to the sensibilities of many suburban residents. What can be done about this problem?
The Ideapreneur has a potential solution. Allow commercial enterprises to hunt wild deer and process it into a high-end food supply. The enterprise would be issued a game management license for a region, perhaps Western New York, for a specific time period, maybe 10 years. This would give “Gourmet Venison” (working name) enough supply to justify the investment in the facilities and marketing.
You have objections, the ideapreneur has answers:
Would people buy “wild harvested” venison? They buy “wild caught” fish.
Isn’t it inhumane? Is it more humane to allow deer to overpopulate so that they starve to death?
Will people pay a premium for deer meat over chicken or beef? They used to in the early 20th century. People pay a massive premium for snails and abalone.
Why would politicians support this very non-green idea? Because it would generate tax revenue and jobs and would lower deer damage. The idea could be very popular with their constituents.
The Ideapreneur: You see problems we see opportunities.