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This is a story about an
international couple raising and home educating three
young boys on a small island in Japan, half living in
buses, engaged in organic, self-sufficient farming in
the middle of a mountain forest while dealing with
climate, cultural, and personal challenges. These pages
are about pretty much anything and everything all guided
by our family motto, Taking Chances, Making Changes,
Being Happy. Thank you very much for joining us on our
ongoing crazy adventure.
Comments or questions about this blog?....message me at
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 National
Rifle Association
Go to the website of the National Rifle Association, and
this is what you will read at the bottom of their home page:
The National Rifle Association is America's longest-standing
civil rights organization.
Together with our more than five million members, we're
proud defenders of history's patriots and diligent
protectors of the Second Amendment.
Let’s analyze those statements.
Civil rights organization –
This turns out to be a bit of a misnomer. The meaning of
civil rights in its simplest form is, “the rights of
citizens to political and social freedom and equality.” The
NRA would be more accurate if they stated they were the
longest-standing gun ownership rights organization.
Diligent protectors of the Second
Amendment – Well, same as the NRA, the Second
Amendment of the United States Constitution is antiquated, a
section of a document written many years ago by men who were
under a completely different set of circumstances. The
Second Amendment is in dire need of being rewritten or
deleted in its entirety.
For those of you unfamiliar with the Second Amendment, these
are the words verbatim:
A well regulated militia being
necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the
people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
Justice Ginsberg so eloquently stated the following, while
speaking in an interview on public radio station WNYC, when
she called the Second Amendment "outdated," saying:
When we no longer need people to keep muskets in their home,
then the Second Amendment has no function ... If the Court
had properly interpreted the Second Amendment, the Court
would have said that amendment was very important when the
nation was new; it gave a qualified right to keep and bear
arms, but it was for one purpose only—and that was the
purpose of having militiamen who were able to fight to
preserve the nation.
The right to keep and bear arms (often referred to as the
right to bear arms) is the people's right to possess
armaments (arms) for their own defense, as described in the
philosophical and political writings of Aristotle, Cicero,
John Locke, Machiavelli, the English Whigs and others.
Inclusion of this right in a written constitution is
uncommon. In 1875, 17 percent of constitutions included a
right to bear arms, yet, since the early twentieth century,
"the proportion has been less than 10 percent and falling".
In their historical survey and comparative analysis of
constitutions dating back to 1789, Tom Ginsburg and
colleagues "identified only 15 constitutions (in nine
countries) that had ever included an explicit right to bear
arms. Almost all of these constitutions have been in Latin
America, and most were from the 19th century".
Generally, where modern constitutions refer to arms at all,
the purpose is "to allow the government to regulate their
use or to compel military service, not to provide a right to
bear them". Constitutions which historically guaranteed a
right to bear arms are those of Bolivia, Colombia, Costa
Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Liberia, Mexico, Nicaragua and
the United States of America. Nearly all of Latin American
examples were modeled on that of the United States.
At present, out of the world’s nearly
200 constitutions, three still include a right to bear arms:
Guatemala, Mexico, and the United States; of these three,
only the United States
does not include explicit restrictive conditions. |
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 The
Real NRA
With their basic mission statement lacking in validity (a
nice sales pitch though), let's find out what the NRA really
represents.
Picture - Wayne
LaPierre, CEO and Executive Vice President of the NRA.
The National Rifle Association of America (NRA) is an
American nonprofit organization which advocates for gun
rights. Founded in 1871, the group has informed its members
about firearm-related bills since 1934, and it has directly
lobbied for and against legislation since 1975.
Favorite Wayne LaPierre quote:
"The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good
guy with a gun."
Hey, how about this as an option:
"The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is to not give
him a gun in the first place." |
- The National Rifle Association has
been criticized by newspaper editorial boards, gun
control and gun rights advocacy groups, political
commentators, and politicians. Democrats and liberals
frequently criticize the organization, as do Republicans
and conservatives. The NRA's oldest organized critics
include the gun control advocacy groups the Brady
Campaign, the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (CSGV), and
the Violence Policy Center (VPC). Twenty-first century
groups include Everytown for Gun Safety (formerly Mayors
Against Illegal Guns), Moms Demand Action, and Americans
for Responsible Solutions.
- In 1995, Wayne LaPierre wrote a
fundraising letter describing federal agents as
"jack-booted government thugs" who wear "Nazi bucket
helmets and black storm trooper uniforms". Former
president George H. W. Bush was so outraged by the
letter that he resigned his NRA life membership.
- In 2000, LaPierre said President
Bill Clinton tolerated a certain amount of violence and
killing to strengthen the case for gun control and to
score points for his party. Clinton White House
spokesman Joe Lockhart called it "really sick rhetoric,
and it should be repudiated by anyone who hears it". In
2004, citing Democratic candidate John Kerry's history
of authoring and supporting gun control legislation,
LaPierre actively campaigned against the senator in the
2004 presidential elections.
- In December 2008, The New York Times
editorial board criticized the NRA's position, which it
called false and misleading, on Barack Obama's
presidential campaign.
- In December 2012, the Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette board said the NRA spoke for gun makers,
not gun owners.
- In February 2013, USA Today editors
criticized the NRA for flip-flopping on universal
background checks for gun purchases.
- In March 2014, the Washington Post
criticized the NRA's interference in government research
on gun violence, and both Post and Los Angeles Times
editors criticized its opposition of Vivek Murthy for
U.S. Surgeon General.
- In 2011, the VPC's executive
director, Josh Sugarmann, said: "Today's NRA is a
virtual subsidiary of the gun industry. While the NRA
portrays itself as protecting the 'freedom' of
individual gun owners, it's actually working to protect
the freedom of the gun industry to manufacture and sell
virtually any weapon or accessory."
- The NRA and some of its leaders were
criticized in the wake of the December 2012 Sandy Hook
Elementary School shooting. New Jersey Governor Chris
Christie called an online video created by the NRA and
released after the Sandy Hook shooting "reprehensible"
and said that it demeaned the organization. A senior
lobbyist for the organization later characterized the
video as "ill-advised".
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 Self
Defense
The main argument of the NRA is Americans need to keep guns
for self defense. Their argument continues to be invalid.
Picture - Visitors at
a gun show in Houston.
Studies place the instances of guns used in personal defense
at about 65,000 times per year. Between 1987 and 1990,
McDowall et al. found that guns were used in defense during
a crime incident 64,615 times annually (258,460 times total
over the whole period). This equated to two times out of
1,000 criminal incidents (0.2%) that occurred in this
period, including criminal incidents where no guns were
involved at all. For violent crimes, assault, robbery, and
rape, guns were used 0.83% of the time in self-defense. Of
the times that guns were used in self-defense, 71% of the
crimes were committed by strangers, with the rest of the
incidents evenly divided between offenders that were
acquaintances or persons well known to the victim. In 28% of
incidents where a gun was used for self-defense, victims
fired the gun at the offender. In 20% of the self-defense
incidents, the guns were used by police officers. During
this same period, 1987 to 1990, there were 46,319 gun
homicides, and the National Crime Victimization Survey
estimated that 2,628,532 nonfatal crimes involving guns
occurred.
The Congressional Research Service in 2009 estimated there
were 310 million firearms in the U.S., not including weapons
owned by the military. Of these, 114 million were handguns,
110 million were rifles, and 86 million were shotguns. In
that same year, the Census bureau stated the population of
people in the U.S. at 306 million.
Gun violence results in thousands of deaths and injuries in
the United States annually. According to the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, in 2013, there were 73,505
nonfatal firearm injuries (23.23 per 100,000 U.S. citizens);
11,208 homicides (3.5 per 100,000); 21,175 suicides; 505
deaths due to accidental/negligent discharge of a firearm;
and 281 deaths due to firearms-use with "undetermined
intent", included in a total of 33,636 deaths due to "Injury
by firearms", or 10.6 deaths per 100,000 people. |
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 Now
What?
As a society, where do we go from here?
Picture - Federally
supported gun violence intervention program.
Groups like the NRA,
who promote gun ownership, and the people themselves who own
guns, are taking humanity in the wrong direction. The ONLY
PURPOSE FOR GUNS IS TO INJURE OR KILL, nothing more.
And leave it up to people to lower themselves to their
darkest levels when they get depressed or stressed out. How
many times did you listen to the news about some overworked
postal employee (sorry guys), who one day snapped and ended
up in a crowded restaurant with his semi-automatic rifle,
and blew away a handful of people. Then the next day on the
news they interview the neighbors who insist the shooter was
"such a nice man" who always said hi. Even the thought of
background checks or waiting periods is irrelevant. Any
person is capable of any action at any time.
Think what a society would be like with no guns. No need to
think very long. Simply take a look at a place like Japan
where gun ownership is 100 percent illegal. Think how
wonderful it is to walk along the streets, with a wallet
full of cash, and not have any fear of being shot....even in
a metropolitan city like Tokyo. The countryside is even
safer, and filled with friendly, giving people. American
society is filled with angry, frustrated, freaked out
people, and the last thing you should be putting in their
hands is the capability of brutally murdering a room full of
innocent people. |
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Additional Information |
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