Tag Archives: NRA

Once More: Acceptable Casualty Rate

Politics, Rants, , ,

Back in 2015 I wrote a post here called “Acceptable Casualty Rate” where I talked about why we have a problem with Guns. Today I am not going to be so detached…..You Have Been Warned.

With the latest mass shooting in a school I am, once more hearing two things repeatedly said: ”How/Why did this happen?” And ”How can this be prevented?” In the first case the answer is simple ”It’s what we want.” The second is just as bad ”We Cann’t. Get used to it.”

Why do I say we want it is simple. Just look at the length of time we have been having mass shooting and just what has been done. Little or nothing is being done and it is happening because two super PACs are perfectly happy with the situation. Both the Gun manufactures and their totally captive NRA see no reason to change. The manufactures don’t want change because any change will impact negatively their profits. The NRA because it would decrease their Power and influence.

So we are left with ’thoughts and prayers’ and little else. What they don’t tell you is we MUST live with it because they find the casualty rate quite acceptable. But ask yourself this ”Why do they find it Acceptable?” To be brutal the answer is simple, they are not the ones suffering the casualties.

It is something anyone who studies military history learns early on is that when you are not the one who has to suffer the casualties the highest casualties quickly become acceptable. Now I know some of you will disagree but just go study some wars (WWI is a good place to start) and look just how far back from the front lines the people who decided to fight the battle were. In any-case it is my view that if the families of the heads of all the Gun Manufactures and the NRA were among the people who are put at risk things would change.

Not going to happen.

So what happens now? Until the general electorate is ready to make our government (all three branches, mind you) be more afraid of us than they are of the the Gun PACS nothing will change. So get it in your head this single thought:

Learn to Live with It

A Time for Pride and Gratitude

Politics, Rants, , ,
Child Sacrifice

Like the ancient Philistines of Canaan we should be feeling pride in and gratitude to those parents who have given up there children today in Saugus, Ca on the alter of the 2nd Amendment. Once more we see that there is no price to high to pay to defend our right to keep and bear arms. Nothing we will not sacrifice to honor our great fear of our own government. So let us sing to heaven on high the glory that is the NRA.

Am I upset? Yes, yes I am. I’m very upset. Once more we have a school shooting killing and/or wounding too many of our children. With true cosmic irony just as the shooting was happening the United States Senate, in all it’s wisdom, has refused to even address another bill that attempts to deal, even in a minor way, the tragic events facing us. I have been following this debate for over thirty years and the only thing that has changed is the intransigence of the NRA, the Gun Lobby and their fearful supporters.

Do I have any hope that this time things will change? No, I do not. An why do I feel this way? Simply put I see no one coming forward with a method to Assuage the fear that has been placed in the harts of too many of my fellow Americans. I see three basic fears that have been stoked by both the Gun Lobby (aka gun manufacturers) and the NRA. The first fear is the traditional fear of our how governments. The second fear is the fear that the only thing keeping our government from becoming oppressive is the 2nd amendment and that if we allow it to be changed in the smallest way we will loose it all. An the third fear is the fear of THEM. You know who I speak of the great evil of THOSE PEOPLE over there who are not like us.

Of these three, the last is the oldest and the hardest to put to rest. The first is most easily challenged by just asking if “Your not a Patriot?” Be ready for an explosive response, but be cool in it’s face and the explanation will disappear in time. Then look mildly and ask them that “How can a patriot fear his own government?” Be ready for a long and involved statement that the government is not the nation. Then look at them, like you would a young child and say”I see why we still need Civics in our schools.” An then leave it at that. They will need time, a lot of time for some, to work their way thru but some will see their way thru to to truth.

The second fear is more difficult to deal with and much more easy to deal with badly. I’ve found, after too many years of doing it badly, a method that sometimes works. (Point here, the second fear has as it’s foundation the logical fallacy of the “Slippery Slope” so take care.) When this fear rears its ugly head I have found that if I say “Even if that is true, I trust people like you from going that far. Or don’t you think you are up to the challenge to keep us from going down the slope too fare?” Again, just leave it there and wait to see what bears fruit.

The third and final fear is the oldest fear and we all have to deal with it in our lives, no mater who we are. This is the same fear that lead the Philistines to offer up their children in sacrifice. It can only be dealt with, with courage. All I’ve ever been able to say in it’s face is “I’m sorry you are so afraid. Let me help you.” Sometime, occasionally, I can give some help and start them on the way to setting aside the fear.

So why did I just write the last few paragraphs if I feel there is little chance of any change? I Guess I’m just a Cock Eyed Optomistist. I wrote the first paragraph because I was upset, I’m still upset now. I will stay upset till this tragic episode in our national history is put behind us. Till then we can take pride and joy in our children being offered up in sacrifice to the great god Power/Position/Profit. An I expect we will get as good a result as the ancient Philistines did, that is no at all.

Acceptable Casulty Rate

General, Philosophy, Politics, , ,

AR-15

Strangely  enough this is not going to be a rant.  It will be logical so it will be brutal.  You have been warned.

Ever since Mc Donald v. City of Chicago  where the right of an individual to ‘keep and bear arms’ became an individual right this country has been faced with an issue it refuses to deal with.  This is what is know as Civilian Acceptable Casutly Rate by students of military action.  Traditionally this issue only needed to be dealt with during times of war and usually dealt with the number of non-combatants killed or injured.  Since 2010, in the United States, this is no longer the case.

Once owning any kind of arms (be it small hand ax or a WMD) became an individual right any and all laws seeking to restrict the ownership, much less the use, must pass what is known as the Strict Scutiny test. Basically this means the State has to show why an individual should not be allowed to possess a particular kind of arms.  Usually, but not always this test must be applied very narrowly so you could have a law dealing with the possession of 9mm pistols with barrel length of x mm and 11 round clips but not a law dealing with all arms of 9 mm caliber.  One of the more challenging legal questions we face is just how we draw depictions between unique types of arms.  To my knowledge there is now test yet for this in law.

Next we have the postulate that anything can be misused, or used in a manner not acceptable.  Example a car:  I can use a car to go from one place to another or I can use it to run people over.  The former is acceptable and  the later is not.  Therefor we can say any arms an individual has a right to possess can be used or misused.  Another fundamental postulate is that all individual rights end where they come into conflict with other individual rights.  The classic law class example of the is “My right to swing my fist ends at your nose.”

In the case we are dealing with here an individuals right to bear arms, to live, and/or to happiness. When a law restricts, any anyway, an individuals possession of an gun (arm) it comes into conflict with his/her right to keep and bear arms and, possibly happyness.  When a gun is misused, like shooting up a school, the right of the people in the school to life and/or happiness has come into conflict with the right of someone(s) else to keep and bear arms.  This is where exceptable Civilain casually rate come in.

We need to decide just how many innocent bystanders being casualties is too many.  Right now we seem to accept the NRA’s position, any number is acceptable.  That the 2nd Amendment right to keep and bear arms trumps all other individul rights the people of America have.  That the right of an individual to have any kind of gun, be it pistol, rifle, or what ever, is so important that another’s right to life must be sacrificed.

I, for one, do not accept the NRA’s position.  Ever since I started studying Constitutional Law I have excepted the fundamental postulate that now individual right is superior in any way to any other individual right.  They are all equal.  So I say to you, what is your Acceptable Casualty Rate so that you can exercise your 2nd amendment right(s)?