Guns, Guns and More Guns.

As they say down in the bayou, "I got no dog in the hunt", but it is clear as the flint in your muzzle, that changes are needed.  We are a sick, gun-crazed society.  It is not just a gun issue anymore than just a mental health concern.  It is both, layered atop history, culture, sociology, and philosophy.  Facts are facts.  Irrefutable.  As solid as granite.  I'm sorry to those who say there are such things as fairies, unicorns and fake facts.  

Here are the facts: 

Shooting incidents are going up every year.

As are weapons sales.

The increase of shootings does not sway views on gun control.

We are a pistol packing nation - our laws say we can.

The U.S. is way out there with ownership.

Americans think they are safer with guns in their homes.

The best way to kill more people is with assault weapons.

We love our guns.

But we pay a price.  More of us are killed because of them.

In Australia after their only massacre, they instituted some controls and had a buyback.  Firearm related deaths have dropped dramatically.

Corporate money greases and enhances gun sales.

Two years after 20 6 and 7 years olds and their teachers were massacred, gun sales increased.

With no enhanced background checks, kids and mentally ill can buy all the guns they want.

Canada has a 60 day wait on the purchase of guns.  Their rates of gun deaths are extremely low.

In U.K, guns are illegal and you have to prove your need in order to get one.  Their deaths are 0.07 per 100,000.

In Japan you can't have a gun or even touch one.  In order to obtain a weapon you have to take multiple tests,  involving mental health, exhaustive police background checks, and have a home safe.  2 citizens died from guns in 2006. 

Sales of guns in U.S.

Incidents annually in U.S.

The U.S. leads in civilian possession of weapons.

Whew!  Facts, facts and more facts.  How to make sense of all this? Got me.  OK, there are such things as skewed facts, aren't there?  Excuse me while I pull up my bandbox.  We have an awful lot of guns and an awful lot of deaths.  Here is where I am.

I believe in the Constitution.  I believe in all of the Amendments, including the Second, although I do not believe that the Second is the most important one.  I believe in hunter's rights and I believe that if you want to own a firearm for protection, that's OK, too.  I have hunted, fired guns at a firing range as well as a police-owned indoor target range.  I enjoyed all the experiences.  It was fun.  Except that frog I might have wounded with a BB gun when I was eight.  I regret that an awful lot.

But we seem to have lost our way.  America is increasingly alarming in several ways but gun ownership and the NRA's sponsorship of politicians hold sway.  When this country did not sponsor stricter sales and background checks after babies were killed in Newtown we turned our backs on our very ideals.  When the politicians and the citizenry didn't raise hell over bump stocks in Las Vegas, we lost our way ever further. 

What We Don't Need:

1.  Armed teachers - Let the teachers teach.  The NY police department has an 18% rate of hitting the target.  You will be hearing our President talk about skilled, trained people who have an affinity with guns safeguarding the kids.  Blooey.  Teachers have enough to do besides taking out the shooter.  Imagine the number of kids that will die when the classroom becomes a shooting range when Mrs. Anderson takes out her Glock from under her girdle and starts rapid firing.   

2.  Good guy With a Gun

Here's a good guy with a gun.  He's also a coward.

The number of good guys taking out a bad guy with a gun is laughable.  It simply doesn't happen.  Or at least it hasn't yet, and that's what the NRA is hanging their hat on.

3.  A Congress that is bought and paid for by special interests.  But, unfortunately, that's what we have.  I repeat:  nothing will change this time, just like all the previous times.

4.  Mental Institutions:  hey didn't work 30 years ago, they won't work now.  Why?  No money.  We sink our tax dollars elsewhere. And now that we have a new tax plan we will have even less money to spend.  Our deficit will wreck our future.  It killed off the USSR and it will kill us off, too, unless we start approaching our most serious but non-sexy problems.  But I digress.  

We need:

1.  Enhanced back ground checks and this might include a longer waiting period.

2.  We need to restrict sales of assault weapons.

3.  We need to increase age of gun ownership to 21.

4.  We need to ban bump stocks.

5.  We need the NRA to get back to its original mission statement:

Appalled by the poor marksmanship of the Union troops during the U.S. Civil War, General George Wingate and Colonel William Church founded the NRA in 1871. In a magazine article written at the time, Church declared that the association's purpose was to promote marksmanship as a science. Beginning in 1934 with the creation of its Legislative Affairs Division, the NRA became more involved politically in pursuing the protection of the Second Amendment rights of Americans to own, display, carry and use firearms.

In 1874, the NRA organized a team of American riflemen to defeat sharpshooters from Great Britain in a challenge match. This brought the NRA to national attention. It founded rifle clubs in universities and military colleges in various states, as well as organized youth programs that promoted safety and marksmanship in shooting sports. In 1949, the NRA began administrating hunter education programs to make hunting a safer sport. In 1960, the NRA Police Firearms certification program was established to train law enforcement personnel. In 1990, the establishment of the NRA Foundation made the NRA a tax-exempt organization with its mission statement written into its bylaws.

6.  We need to check closely those politicians who have been bribed and bought by campaign contributions.

7.  We need to examine our conceal/carry to make sure there is a need.

8.  We need to realize that the Constitution is a living breathing document.  As legislators have decided many times before changes can be made to keep up with societal changing.  It is most assuredly not stamped in stone.  If we need changes to adapt to modern times, then lets do it.  If it doesn't work, then lets strike it - much like the 18th Amendment and the subsequent 21st.     

Maybe we just need to try one or two of the above and see if it works.  Maybe most of them will help.  I don't know.  But we need to tell the NRA to get off its ridiculously incendiary tag lines and be part of the solution rather than be a hindrance.  Did you know the NRA used to support both Democrats And Republicans and was more an educational arm rather than political.  Today it is strictly far Right leaning political action machine and more damaging to the National discourse.  I applaud the corporations yanking their support, but it won't last.    

The fact is, the NRA owns our Congress and nothing will happen.  We love our guns and ain't nobody gonna take 'em away.  With each passing day the hue and cry will dim just a little bit more.  Those kids trying to drum up support for something to be legislated will be trampled by the Constitution and our gun-loving paranoia.  Just more casualties for a nation that has lost its way.