I've been convinced for quite a while...
Posted on 04/09/2009 12:04:29 AM PDT by neverdem
America's mayors are alarmed by the string of mass shootings that have occurred in recent weeks in cities across the nation. This epidemic serves as a stark reminder that the easy availability of guns often turns domestic and personal disputes into acts of murder. Our hearts and prayers go out to the victims, their families, their neighbors, and their communities in:
-- Samson, AL, where 10 people were killed on March 10;
-- Oakland, CA, where four police officers were killed on March 21;
-- Carthage, NC - eight nursing home residents were killed on March 29;
-- Santa Clara, CA, where five family members were killed March 29;
-- Binghamton, NY, where 13 people were killed April 3;
-- Graham, WA, where five children were killed April 4;
-- Pittsburgh, PA, where three police officers were killed April 4; and-- Miami, FL - my city, where in the last few weeks 12 members of three families have been killed in three separate incidents.
In most of these incidents the shooters lives were also taken, in four cases by their own hand, in one by police. And these are the dramatic shootings that garner considerable public attention. We haven't heard as much about the 84 deaths involving firearms, including 34 homicides, which occur on an average day in our nation.
The Conference of Mayors has advocated for strong gun safety policy for more than 40 years. Late last year we made gun safety a key element in our National Action Agenda on Crime for the Next President of the United States. There are six points in the agenda, which mayors and police chiefs are calling for:
1. A strengthened, effective ban on military-style assault weapons, such as
AK-47s, and their component parts must be reinstated.
2. Common sense gun legislation, such as that advocated by Mayors Against
Illegal Guns, should be enacted. Such legislation should close the gun
show loophole; keep guns out of the hands of terrorists, and no longer
permit gun dealers whose licenses are revoked to conduct fire sales.
3. Legislation should be enacted which would limit the number of guns a
person may purchase in a single transaction or in a month or other
specified period of time.
4. Law enforcement agencies' access to gun trace data should not be
limited in any way by either state or federal law - for example, by any
version of the so-called Tiahrt amendment.
5. Anyone purchasing a firearm in the United States should be required to go
through a background check. Full funding should be provided for the
National Instant Criminal Background Check System and states should be
required to submit records, including those involving persons with
serious mental health problems, to the NICS.6. The Integrated Ballistic Identification System (IBIS) should be expanded to include ballistic images for all new guns, not just those involved in crimes. The federal government should support the development of new technologies, such as micro stamping, which can help solve crimes.
This latest epidemic of shootings has left all of us asking: How many more gun-related acts of violence must we experience before the nation's leaders will decide that it is time to act? We urge quick action on these proposals by Congress and the Administration.
SOURCE U.S. Conference of Mayors
You mean Obama's Brownshirts? Formerly known as ACORN?
Thanks, CaliGirl.
The business community is hard at work keeping municipal governments focused on their agenda. Perforce, that means little to zero time or money for other priorities.
That's great to hear; even when asked what discounts I might be eligible for, I don't always remember to mention my NRA membership.
Many hotels and rental car companies offer an NRA discount; looking at the NRA member discount's page (http://www.nra.org/affiliates.aspx), they list quite a few: Wyndham, Baymont, Days Inn, Howard Johnson, Knights Inn, Ramada, Travelodge, Wingate, AmeriHost Inn, Super 8, Hawthorn, Microtel, Best Western, Marriott, Hertz, Avis, and Budget.
History
The title of Gauleiter was first established in 1925 after the Nazi Party reorganized following the failed Beer Hall Putsch. By 1928, Gauleiter had also become a Nazi paramilitary rank, and would eventually become the second-highest such position, ranking only below the rank of Reichsleiter (roughly translated: National leader).
In theory, a Gauleiter was merely a representative of the Nazi Party who served to coordinate regional Nazi party events and also served to “advise” the local government. In practice, Gauleiters were the unquestioned rulers of their particular areas of responsibility. The legal governmental establishment merely existed as a rubber stamp for the Gauleiter.
The Gauleiter was the highest ranking political leader at the Gau level of political administration within the Reich, with the Reich (national) level the highest, Gau (shire, prefecture, province) second-highest, Kreis (circle, i.e. district or county) third-highest, and Ort (municipal) level the lowest. There were two additional, lower local levels (Block and Zelle, describing a party cell). Political leaders from the Ort level and higher wore official uniforms, with the piping and background color of the uniform collar tabs indicating the administrative level.
I've been convinced for quite a while...
Once the Stimulus Package kicks in and lots of high-paying jobs get created, despair and crime will go down.
It cost 1 trillion dollars - we are bound to see the stimulus begin to work soon.
On December 7, 1987, PSA Flight 1771, a BAe-146, bound for San Francisco International Airport from Los Angeles International Airport, was cruising above the central California coast when it suddenly entered a high-speed nosedive and crashed on a cattle ranch near the small town of Cayucos. Investigations determined that a disgruntled USAir employee, Dave Burke, recently fired for theft, had armed himself and boarded the flight, which was carrying his former manager. After writing a suicide note on an air sickness bag, Burke shot his ex-manager, both pilots and then himself, causing the airplane to crash. All 43 aboard the jetliner -- 38 passengers and 5 crew members -- perished.
How horrific.
This isnt something just over night.
— Japan is a very homogeneous society. They have a very low crime rate.
— The United Kingdom used to be a homogeneous society and used to have a very low crime rate. As immigration has increased this has changed and the UK now has a very heterogeneous population and a high crime rate.
— Nation states in Africa that consist a heterogeneous mix of various tribal groups thrown together in a single nation only by lines on a map have high crime rates.
— Latin American societies with a high degree of class polarization lack cohesion and have high crime rates.
— The US has always been a heterogeneous society and has always had a fairly high crime rate - except during the period between the early 1940s and early 1960s, following the immigration restrictions imposed in about 1920 and which allowed the US to assimilate much of our ethnic population and become more homogeneous. Following the loosening of immigration restrictions the crime rate climbed. In recent years a disproportionate amount of the crime in the US has been perpetrated by recent immigrants, especially illegal immigrants who are by definition alienated from and have no vested interest in our society.
Heterogeneous societies tend to be highly polarized. Homogeneous societies, less polarized. Polls show that the Obama administration is the most polarizing government the US has had since such poles have been taken. I see a direct correlation between Obama’s polarization of our society and the sudden rise in “mad warrior” type shootings.
What government must do to prevent these incidents is eliminate the polarization and make the US a more homogeneous society:
— End the class warfare rhetoric.
— End race entitlement.
— Promote racial and cultural assimilation.
— Stop threatening the religious traditions of the society.
— And above all, place greater restrictions on immigration.
No, I don’t think Mr. Obama sees it as being in his best interest to do any of this.
I've just started to work my way through a trilogy written in German by one of my sons' retired professors, Gerd Evers, which is a history 1918-1945 of Kreis Traunstein or the area to the east of the Chiemsee whose county seat is the town of Traunstein. There used to be a Army base in Traunstein, called a Kasserne, where Hitler was stationed after World War I and assigned to guard a pile of surplus gas masks and the like. Directly across the lake to the west is a town called Rosenheim where Hitler courageously hid in an attic until he was arrested when he fled the debacle of the Beer Hall putsch.
Hitler was born about 45 minutes northeast of here in the border town of Braunau where there was a customs House operated by his father to control river traffic, a main artery before the autobahns, between Austria and Germany. Hitler qualified to become a German citizen by virtue of his service in the German army in World War I for which he received the Iron Cross.
Lest the reader think that the region is only a sinister pit of Nazi-ism, this is the same region in which Pope Benedict, born Ratzinger, was born, raised, and educated. He attended school in Traunstein to my east and his cousins owned a typical Bavarian Inn with a breathtaking view of the Alps to my west, halfway to Rosenheim.
As I read these books, I will try to keep an eye out the Gauleiters. Thank you for the history.
Interesting. (also the image of Hitler guarding mountians of old gas masks if funny)
I’m concerned with the drift of Mayors towards more as administrative agents not of citizens of their cities that elected them, but to becoming representatives of the federal authorities down towards the local citizens.
I’ve read a couple of general histories of Germany from, say 1800’s to 1940. My memory of them was of central authority transforming Germany faster, further than the citizens wanted, and always under the guise that the previous and still supported older ways were archaic, and obstacles, even though they had majority popular support, and anyone that didn’t support it was an obstacle to progress and prosperity.
It’s not a shooting epidemic, it’s a headline epidemic.
Lets pass a law that requires that news stories of deaths be reported in proportion to the date of deaths in the community by that particular means. Before you can put a shooting death on the front page, you have to put 10 motor vehicle deaths.
Exceptions for prominence of victims and perpetrators, of course.
That story got buried. The mass-murderer was black.
I know I am preaching to the choir here, but none of these things would have stopped one single shooting. when someone is willing to kill themselves, more laws are not going to stop him.
When there’s a mass shooting, the first thing you do is call the police - the people with guns.
So it’s obvious to even the most demented anti-gunner on the phone with 911 in the middle of a mass shooting that MORE GUNS are a potential solution to the problem. It’s just that they can’t make the connection in their minds between a gun in their purse or pocket and a mass shooting.
Yep. Nailed it.
He shot the pilots and then himself, dooming an aircrat full of people. Pretty hard core if you ask me.
I hope he enjoys his new (hot) quarters a few cells down from Hitler and Mao tsu tung.
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