Do We Need Stricter Gun Control Laws In US? Yes, Common Sense Demands It

Gun related violence is unacceptable: There has been a spate of school shooting and other gun related incidents in US, the most recent being in movie cinema in Aurora Colorado and a Sikh temple (Gurudwara) in Wisconsin. In the rest of the world, we hear of occasional such incidences; last major one that we can remember was in Denmark last year. In many countries, such a large number of gun violence is almost unheard of. Aurora shooting has left 12 dead and more than 50 injured, Wisconsin has left six dead and several injured. Gun related violence requires serious attention from all of us to do everything possible to prevent such killings of innocents in future. Prudence and common sense demands this as our duty to our children and society. 

Constitution, culture and US politics: Right to carry arm has its roots in the early gunpowder control incident of 1975. The independence movement from British soon inscribed it in populous psychology. Higher courts have always upheld the right of carrying arm for self-defense. The US was won over from the indigenous Indians by way of superior power of guns of early settlers, while Indians only had spears, bow and arrows. Then the westward movement of those settlers also required arms. Hence gun ownership is ingrained in American culture.

US history is witness to the fact that gun owning is a very sensitive issue. Politics and psychology has played it such that second amendment right to carry arm is almost taken to be a mandatory duty and not just a right. Supporters of carrying arms, like National Rifle Association (NRA) and Gun Owners Association of America (GOA), besides the manufacturers and vested interest lobbies have further created a hype of an invisible enemy.

Need of today: Times have changed since independence of US. We do not have wars with our neighbors and Wild West is no wilder. We all must respect necessity of owning guns for self-defense and pleasure of hunting.  However, common sense tells us that these do not require automatic and semi-automatic weapons. Ownership of gun must be allowed but some common sense rules and laws must be enacted to avoid and prevent accidents and the guns going in the hands of criminals. There should be some rational control for its purchase and records with appropriate authority. Most of the old British Empire (now British Commonwealth countries) has such gun control laws, which works fine. They have minimal accidents with guns because they are simply not around as much as we have in US.

Let me site a few statistics. Some of these tell us the simple truth that it is simply larger number of guns around that creates many of our problems.

·      US have about 5% of population of the world but have 50% of all the guns of the world. 

·      In US there are more than 80 guns per 100 citizens, as compared to less than 10 in most of the world. Even guns, are closely monitored by proper licensing and records with authorities in almost all countries.  

·      In US there are more than 11,000 homicide deaths per 100,000 populations as compared to around 100 in countries like UK, Japan, Australia and Canada. That means homicides are almost 1000 times more in US.

·      The correlation of larger number of guns with big numbers of homicides and accidents is so obvious.

·      One reason given for such incidents is that it tis the work of psychopaths and mentally ill people. However, US do not have any disproportionately higher number of such people than the rest of the world.

·      The kind of arsenal that we find used in such accidents truly belongs to the soldiers in army and certainly not needed by civilians. 

Other relevant facts and conclusion:

·      Gun related crimes are much smaller in number in countries with good gun control laws

·      Gun related accidents are almost unheard of in countries with gun control laws

·      One can relate with the groups and people wanting to own guns in this violent world of recent days, but for such needs appropriate weapons for defensive use may be licensed and registered by authorities

·      There is no reason that high powered and multi bullet magazines may be allowed beyond some reasonable number of shots in a magazine

·      In US there are almost as many guns as the population and some of these are left easily accessible to children causing risk of accidents

·      In countries like Switzerland, almost every adult has a gun, but they are all trained in militia and teach their children how to respect such lethal weapon and hence have only rare gun related accidents

·      Abundance of gun availability has caused four of our US president’s lives in 11 assassination attempts

It is high time that we legislate some common sense laws about guns within the ambit of constitution instead of living in paranoid fantasy about some non-existent threats. Let us all work on it with our hearts and souls and stop ranting about the constitutional rights of owning arms, which is harming us more than doing good.

We must at least have some common sense laws enacted to ensure that such arsenal do not fall easily in the hands of criminals. Proper permitting procedure and registration of weapons will reduce such possibilities. Substantially. Multiple numbers of guns in majority of the households also poses a risk of accidental injuries to our children because they are not always secured well and children are not trained to respect these lethal “toys”.

We should at least define the following through legislations:

·      What criteria should be used to allow the possession of guns?

·      What is the largest caliber gun allowed to any civilian?

·      What should be biggest magazine capacity for civilian use?

·      What kind of arsenal can be owned by anyone?

If we did not define this, the present laws do not clearly tell who can buy and own even larger cannons and nuclear weapons. It is our duty to sort such an important matter in an amicable way and prevent potential risks to our society. 

Transparency and Accountability are absolute essentials for good governance.

 Greed is the precursor of dishonesty and corruption.

 We need to watch continuously what our elected representatives are doing to ensure that they keep doing good public service.

I was emailed the following article claimed to have been written by Charlie Reese, who has been a journalist for almost all his life. He wrote for Orlando Sentinel and retired in 2008. I tried to verify on Wikipedia and Snopes.com. He seems to have written this column in 1985 under similar head, which was then modified.

Though he wrote this column 25 years ago, it clearly reflects a down to earth true picture of the situation of our country, politics, parties and society today.  Charlie Reese has put the blame fairly and squarely on the elected representatives (congress plus Supreme Court), who are responsible for the decisions, legislations, changes in our cultural and moral values and judgments that impact each one of us every day. However, it must also be remembered that we elect these representatives and it is our duty to watch them to ensure that they continue doing the “right” things and not those things which are against our collective interests.

To achieve this we must insist on transparency and accountability by these representatives. These two elements, it may be said, are the parents of a good democracy and governance. I believe that the electorates are not absolved of their duty by voting once every few years only; they should be continuously vigilant to ensure that the elected representatives are doing what they said they would and act in the best interest of the country and all concerned. Their actions must be transparent and they must remain accountable.

Sometimes personal greed, corporations, interested groups and their lobbyists are always there to deflect honest legislators who primarily wish to do public service. Temptations are too great at times to resist. But with transparency in their action and ongoing accountability, the possibility of deviation under the influence of legal lobbying or corruption may be avoided. If we relax these conditions, we run a risk of those representatives getting a free hand and start making decisions on many issues as they think fit and not necessarily in our best interests. Worse still they may amass a lot of power, become authoritarian and create havoc.

Being a student of history, I do not ever forget that Hitler and Mussolini were also elected by their fellow countrymen but basically because of not having such checks and balances, they became terror for their country and the whole world. Such further examples are seen even today, when a number of such elected or unelected dictators have been facing their deeds in the International Criminal Court in Hague. I would not bet either that many more will not stand in the same court after their misdeeds. I would dare say that many of such misdeeds may be stopped before they occur, if we insist on transparency of work by our elected representatives and their continuous ongoing accountability, thus sparing many innocent people from their tyranny and damages from their unchecked work by citizens.

I am so impressed by Charlie Reese’s understanding of the place of elected representatives in our life that I am tempted to reproduce the whole article I received; here it is:

545 vs. 300,000,000 People -By Charlie Reese

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.
Have you ever wondered if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?
Have you ever wondered if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?
You and I don't propose a federal budget. The President does.
You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.
You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.
You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.
You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one President, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country. I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank. I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a President to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes. Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.

What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits. The President can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it. The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? John Boehner. He is the leader of the majority party. He and fellow House members, not the President, can approve any budget they want. If the President vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.

If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.
If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red.
If the Army & Marines is in Iraq and Afghanistan it's because they want them in Iraq and Afghanistan ...
If they do not receive social security but is on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.
There are no insoluble government problems.

Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.

Those 545 people and they alone, are responsible.
They and they alone, have the power.
They and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses.
Provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees...
We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!

============

 If most of us keep an eye on daily decisions of the congress, maybe it will remain streamlined and honest. In fact in this day and age of internet, if there is an issue requiring public opinion and sentiments, it can be easily obtained from them on internet. Recently for example when the congress was wrangling over the debt ceiling issue for weeks, the polls showed that the American populace wanted the same settled ASAP. Because it was delayed to the 11^th hour, those good meaning congress members have not only triggered many unforeseen events causing uncertainty in our economy and stock market but have also affected the whole world because of additional European economic weakness. That is clear disservice of the nation by their elected representatives. They may have done that in good faith but not budging from their party political agenda when the national interest is at risk is certainly not accepted by electorates.   

S & P downgrade of UF rating to AA+

Downgrading of the US rating: An awakening call for Americans to rectify many long overdue issues.
Introduction:

Let me reveal that I am not a politician. I am an independent scholar. I support every representative in the USA congress that wants to do public service. I am wary of those who go there with ego and idealistic agenda, even if it hurts the national interests. When I wrote earlier in the wake of mad specter of parties not settling the issue, despite the risk of downgrading, to sack the whole congress, maybe it was a bitter reaction to their agonizingly fruitless wastage of time on whether or not to raise debt ceiling. The real issue is excruciating debt level itself and NOT the raising of debt ceiling, Debt needs to be reduced urgently before it is too late.

This website:
I have started this website to focus on requirements from political leaders, namely transparency and accountability. The ugly specter of useless debate was the cause of downgrading of our credit rating first time ever. This will further weaken our economy and job situation. Some of the congress members, once elected get mired into thinking that they have a single mandate. They are afraid of electorate that they will reject them if they moved away from that mandate. That is not true. They are there first for the jobs of national interest and then for any other mandate. They need to do their job transparently and remain accountable to electorate.

Credit downgrading; is this real?
First off let us talk about the action of S&P and why did they do this?

Grid locked congress: I am paraphrasing what S$P has said. They waited for the congress to agree to lower the debt level substantially. This they did not. Instead congress kicked can few months down to the so called 12 member congressional super committee. That means problem is not solved. It will hang on our head as the sword of Damocles.

Irresponsible statements and posturing by congress members: Many of them hid behind their mandate of not raising tax. They went on to even saying that it does not matter if we did not pay our obligations on time and default. Are they living in the real world? Yes, one should have principles and ideologies, but when the nation is passing through the worst economic downturn and there are indications that risk of more trouble is on way, every sane person needs to compromise and settle in the best national interest. Every one need to rise above personal and party’s vested interests to minimize further damage. This was not done.
Result was the disgraceful downgrading of US from AAA to AA+ rating. Nation is humiliated. The congress should be mortified. But they seem not to be. Instead of getting together to join hands and find an acceptable solution, they are busy finger pointing, who is to be blamed. They are interested in appointing the person on that 12 member committee, who may serve their “ideals”.

Default by the USA?: There is no possibility of default by the USA. As a last resort Feds can print money and pay. The problems that the US facing today is no different than Ireland, Portugal, Greece, Italy and Spain.  They all like us have problems of low growth, unemployment, living beyond their means and decision makers bickering with each others, so as not to let their vested interest be hurt. However the big difference between all those and USA is the fact that the size of their economy is only a fraction of the size of the USA. Yet another big difference is that US Dollar is international currency, whereas none of the currencies of the country mentioned above come anywhere near being international. So let us first establish that US is in no danger to default on its obligation but it will certainly have to put its house in order to stop such worries and rumor.

Standard & Poor or S & P: this itself has been partly the cause of the situation. You will all remember that they are the ones who provided AAA rating to many investment banks and credit instruments like swaps and mortgage securities, which in fact caused this recession and economic downturn in 2008. Even in this downgrading they have been challenged by treasury department of a mistake in their worksheet of the tune of two trillions, which was pointed out and still they went ahead with downgrading. It smells of “rotten fish”. So much for S & P.

Nevertheless it is a fact that our economy is not in the best of the state today. We as a nation in a largest debt ever, our unemployment rate is over 9%, new job creation is very small to reduce unemployment. We need to have more revenue, which republicans are dead against. We need to reduce expenses, which can only be done by reducing entitlement of social security and Medicare, which means crushing elderly and sick, which is immoral and democrats are against it. This leaves only defense spending which may be reduced in moderation without impacting our security adversely.

Conclusion:

I believe that those who make politics their business for vested interests of their own or their lobbyists to make money in the name of public service makes a mockery of the public service and politics both. So let us not sack the whole congress. But let us make sure that we elect only those who are there for public good and not to shine their political ideals.

WE MUST PERHAPS INTRODUCE TERM LIMITS FOR HOUSE AND SENATE ALSO TO ENSURE THAT OUR REPRESENTATIVES DO NOT MAKE BUSINESS OF THEIR POSITIONS FOR THE LIFETIME EMPLOYMENT IN CUSHY JOBS AND BECOME “KINGS” IN OUR DEMOCRACY.