Guns are like everyday candy in some neighborhoods

Over the weekend I was watching a show about the horrible violence that is taking place not so far from home. Mexico. I kept hearing that there was a shooting nearby, officer shot, you have to be careful, and seeing lifeless bodies on the streets. Police officers also took a reporter to a room where they hold confiscated weapons, which were mostly all American made weapons.

Many will disagree, but weapons are a great threat to our nation and there should be strict laws for someone to be able to obtain a weapon permit even more to own one. As Americans we like to have our freedoms and that is exactly what the Second Amendment gives us; the right to keep and bear arms.  According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation weapons are used in 67.7% of murders, and that is besides the weapons used in robberies, rape assaults, non fatal crimes, etc. Weapons seem to be an easy reach with several major shootings occurring this year alone. Many people are losing their lives or being injured by having careless/mentally impaired individuals able to get their hands on some of the most powerful machinery. Several states don’t even require people to obtain a permit to own a weapon, so how is that safe for our country? Teens, children, gang members, criminally prone people, murderer prone people can all own a gun basically without anything to stop them. I am not naïve because people should be precautious from dangerous people, but if guns weren’t freely available maybe there would be no need to carry a gun to defend ourselves. If government would implement strict laws for weapons our country might be safer. Weapons are needed, but are they really needed for anyone to obtain?

The National Rifle Association says that crime has been decreasing over the years in the U.S., but Mexico is having massacres on a daily basis. Most of their guns travel down through our borders. At guns shows in nearby border towns you can go in and walk out with an array of weapons and have no one question you and then the Mexican cartels will pay thousands of dollars just for one. Americans think that Mexico doesn’t concern us because we don’t live there, but it does. Many of our border towns are affected by these powerful criminals and some of our American people that travel there. Last year a woman and her husband were jet-skiing on a lake that is on the border of Texas and Mexico when her husband was shot by Mexican “pirates,” and that is only one of other violent run-ins with these criminals in that area.

Our weapons laws are way too lenient and our country is willing to take that risk.

Bullying Programs = "Gay recruitment"

On October 16, 2012 Nick Searver posted a blog In the AMERICAblog titled, “Religious right tries to kill anti-bullying day in schools” .  He blogs about a program that is being targeted by the American Family Association for, “gay recruitment.”  I definitely think his intended audience is the LGBT, anti-bullying groups, and parents.  

 The argument that Searver tries to make is that the American Family Association claims are basically a double standard, because they know bullying concerns people of religion, but why can’t it also help others that deal with the same scrutiny they get from our society. The Southern Poverty Law Center has created a program called On Mix It Up, a program to help against bullying, which encourages kids at school to interact with someone they normally wouldn’t interact with. Now the AFF is trying to discourage parents from sending their kids to school that day because they think the program is “a nationwide push to promote the homosexual lifestyle in public schools.”  I definitely do agree that the AFF is being obnoxious when the anti-bullying policies also help against the cruelty that some religious groups face.  With his audience Searver can provide this information to them and have other programs stand out against the American Family Association for being indirectly prejudice to the Southern Poverty Law Center and its purpose of civil rights.

I think Searver makes it clear where he stands in this issue and is able to back up his stance with the fact that here the AFF is trying to put a stop to an anti-bullying program that supports them as well, while they themselves bullying the homosexual community.  

Say no to keeping our communities safe?

On September 28, 2012, Politico published the article “The mounting cost of violence” written by Democratic Representative Mike Honda from California. In this article Honda is discussing the high price of violence related expenses that are made in the U.S.  I think his intended audience is the general public and voters, because he is trying to show that our society/government should be spending money in other securities for the future.

 One of his arguments is that the expenditure of $2.16 trillion related to violence is way too much. I definitely agree that amount seems incredibly high and crazy, but how many things is that money really being spent on? Hundreds of things all over the world.  Honda is making it seem that all our government is doing is providing guns and war tanks with that money. “Is this really how we want to measure America’s success, how we want to develop as a society, and how we want to leave the world for our children and our children’s children?” He seems unrealistic and wants the world to focus on other things like economic and food security and don’t get me wrong those are things of high importance as well,  , but we are living in the real world where crime, violence, and terrorism are a fact of everyday.

Another argument he made was that “military spending is a poor source creation of a job.” The people in the military are risking their lives to do a job that many of us would never even consider, so that we can live freely in our country. For him to say that is very naïve because there is a lot of skill, determination, and training/education that is needed for the variety of jobs in the military.

 When you break it down to direct and indirect costs of violence there are all kind of things that are taken into account, for example hiring all of our authority personnel, programs for training, medical expenses for those injured, lifelong recovery for those injured, firearms, and the list goes on and on. I mean if there weren’t people to protect us and help the wounded we would live in a world of chaos. One expense that I would agree is a waste is the prison system. Our tax dollars are basically supporting criminals that our officers/attorneys/judges work so hard to put away and yet we still have to support them being in prison. That whole system just doesn’t seem fair.   

I did find logic when he compared the money spent on education/health care vs. military and their job output. Even though education/health care make more job output most of those jobs will in some sense contribute to the “violence” spending. The goverment should make improvements in spending for education and health care and maybe even changes to the spending on violence, but to say there are better things to spend the money on doesn't quite make sense.  It's like he is saying let's get rid of laws and protecting our communities and everyone defend themselves. Nonsense.