OBAMA, GUNS, AND OPPORTUNITIES WASTED.....

A President of the United States has a limited amount of time and political clout during his Presidency. It would seem like one of the most important aspects of a Presidency is to not only respond to the spontaneous and unpredictable circumstances as they occur domestically and internationally, but to set an agenda that is not only feasible, but highly significant and consequential. Things that are full of protein that will wield the greatest amount of impact on the largest amount of Americans. There will never be consensus on what these issues and battlefronts should be, especially among people of opposing political parties, but there certainly is no shortage of opinions.

I, as always, have an opinion on the issues and battlefronts that President Barack Obama has chosen to highlight and shed political blood for during his 7 plus years in the Presidency. In particular, I would like to shine the high beams on his most recent decision to try and work with Attorney General Loretta Lynch to find a pathway, through Executive Action, to put some very small limitations on one of the ways an individual can purchase firearms. One of the main proposals Obama is poised to adopt would require some unlicensed gun dealers to get licenses and conduct background checks on potential buyers. The change is aimed at occasional dealers, including some who sell online frequently or rent tables at gun shows but do not have a storefront.

First, I would like to disclose that I am opposed to assault rifles, semi automatic weapons and any weapons that can kill large numbers of people in a matter of seconds; the types of weapons that are all too often the weapons of choice in mass killings in this country. However, I would also say that any attempt to control the sale or possession of any guns that are presently legal at this time, is a very questionable expenditure of Executive resources and capital and a relative total waste of time as compared to any number of issues that actually have the ability to make an impact on the American landscape....huge “impacts” in many cases.

Let’s take a look at the reality behind ”mass killings” in America. A “mass killing” is defined as any killing spree that kills at least 4 people. I would maintain that the media is incredibly responsible for sensationalizing (and even provoking) mass shootings in America. It is their Super Bowl. And why not, it is good business. Nothing can get a news network more excited than the word of a mass shooting. Hundreds of news agencies will flood the crime scene within minutes and hours. Virtual encampments will be set up by some of the larger news agencies like CNN and Fox in an attempt to feed us detail after detail regarding what is clearly the most titillating of news stories---unpredictable, mysterious, and often random shootings in American theatres, schools, and workplaces, etc.. The media will leave no grain of sand un-turned in an attempt to seize the attention of everyone with a heartbeat. The brooding (next) mass shooter takes note of this celebrity treatment and how could he resist? Days, weeks, months, go by and the media is still ringing the sponge of any residual moisture....and, when this many people are riveted on their TV sets pondering the meaning of the loss of innocent lives, well, this President of the United States feels the need to give a news conference...to give yet another impassioned speech and finger pointing at those who would oppose new gun legislation.

“Because I get too many letters from parents, and teachers, and kids to sit around and do nothing,” Obama continued. “I get letters from responsible gun owners who grieve with us every time these tragedies happen; who share my belief that the Second Amendment guarantees a right to bear arms; and who share my belief we can protect that right while keeping an irresponsible, dangerous few from inflicting harm on a massive scale.”

In 2015, this last year, there were 462 deaths as the result of “mass shootings”. In case you don’t have a calculator handy that is 1.26 deaths per day. In a country of 320 million, there are 1.26 deaths per day as a result of ”mass shootings”. Every death is tragic, by any means... but clearly we have to pick our battles.....In contrast, every 53 minutes on average, someone is killed in a drunk driving crash (9,878 people in total ... At any given point we potentially share the roads with 2 million people with three or more drunk driving offenses. ...

Would anyone argue that there aren’t significant legal and technological and governmental measures that could be taken that could significantly impact the large number of people who are innocently killed and maimed by drunk drivers? Death by drunk driver does not have the sex appeal of mass shootings...there typically is only one or two people dead during a drunk driving fatality.....and the lack of guns makes it a “yawn” event for all but local media coverage.

On average each year, 130 people are killed by deer--typically by striking a deer while driving. That is approximately 1/3 as much as are killed in mass shootings. In any given year you have a 1 in 692,000 chance of being killed in a mass shooting. Here is a list of things that are much more likely to cause your death:

Choking on food
Odds of dying: 1 in 4,404

Fall involving bed, chair or other furniture
Odds of dying: 1 in 4,238

Accidental drowning and submersion
Odds of dying: 1 in 1,073

Falls
Odds of dying: 1 in 184

Heart disease
Odds of dying: 1 in 6

courtesy of MedHealth.org

How about this breathtaking statistic; a statistic that has been borne out by numerous large sample sized studies:

1 in 4 (girls and women) will be raped in their lifetime. That is a national tragedy if I ever heard one. That is totally unacceptable. That is a statistic that seems taken from the Dark Ages. Don’t tell me that a President of the United States couldn’t make a huge impact on this outrageously disgraceful metric. The President could take any number of measures to stigmatize sexual assault. There is no limit to the amount of battlefronts that could be taken up to fight this highly damaging and scarring act of violence.

1 in 4...that is 40 million women and girls...what if this President was able to cut down the number of sex crimes against women by just 2%. That is 800,000 women and girls who would not have to live their lives with the experience of being raped. Imagine being able to spare your daughter, girlfriend, sister, mother, from the experience of rape. What if he reduced rape by 10%...that is 4 million women and girls who are spared this incredible indignity.

What if the President of the United States, during his Presidency, created a climate of zero tolerance for sexual violence against women?, starting first with not being a perpetrator of sexual violence himself. Who better to declare war on sexual violence against women than Barack Obama? This man, our President, is a pillar of decency and respectability. If I had just 5 minutes I could think of at least 10 ways that a President could wield his power to raise sensitivity towards sexual violence...most especially among young people. Start by teaching kids in school. Instead, it is a total non issue in America. It doesn’t even get token representation. We are more concerned with the treatment of whales at Sea World. This should warrant the call for a National Emergency. I am not joking!

Here are just a few things that the President could do which would have huge impact:

1. Have regular addresses with the American public regarding the insidious and chronic level of rape that is going on in America.

2. Encourage women and girls to come forward when they feel they are raped. Assure them that the justice system a the state and local level will process their allegations fairly and swiftly, and if they don’t, the Federal government will investigate for improprieties.

3.  Help to define ”rape” for those who would be so naive as to think that forced sex on a date is not rape. Raise the awareness and keep it in the forefront of people’s minds....so that all girls and all boys know exactly what rape is...

After all...during the Clinton administration we waged war on smoking and we did an amazing job of almost obliterating smoking in the U.S.. That was a huge public service and countless lives were saved and billions of dollars in medical costs were spared. Now that was IMPACT!

Well, if you think that President Obama’s proposal to spend his ever waning political capital to make it potentially a tiny bit more difficult to buy guns in America is a great use of his time, then I would suggest that you might think that the President has a lot more opportunities that he actually has....

In our United States of America, it is about as easy to buy a cup of coffee as it is to buy a gun. Obama’s new proposal would appear (to me) to be like trying to reduce the cups of coffee Americans drink by requiring that we show our driver’s license before we can purchase a cup. “That is a tale, told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.” I don‘t know how William Shakespeare felt about gun control but I will quote him anyways.

Let me again state that I don’t like guns, I don’t own a gun...but what is done is done. And, another irony....I have a favorable opinion of President Obama (in general).

There are so many guns available in America that it is staggering...more than one gun for every man, women, and child. To think that a crazed person who wants to access a gun is going to be thwarted, in a day and age when UPS can deliver one to your door...well, I think that is naive (in my opinion). This genie is out of the bottle...it isn’t practical, it isn’t feasible, and it isn’t warranted....in my opinion.

what are your thoughts?

Food for thought....