Opuscula Giving up some Civil rights for Good of nation

AMERICANS ARE NOTORIOUS FOR DEMANDING their civil rights be treated as sacred.

The leftists attack anything that would identify a criminal’s race. They rush to the defense of someone photographed — by anyone — in a public place (e.g., street, park).

The ones on the right loudly defend “gun rights” and the right to speak against what they perceive as attacks on freedom of speech.

Perhaps it is time to tone down the rhetoric and to start exercising our mental capabilities to find a reasonable to most common ground.

HERE IS A THOUGHT: President Trump can issue an Executive Order — his predecessors were good at that — to (a) ban sales of large capacity magazines, (b) require local AND federal (FBI) background checks on anyone who wants to buy any firearm, and (c) limit ammunition purchases to 100 rounds. He also could ban small caliber assault rifles. Give Congress six (6) months to create and pass a bill to replace the executive order. See which politicians run to the Supreme Court seeking to overturn the executive order.

IN TRUTH, Americans have been losing rights for decades.

At one point, an American could travel anywhere in the world sans passport.

Now, Americans must show a passport (or equivalent card) to enter the country from anywhere — even Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean islands, long weekend destinations; no visa required.

On the other hand, Franklin Delano Roosevelt imprisoned thousands of American citizens BY EXECUTIVE ORDER simply because he deemed their ancestry “suspicious.” THAT was a real loss of civil rights.¹

Americans are told to give their Social Security numbers at any number of places.

(A former employee of the Social Security Administration says there are only a few organizations that have the legitimate right to collect and use your Social Security number, mostly limited to the Social Security Administration and the U.S. Internal Revenue Service).

The SSN probably is the main source of identity theft — yet most Americans share the information with anyone who asks. ²

There are privacy issues on so-called social media.

Those privacy issues need to be dismissed. Anyone posting on this media knows it is not secure; it equates to walking down a public street or sitting in a public park. Social media is public media.

Many attacks — with guns and with other weapons — have been announced on social media well before the event. A look at the attacker’s on-line history also gives a clue as to the person’s mental state. At the same time, law enforcement MUST get its act together and share information with appropriate organizations (other law enforcement, schools, mental health, etc.) At the same time. the ability to hold a person suspected of a mental illness needs to be extended from three days to five.

Is there ANY reason a hunter needs a 30-round magazine? For that matter, is an assault rifle — an AK 47 or M-4 carbine type weapon — really a good deer rifle? The M-4 fires a 5.56mm (.222) round, lighter than the minimum for deer-size animals.

Is there any reason a home defense long gun needs a 30-round magazine or a side arm a 16-round magazine? Are homeowners expecting fire fights or are they just playing “cowboy?” If a fire fight — a highly unlikely event — is expected, keep several loaded 10-cartridge magazines at hand.

In any event, a short-barrel shotgun is a better home defense weapon that either a long gun or a side arm.⁴

It goes without saying that all fully-automatic weapons should be limited to the military.

Everyone buying any type weapon needs to prove they know how to use it safely and undergo a thorough background check, including fingerprints, at both state and federal levels. We have licensing tests for drivers — why not for gun purchasers?

Bottom line for guns: magazines with less capacity, a total ban on fully-automatic weapons, and thorough background checks, with fingerprints.

Leftist must realize that just because a person is Caucasian and conservative that the person is not automatically a racist, xenophobic, white supremacist. At the same time, those on the right must acknowledge that the incumbent in the White House sometimes — often — has a knee jerk reaction even to minor criticisms that provoke leftists.

It’s not a matter of “civil rights.” It’s a matter of civility.

We — left and right — need to SHUT UP AND LISTEN to what the other side has to say. Too often we shout down different opinions, some of which may be worth consideration.

The left, more than the right, has been successful at preventing any opinions but their own to be heard; freedom of speech has to work both ways.

Civil rights still does not allow anyone to yell FIRE! In a crowded theater.

 

America is a great country. We have had political differences since before nationhood, but in my lifetime I never have seen such hatred of different opinions, such vilification of opponents and their views. The width of the space between left and right now has become a chasm, with the middle ground a no man’s land.

America can survive many things, but it cannot survive in its present state.

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Sources

1. FDR imprisons citizens - http://tinyurl.com/y53mztcw

2: Social Security - https://www.usa.gov/about-social-security

3: Hunting ammo - http://tinyurl.com/y2ad9drf

4. Shotgun - http://tinyurl.com/y4rw7k5q

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