Unfortunately it took this many lives, but we may finally get semi-automatic weapon control. This hits home because of the recent massacre in Wisconsin and our newly passed concealed carry law. Illinois seems to be the only sensible state left, but I don't want to move there, I want sensibility in Wisconsin and the rest of the U.S. again.
For those who are looking to buy up assault weapons like the Buschmaster used in the Newtown Elementary School Massacre, beware you may likely be wasting your money. If our leaders in Washington do what's right, they'll pass a ban on military-style non-animal hunting weapons and a required buy back program. So, you'll soon be selling your new Buschmaster back to the government for less than you paid.
Here's looking at you Mill's Fleet Farm!
If people would just lock up their guns, we'd all be much safer, including the owners themselves. You can't yell "Fire!" in a crowded theater, you shouldn't be able to own weapons that can massacre a crowd of people. And it's not the fault of violent movies and video games that are watched and played in every other country that doesn't have our massacre problem. How are we better protected by having untrained and potentially hazardous citizens carrying more powerful weapons than most police officers carry?
As for protecting our schools, instead of arming our principals and teachers, we should take notes from the Secret Service playbook. A locker with bomb armor and plans to get children out of danger ASAP would be much more beneficial than more guns. Their duty is to protect the children, not take out shooters.
All I want for Christmas is semi-automatic gun control with sensible sales and license regulations for all guns.
Showing posts with label concealed weapons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label concealed weapons. Show all posts
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Wisconsin Senate Republicans Support Al Qaeda and Other Terrorists by Passing Concealed Weapons Bill
Two weeks ago, al Qaeda released a new video praising the U.S. for its lax gun laws and urging Muslims in the U.S. to buy as many guns as they can and start shooting Americans. The terrorist cites the ease of owning and carrying guns in the U.S., and specifically mentioned the ease of purchasing semi-automatic weapons at gun shows, without background checks.
The Wisconsin Senate Republicans just helped al Qaeda reach their goal of killing more Americans by passing the concealed weapons bill on to the Assembly. The bill allows for more people to carry loaded guns in more situations, but it doesn't stop people from owning guns who shouldn't, like *ahem* terrorists.
The bill will allow more terrorists to walk around with weapons, citizens or not. It will allow these terrorists to walk into parks and bars with a concealed weapon, and we won't be able to tell the difference between good guy and bad. We don't have access to the list of people who are able to carry concealed weapons, and the police have very little access.
Who, besides someone else carrying a gun, will demand to see a permit, or even question someone carrying a gun? Anyone carrying a gun will simply be allowed to continue to carry the gun, that is unless we call the police every time we think we see a gun. This bill only makes a terrorist's job easier.
Terrorists want to hide their guns. If you're carrying a gun for protection or sport, it makes no sense to hide it.
There's absolutely no question we will be in more danger with passage of this bill, and the bill gives terrorists reason to cheer.
Carrying concealed weapons is not a right, for if it were, we wouldn't be having this debate. The Wisconsin Republicans are supporting terrorism with their vote for SB93, because it makes it easier for terrorists to carry weapons without question and more difficult to detect a terrorist. It's most likely not their intention, but that is what they've done.
All of the Republicans up for recall on July 12 voted for this bill. You can add this to your list of reasons why your senator should no longer serve in the Wisconsin Senate.
The Wisconsin Senate Republicans just helped al Qaeda reach their goal of killing more Americans by passing the concealed weapons bill on to the Assembly. The bill allows for more people to carry loaded guns in more situations, but it doesn't stop people from owning guns who shouldn't, like *ahem* terrorists.
The bill will allow more terrorists to walk around with weapons, citizens or not. It will allow these terrorists to walk into parks and bars with a concealed weapon, and we won't be able to tell the difference between good guy and bad. We don't have access to the list of people who are able to carry concealed weapons, and the police have very little access.
Who, besides someone else carrying a gun, will demand to see a permit, or even question someone carrying a gun? Anyone carrying a gun will simply be allowed to continue to carry the gun, that is unless we call the police every time we think we see a gun. This bill only makes a terrorist's job easier.
Terrorists want to hide their guns. If you're carrying a gun for protection or sport, it makes no sense to hide it.
There's absolutely no question we will be in more danger with passage of this bill, and the bill gives terrorists reason to cheer.
Carrying concealed weapons is not a right, for if it were, we wouldn't be having this debate. The Wisconsin Republicans are supporting terrorism with their vote for SB93, because it makes it easier for terrorists to carry weapons without question and more difficult to detect a terrorist. It's most likely not their intention, but that is what they've done.
All of the Republicans up for recall on July 12 voted for this bill. You can add this to your list of reasons why your senator should no longer serve in the Wisconsin Senate.
Monday, May 9, 2011
Scott Walker's Insecurity and Dangerous Contradiction
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is so afraid of his fellow Wisconsinites that he continues to make us pay for beefed up security around the Capital. The Journal Sentinel reports that the extra security costs around the Capital are about to exceed $6 million. At the same time, Walker is hoping to quickly sign a bill into law legalizing concealed weapons before the recall elections this summer. For someone who cares so much about his own security, he sure doesn't care much about ours.
Unbelievably, the bill will allow anyone in Wisconsin to carry a concealed weapon without training, a permit or a background check. Do we have such short memories that we forget the recent shooting in Arizona which nearly killed Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords?
Why do we need to be able to carry weapons concealed? There is absolutely no benefit out of it. We have the right to own a gun, but we don't have a right to sneak around with it. No one besides law enforcement should have the privilege to carry a concealed weapon. Especially in Wisconsin, when you don't know just how drunk the guy next to you could be.
Do we have such short memories that we forget the two stabbings on Mifflin Street last weekend? Does anyone think that concealed weapons will decrease the chance of that occurring again?
The contradiction was even more apparent when I found the two articles right next to each other on the Journal Sentinel home page. Walker, if you're so afraid of us now, how afraid will you be when we can sneak an AK-47 around you just about anywhere*? Will we have to pay even more for Walker to feel safe among us? I know that I'll personally feel less safe if they legalize concealed weapons. Walker, you want beefed up security for yourself, but you want to decrease the security of every Wisconsinite. That's a dangerous contradiction for the people of Wisconsin.
It's not like this bill saves any money or creates any jobs.
Instead of trying to cram your extreme agenda down our throats, could you please start working on creating jobs like you said was your top priority?
*I am in no way saying that I condone violence against anyone, nor am I saying that anyone should be violent towards any of our representatives. Please, protest with your mouth, not your weapons. However, the point needs to be made that if Walker feels insecure now, he can only feel less safe if he signs this bill into law.
Unbelievably, the bill will allow anyone in Wisconsin to carry a concealed weapon without training, a permit or a background check. Do we have such short memories that we forget the recent shooting in Arizona which nearly killed Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords?
Why do we need to be able to carry weapons concealed? There is absolutely no benefit out of it. We have the right to own a gun, but we don't have a right to sneak around with it. No one besides law enforcement should have the privilege to carry a concealed weapon. Especially in Wisconsin, when you don't know just how drunk the guy next to you could be.
Do we have such short memories that we forget the two stabbings on Mifflin Street last weekend? Does anyone think that concealed weapons will decrease the chance of that occurring again?
The contradiction was even more apparent when I found the two articles right next to each other on the Journal Sentinel home page. Walker, if you're so afraid of us now, how afraid will you be when we can sneak an AK-47 around you just about anywhere*? Will we have to pay even more for Walker to feel safe among us? I know that I'll personally feel less safe if they legalize concealed weapons. Walker, you want beefed up security for yourself, but you want to decrease the security of every Wisconsinite. That's a dangerous contradiction for the people of Wisconsin.
It's not like this bill saves any money or creates any jobs.
Instead of trying to cram your extreme agenda down our throats, could you please start working on creating jobs like you said was your top priority?
*I am in no way saying that I condone violence against anyone, nor am I saying that anyone should be violent towards any of our representatives. Please, protest with your mouth, not your weapons. However, the point needs to be made that if Walker feels insecure now, he can only feel less safe if he signs this bill into law.
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Walker To Jam Extreme-Right Crap Down Throats of Wisconsinites
Well, now that the recall campaigns have ended, the Republicans have ended their "quiet period" (you know that period before an election in which they don't tell us what they're planning to do later). According to the AP, Walker and the Republicans are planning to introduce and quickly pass a whole host of extreme right-wing candy, none that will help fix the budget. This includes the Voter Suppression Bill, which will likely pass the Assembly this week, strip collective bargaining rights, legalize concealed weapons, increase charter schools, deregulate phone companies, and end early release of prisoners. The Republicans plan to rush all of these bills through before they will likely lose their power with the recall elections this summer.
None of these bills deliver on the promises these Republicans made to us last November, those of delivering jobs and fixing the budget. The Voter Suppression Bill is conservatively estimated to cost taxpayers over $5 million to implement and then over $2 million yearly, yet it doesn't do anything - it doesn't solve any actual problems. Wisconsin Attorney General JB Van Hollen has been investigating voter fraud for years, and has only found 11 improper votes. That number of votes couldn't swing any election in Wisconsin, but besides that, the Voter Suppression Bill wouldn't have prevented any of them.
Yes, the Republicans still haven't learned their lesson from the many thousands who protested and from the recall of six senators. Even though Walker admitted under oath that stripping collective bargaining rights "doesn't save any" money, they plan on tacking the anti-collective bargaining bill to the budget if they don't get their way through the courts. I wish the media would ask them why when the Republicans tell them of this plan. Since it doesn't save Wisconsin any money, why strip rights away from our public workers?
Legalizing concealed weapons will only increase violent crime. I'll bet my life on it, and so do many police officers! I read a Journal Sentinel article that said the Milwaukee Police Department was in favor of such a bill if it provided some much needed changes when it comes to licensing and punishment. However, I don't see the logic in creating a bigger problem in order to solve other problems. Fix the holes in the system without adding new ones. I don't want to live in fear that the guy next to me at the bar is carrying a weapon. I like that we all (except for a few, e.g. law enforcement) must make our possession of weapons blatantly obvious. I won't feel more secure knowing anyone could be carrying a weapon, I'll feel less secure.
Republicans don't want to just make our cities less safe, they want to make us more dumb. Sure, charter schools can be good, but our public schools are already quite good and can be improved using less money than creating new schools. Diverting money across more school systems will only decrease the efficacy of our school systems on average. You can't reduce money in one system and expect it to improve, and you also can't expect the charter schools to be able to do any better than a public school. Let me say that another way so the point hits home. Anything a charter school can do for students, a public school can do as well. Reducing the amount of money that all of our schools get (charter schools won't be living fat either) will only reduce the effectiveness of our schools as a whole.
The effort to increase charter schools in Wisconsin just doesn't have any logic to it. The only "selling point" of charter schools with any relevancy is that they can be a bed for experimentation. But experimentation just to experiment isn't helpful, especially to our children. Public schools and teachers have a long history of experimenting, and there are processes and channels to facilitate the experimentation and sharing of results. Of course public schools aren't perfect, but that's no reason to give up on them, it's reason to improve them.
In short, charter schools concentrate the quality of schools to small pockets, whereas public schools have more uniform quality. If you increase the money to charter schools, you'll decrease the overall quality of public schools and concentrate the quality of Wisconsin's schools in a few choice charter schools. If you increase the money to public schools and decrease it to charter schools, you increase the overall quality of Wisconsin's schools. Charter schools will never be able to do what our public schools do as a whole, and creating them just wastes taxpayer money.
Charter schools are just another example of a fake solution that can only make things worse. If you want to improve our schools, improve our schools.
The Republicans also want to deregulate phone companies in Wisconsin, so we can all pay more for even crappier service. Thanks, Walker, for looking out for the citizens of Wisconsin! There's nothing more that can be said about phone company deregulation, besides welcome back Ma Bell!
Lastly, the Republicans want to end early release for low-risk prisoners. Regardless of what you may think of the idea of early release, as illusory tenant points out, it saves Wisconsin quite a bit of money. Not only that, but I believe these programs have been shown to improve the success of rehabilitating prisoners. So, the Republicans plan to make us pay more so that our prisoners are more likely to commit crimes again.
It's clear that these ideas are against the wishes of most Wisconsinites, because the Republicans are trying to pass these bills before they lose their majority. If their ideas were inline with our ours, they wouldn't have to rush these bills through now. They could just pass them with bipartisan support. However, these ideas are from the top of extreme-right wish lists, and they should be treated as such. They should be left to the fringe of political conversation, not the center.
None of these ideas or bills will save us money, solve any problems, create jobs, or reduce the budget. I'm absolutely appalled that Wisconsin is considering such "solutions," especially when we're not broke but short on money. The only thing they do is make us pay to look more like a hill-billy state. The grass really will be greener somewhere else if this crap falls on Wisconsin. What do we have to do to get some real solutions around here?
We the people of Wisconsin need to wake up now and stop this crap before we have to eat it!
(I glossed over many of my conclusions, but I can provide further facts and detail if desired.)
None of these bills deliver on the promises these Republicans made to us last November, those of delivering jobs and fixing the budget. The Voter Suppression Bill is conservatively estimated to cost taxpayers over $5 million to implement and then over $2 million yearly, yet it doesn't do anything - it doesn't solve any actual problems. Wisconsin Attorney General JB Van Hollen has been investigating voter fraud for years, and has only found 11 improper votes. That number of votes couldn't swing any election in Wisconsin, but besides that, the Voter Suppression Bill wouldn't have prevented any of them.
Yes, the Republicans still haven't learned their lesson from the many thousands who protested and from the recall of six senators. Even though Walker admitted under oath that stripping collective bargaining rights "doesn't save any" money, they plan on tacking the anti-collective bargaining bill to the budget if they don't get their way through the courts. I wish the media would ask them why when the Republicans tell them of this plan. Since it doesn't save Wisconsin any money, why strip rights away from our public workers?
Legalizing concealed weapons will only increase violent crime. I'll bet my life on it, and so do many police officers! I read a Journal Sentinel article that said the Milwaukee Police Department was in favor of such a bill if it provided some much needed changes when it comes to licensing and punishment. However, I don't see the logic in creating a bigger problem in order to solve other problems. Fix the holes in the system without adding new ones. I don't want to live in fear that the guy next to me at the bar is carrying a weapon. I like that we all (except for a few, e.g. law enforcement) must make our possession of weapons blatantly obvious. I won't feel more secure knowing anyone could be carrying a weapon, I'll feel less secure.
Republicans don't want to just make our cities less safe, they want to make us more dumb. Sure, charter schools can be good, but our public schools are already quite good and can be improved using less money than creating new schools. Diverting money across more school systems will only decrease the efficacy of our school systems on average. You can't reduce money in one system and expect it to improve, and you also can't expect the charter schools to be able to do any better than a public school. Let me say that another way so the point hits home. Anything a charter school can do for students, a public school can do as well. Reducing the amount of money that all of our schools get (charter schools won't be living fat either) will only reduce the effectiveness of our schools as a whole.
The effort to increase charter schools in Wisconsin just doesn't have any logic to it. The only "selling point" of charter schools with any relevancy is that they can be a bed for experimentation. But experimentation just to experiment isn't helpful, especially to our children. Public schools and teachers have a long history of experimenting, and there are processes and channels to facilitate the experimentation and sharing of results. Of course public schools aren't perfect, but that's no reason to give up on them, it's reason to improve them.
In short, charter schools concentrate the quality of schools to small pockets, whereas public schools have more uniform quality. If you increase the money to charter schools, you'll decrease the overall quality of public schools and concentrate the quality of Wisconsin's schools in a few choice charter schools. If you increase the money to public schools and decrease it to charter schools, you increase the overall quality of Wisconsin's schools. Charter schools will never be able to do what our public schools do as a whole, and creating them just wastes taxpayer money.
Charter schools are just another example of a fake solution that can only make things worse. If you want to improve our schools, improve our schools.
The Republicans also want to deregulate phone companies in Wisconsin, so we can all pay more for even crappier service. Thanks, Walker, for looking out for the citizens of Wisconsin! There's nothing more that can be said about phone company deregulation, besides welcome back Ma Bell!
Lastly, the Republicans want to end early release for low-risk prisoners. Regardless of what you may think of the idea of early release, as illusory tenant points out, it saves Wisconsin quite a bit of money. Not only that, but I believe these programs have been shown to improve the success of rehabilitating prisoners. So, the Republicans plan to make us pay more so that our prisoners are more likely to commit crimes again.
It's clear that these ideas are against the wishes of most Wisconsinites, because the Republicans are trying to pass these bills before they lose their majority. If their ideas were inline with our ours, they wouldn't have to rush these bills through now. They could just pass them with bipartisan support. However, these ideas are from the top of extreme-right wish lists, and they should be treated as such. They should be left to the fringe of political conversation, not the center.
None of these ideas or bills will save us money, solve any problems, create jobs, or reduce the budget. I'm absolutely appalled that Wisconsin is considering such "solutions," especially when we're not broke but short on money. The only thing they do is make us pay to look more like a hill-billy state. The grass really will be greener somewhere else if this crap falls on Wisconsin. What do we have to do to get some real solutions around here?
We the people of Wisconsin need to wake up now and stop this crap before we have to eat it!
(I glossed over many of my conclusions, but I can provide further facts and detail if desired.)
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