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EDITOR:
I do not underestimate the difficulty of changing false beliefs with facts. It would be useless for me to cite the reams of research, here and abroad, indicating that the single most reliable predictor of someone being shot is the ready availability of guns. This refusal to accept scientific evidence is part and parcel of the growing power of propaganda organs like FOX News and the NRA, and the concomitant dumbing down of those who believe them. In 1991, retired Chief Justice Warren Burger declared in a speech: “The Second Amendment has been the subject of one of the greatest pieces of fraud — I repeat ‘fraud’ — perpetrated on the American public by special interests groups…”
If I don’t like the Mountain Democrat’s management refusal to accept science, be it about guns or about climate change, I can stop buying the paper. However, when John D’Agostini, our elected “Sheriff-Coroner-Public Administrator” shows signs of being divorced from reality, as he does in his open “Letter” to VP Biden, then I, as a citizen, start worrying.
D’Agostini’s “Letter” is symptomatic of someone suffering from Fregoli’s Syndrome, aka “delusional paranoia.” Sheriff D’Agostini seems to believe that Joe Biden is coming for our guns. Really? Is the good Sheriff having visions, à la Joan of Arc? There is zero, nada, none evidence that taking away guns is even remotely in the realm of reality, or possibility.
The Obama Administration is proposing to use the Supreme Court’s 2008 decision (District of Columbia v. Heller) that, even though citizens have a right to own arms, it is not an unfettered right, and, by inference, the government has a right to regulate possession. To my NRA pals, I point out that the government already regulates howitzers, tank guns, machine guns, recoilless rifles, bazookas, claymore, anti-personnel and anti-tank mines, weapons containing chemical, bacteriological or radiological agents, the list goes on. By acquiescing to government controls over some weapons, the gun absolutists have, de facto, already admitted that controls, and even outright bans, are within the government’s purview.
The good Sheriff also writes: “It is well-known and proven with facts, not emotional inference, that gun control of any kind has no effect on … crime.” Mr. D’Agostini would help his case if he cited a single “fact,” backed by research not funded by the NRA or Smith & Wesson, to support his claim. Of course, independent studies prove exactly the opposite of the Sheriff’s claims. Borrowing a page from the NRA, D’Agostini’s letter plays on ignorance and its twin progeny: fear and paranoia.
Missing from the misinformation circulating about the Second Amendment is the Declaration of Independence’s part about the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. For the 30,000 people, including over 3,000 kids, who die each year of gunshot wounds, how are freedom and happiness working out from the grave? How does a person’s right to live stack up against gun absolutists’ desire to amass dangerous toys? Where are the Christians on this moral issue?
I’m with the good Sheriff in not wanting to put guns in the hands of mentally unstable people. Therefore, I feel obligated to point out to Mr. D’Agostini that Fregoli’s Syndrome is a mental illness … and that he carries a gun. It follows that the good Sheriff ought to voluntarily disarm until he undergoes a medical evaluation.
I will allow for a possible misdiagnosis on my part, and that Sheriff D’Agostini does not actually believe a word he wrote. Rather, he borrowed a page from Sen. Ted Gaines’s book “Mastering the Art of Self-Aggrandizement and Political Grandstanding.” Two years hence, D’Agostini hopes to be re-elected on the platform “I stood firm against that gun-stealin’ varmint Joe Biden.” Around here, it’s a winning slogan.
JOHN GARON
Placerville
Not again!
Evelyn, I can only comment on the possible meaning of Communitarian. My guess is that Communitarian does not refer to Communism, but rather to Community. As for the movie reference? Could it mean that Obama won and that he would now fight back against the Tea/Republicans in his second term? As for your balance, your referenced sites are overwhelming far right — as example, the site you referenced concerning Communitarian is from Breitbart. Not exactly a balanced site would you say?
. . . THIS 1990 piece, COMMUNIST GUN CONTROL . . .
Evelyn, as you may have noticed I don’t get into the gun debate as it is so complex that I don’t see an answer pro or con.
Score one for you, James. You don’t like Breitbart. Now, please, evaluate the contents of the posted article.
Evelyn, I did evaluate it — see below. I cannot see inside the head of Mr. Jones, so I did my best. Perhaps you can tell us exactly what he means. As for Breitbart they are anti-anti-anti and a horrible resource.
(1) In this particular instance not much needs to be evaluated other than whether Van Jones was correctly reported. The article lacks depth. (2) Which sites, James, do you consider adequately “balanced” to merit consideration? i.e. where do you turn to for information and analysis?
Evelyn, another site from the right side. Piece (Communist Gun Control) written by Dave Kopel of the Independence Institute, a far right think tank in Golden, Colorado. Don’t you ever visit left or center web sites? Or do you only find “truth” on the far right.
Off to the dentist. Hang in there Evelyn.
Video (18 min):
HERE Van Jones at Loyola University, Jan. 23, 2013 (as quoted at Breitbart)
OK, back for a few — dentist delayed until 1PM. Evelyn, I think you are beginning to obsess over Van Jones. Calm.
For James, post-dental visit – You have dismissed mine at 10:16 am as being the work of the “far right”. I, however, suggest a different criteria: Is the information TRUE, or is the information FALSE? ********** The best testimony to the power of an armed populace is the vigor with which the Warsaw Pact dictatorships enforced gun control. When the Communists took over Bulgaria on September 9, 1944, they immediately confiscated every weapon in private possession. In East Germany, private gun ownership was outlawed, although citizens were allowed to rent hunting guns for one-day periods. Immediately after World War II, Hungary was governed by a coalition of democrats and Communists. Preparing the way for a total Communist takeover Laszlo Rajk, the Communist Minister of the Interior, ordered the dissolution of all pistol and hunting clubs, as well as of other organizations which might prove a threat to government power. Rajk claimed he acted “in order to more efficiently protect the democratic system of the state.” Poland, on the other hand, did allow limited ownership of registered target guns with a license from the so-called “Citizen’s Militia.” In December 1981, Poland’s dictator, General Jaruzelski, decided that Solidarnosc had gone too far. He declared martial law, arrested all the pro-democracy leaders he could find, and ordered all firearms and ammunition be turned over to the government.
James, I posted the Van Jones video for the eventuality that you care to determine whether Breitbart (which you dismiss) quoted Van Jones accurately. You are letting yourself off the hook by characterizing websites rather than taking the trouble to evaluate specific material. So, again: Which sites, James, do you consider adequately “balanced” to merit consideration? i.e. where do you turn to for information and analysis?
Evelyn, I tried to watch that video site but couldn’t turn up the volume enough to hear it. If it’s Van Jones, then I’m sure he said what he said. Where do I turn to for information and analysis? Why, to you of course because your sites are 100% accurate. Well, to Dee and Cookie too. Don’t want to leave them out and hurt their feelings.
Colonel, I’m disappointed. Last night you suggested that maybe you were evolving into a “more complex liberal” but now the gun debate is “too complex” for you to discuss? I think maybe you may have some honest feelings about the debate but you don’t want to upset your run of the mill liberal. I’ve never known you to be quiet about anything so come on and let it out. You’ll feel much better and it may take the edge off of going to the dentist.
James: You are being flip and evasive. Sometimes it appears that your primary function is to redirect conversation.
Now I get to laugh. Above, James characterized Dave Kopel as “far right”. Have just checked. “Politically he is a lifelong registered Democrat but a confessed small government libertarian at heart who voted for Ralph Nader.” ********** James, where DO you get your information and analysis. Or do you make it up as you go along?
Evelyn, it’s my legal training. Guess you’ve never argued with someone with legal training? As example, when you demand specific answers from me, never forget that I’m not your monkey to be drawn down the path of your choosing. Keep those “balanced” sites coming. Oh, and just because Communist countries seized guns, doesn’t mean that ours will.
After all, we are a Communist country only in the minds of the Tea Party and some Republicans.
Bye, Evelyn, have to get ready to go to the dentist. Think about me not being your monkey.
Dave Kopel Website –
HERE – From elsewhere: Kopel earned a B.A. in history with highest honors from Brown University, and won the National Geographic Society Prize for best History thesis with a biography of Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.[1] He graduated magna cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School. He was also a contributing editor of the Michigan Law Review.
James: We can agree you’re not a monkey.
I just watched Obama’s speech on gun control and noticed that afterwards Obama walked to where representatives from various police and sheriff’s departments stood….Obama reached out to each one to shake hands, most did, but some obviously refused to shake has hand, some turned away, others wouldn’t even make eye contact…..Oops……..
DB, I don’t discuss it because I see it as complex without easy answers. Somewhere between taking your guns (and my pistol) and doing nothing is the answer. But, I have no idea where the answer is on that continuum. Therefore, I don’t discuss it.
R.J., the ones who refused to shake hands were germ obsessed. The ones who turned away were trying to get a jump on the parking lot and rush hour traffic. The ones who wouldn’t meet his eye were shy. See, no problemo.
James…Thank you …I knew there had to be a logical explanation….I would hate to think the leader of the free world has Cooties…
R.J., you date yourself by mentioning cooties. People don’t have cooties anymore. P.S. Do you remember the folded paper cootie detector?
Evelyn, Van Jones, an agressive progressive, real name is Anthony “Kapel” Jones. Dave “Kopel,” a Democrat working for a conservative think tank writes an article about Anthony “Kapel” Jones.
Kapel, Kopel? Are they one and the same? May be a conspiracy here.
Dunno, James. Do some research and report back.
James…..Yes, back then the folded paper cootie detector was standard issue to defend yourself from the “smelly kid” in class….Wait, now that I think back, I may have been the “smelly kid” in class…..