Salute the Rank - Not the Man

Something has been bothering me for quite some time, but I've not said anything about it. I've let it pass. My disturbance has been quietly brewing for a long time, and every time I see a fellow blogger write something disrespectful on this specific subject, I bite back the bile.

The subject? President Barack Obama.

Believe me, I'm no fan. I didn't vote for him the first time around, and I sure as heck didn't vote for him the second time.

However, I recognize he is the duly appointed leader of the United States. He occupies the highest elected political office one can achieve in this country.

I disagree with his politics.

I disagree with his economics.

I disagree with his agenda.

I disagree with his outlook.

All of the above: vehemently.

But I have the highest respect for the office he holds.

I've been trying to hammer home the concept with my 12 year old son that you get respect from people when you give respect. I don't expect my fellow bloggers - especially the gun bloggers I read daily - to start posting daisies and sunshine. But I would certainly hope that if we are to get across our message that we're fed up with the status quo in Washington, we're ready for Government to get out of our business and stop spending money as if tomorrow will never come...we as bloggers wouldn't post our displeasure with F bomb laced tirades that only serve to make those who share our viewpoint be seen as uneducated, ill-mannered - and worst of all, disrespectful.

I cringe with embarrassment every time I see a blogger I admire use crude language against the President.

To quote Major Winters as he admonished Captain Sobel: "We salute the rank. Not the Man."

As I tell my son: What you do matters. What you say - it matters. 

Those who disrespect the office of the President with foul language do themselves no favors. I can only hope my fellow gun and 2a bloggers take this to heart, and give pause the next time the words "Fuck Obama" or something derogatory about his wife or children is about to move from their fingertips to the keyboard. 

A 2a Thought For A Pivotal Friday Here in Maryland

Please keep Maryland in your thoughts today, as our leaders gather today at 12 pm EST to vote on the Governor's abhorrent gun control bill.

Maryland Sheriffs Testify on HB294 - Maryland's Onerous Gun Control Bill

     If you have time ( video is 20 minutes ) and are interested in hearing what real law enforcement officers - people on the front lines of crime every day -  think of the types of laws put in place by New York State and proposed in states like Maryland and Colorado, I'd highly urge you to listen to their testimony.

For me, this is highly persuasive testimony as to the misguided ( and in several instances, particularly here in Maryland ) highly uninformed views of politicians on what actually works to dissuade and reduce gun violence.

These men are professionals at what they do, and I sure as heck trust their opinion on how best to curb crime in my area rather than rely on the opinion of a lawyer or career politician.

Edited to add: These sheriffs are against the proposed gun control law here in Maryland, and give very persuasive arguments against it based on fact, statistics, and logic.  If you'd like to hear argument against gun control from what you might consider an unlikely source ( law enforcement officers ), I would invite you to watch this video. It might change your mind about the wisdom of stricter gun control measures.

How Much Do You Know About the Second Amendment? A Quiz

I found this quiz while doing some research on a completely different subject.

How Much Do You Know About the 2nd Amendment? A Quiz

     I'll tell you I got 11 out of 15 on this quiz, mainly because I live close to Washington DC and several questions concern Supreme Court challenges to DC's restrictive gun laws. There was also 1 question where I debated between 2 questions, and picked the wrong answer. But for a relative newcomer to 2nd Amendment issues - I was pleased with my general knowledge.

Why Isn't Gun Control Working In Chicago?

If you are of a mind to, I would invite you to read this article here at The Washington Examiner entitled "Why Isn't Gun Control Working In Chicago?"

Illinois has one of the STRICTEST gun contol laws on the books in the United States ( and is one of the only states / areas of the country where Concealed Carry is not permitted by anyone...) yet more deaths by guns occur in Chicago than in anywhere else in the United States. Why is this?

From the article:

Despite the media's intense attention to mass shootings, homicides, violent crime and gun deaths are all decreasing nationally, according to the latest FBI statistics. But not in Chicago. So what is causing the unacceptable wave of gun violence in Chicago?

One question to address: If the real problem is that guns can be purchased in other jurisdictions, then why are America's other major cities seeing such huge declines in their murder rates, despite the fact that nearly all of them are near states with relatively lax gun laws?

If Democrats are truly interested in making Americans safer, and not just in passing feel-good laws that will do nothing to decrease gun violence, then they should welcome a closer look at what is going so horribly wrong in Obama's hometown.

If you've listened to the Senate gun hearings and followed them with any sort of interest - here's an OP/ED piece that will have you  nodding your head and wondering how wise these strict gun control laws actually are in practice - because as you can see, numbers don't lie. Illinois is the most gun-unfriendly state in the Nation, and I wouldn't exactly say "boast" concerning their high murder by gun rate. It's worse than a war zone where EVERYONE is armed.

Lao-Tzu: The First Libertarian?

More late night reading reveals more truths. Lao-Tzu wrote these words approximately 2,500 years ago. 

Come on, people - is this concept really that difficult for a "modern" man to understand?
We've seen history repeat itself, over and over, proving the statement above to be true.

I'm angry that Washington is attempting to control my personal behavior by force of law.

I'm unhappy that the people I chose to help govern this land have turned our political system into a shambles and a mockery with partisan fighting.

"Qu'ils mangent de la brioche?" 

No, President Obama. I won't eat the cake. Didn't you get the concept of this blog? 

I don't eat cake anymore - and not your cake in particular.

Media Quiet About San Antonio Theater Shooting / Rescue

Clean Eating and 2nd Amendment advocacy...who woulda thunk it? Since my post on gun control was my most viewed post for the past 6 months ( Google image hits on CE items not withstanding... ) I thought I'd share with you something that was sent to me by a friend. I was flabbergasted on this; I heard nothing about this heroic police woman.  I investigated the story and easily found the source story and the sequence of events.

Note: I've edited the original email I received which had several factual errors in it, and reworded it a bit. I also copied some of the news text from Snopes. You can see the original email at the Snopes link below. 

On Sunday December 16, 2012, 2 days after the Connecticut school shooting, a 19-year-old man named Jesus Manuel Garcia went to a restaurant in San Antonio Texas to kill his ex-girlfriend. After brandishing a gun in the restaurant, he chased multiple restaurant employees into a nearby theater. As Garcia was running through the parking lot, he shot the windshield of a San Antonio Police patrol car after an officer in the car shined a spotlight on him. The officer was not injured.

Garcia then ran inside the movie theater, where he continued his search for the restaurant employees. Movie-goers in the lobby, bathroom, and some theaters reported hearing multiple gunshots. The gunshots caused people inside the theater to panic.

"Everybody was just coming out of the side of the theater, running out the emergency exits. And everyone was screaming and running," a woman who was at the theater said.

Authorities said one person was shot by Garcia.

Garcia was finally stopped by an off-duty Bexar County Sheriff's Department officer who was working security at the theater. Officials said the officer, Sgt. Lisa Castellano, heard the gunfire inside the theater and ran towards the sound of the shooting to find out what was going on. Sgt. Castellano spotted Garcia coming out of a bathroom with his gun drawn and fired at him, shooting him four times.

Now aren’t you wondering why this isn’t a lead story in the national media along with the school shooting?

There was an off duty county deputy at the theater. SHE pulled out her gun and shot the man 4 times before he had a chance to kill anyone. So since this story makes the point that the best thing to stop a bad person with a gun is a good person with a gun, the media is treating it like it never happened.

Only the local media covered it.

On December 19, 2012 the city of San Antonio gave Sgt. Lisa Castellano a Medal of Honor for her bravery and quick thinking for stopping a dangerous man.

Sgt. Lisa Cuello Castellano was met with a standing ovation.

Bexar County Sheriff Amadeo Ortiz presented the 13-year veteran with the Medal of Valor for taking down a gunman inside a south-side movie theater.

According to police and deputies at the scene, 19-year-old Jesus Garcia ran into the Santikos Mayan Palace after firing several shots inside a nearby restaurant [and] in the parking lot.

Castellano, who was off duty, yelled for people inside the theater to get down on the ground. When Garcia came out of the restroom, Castellano ordered him to drop his weapon. When he refused, she shot him multiple times.

"I'm not going to lie; it was frightening," she said. "But, you know, the training kicks in. And thank you to the sheriff's office for all of the training that we're given."

Why didn't we hear anything about this act of valor? Snopes is on point with their assessment...I'm going to reprint it verbatim. I personally disagree that the armed guard's actions saving people are speculative. She CLEARLY saved many lives with her actions. I especially like that last line..."Reporters don't report buildings that don't burn."

In general, the San Antonio theater shooting received little coverage outside of local news media, primarily because it didn't include any of the factors that typically propel such stories from local to national news: it was not an especially horrific crime (or part of a larger crime), it did not involve any deaths or the wounding of large numbers of people, and it featured no prominent persons: it was a shooting incident in which a single person was injured. The possibility that an armed guard may have prevented additional casualties by shooting the gunman might have made the incident more newsworthy than usual, but that aspect of the story was speculative, and as others have observed , the news media tend to highlight negative events rather than positive ones: "reporters don't report buildings that don't burn."

 

The NRA has it right, "A good guy with a good weapon can be a solution." Think about the story for a moment, and imagine what would have happened if Sgt Castellano hadn't been at the theater. What if there had been nobody armed ( police, civilian, or otherwise ) on the scene to stop the shooter? Now just imagine this news story if the person who stopped the bad guy had been an armed civilian. A random theater goer, who just so happened to be carrying their concealed weapon. Would the media have covered it then?

Just thought you'd like to know.

 Snopes.com : San Antonion Shooting; Media Quiet

2 Wounded in San Antonio Restaurant Shooting

And this is as close to national attention as this story received: CBSnews.com - Shots fired at San Antonio theater

Off Topic, But Important: Gun Control = Education

The recent uproar over gun control to "curb violence" has me increasingly frustrated.

Guns are a tool. Any tool in the hands of someone with intent has the potential to hurt.

*Hundreds of stab wounds occur each day in the US. Is there a call to ban knives?

*Obesity kills hundreds of thousands each year; not just from heart attacks or strokes, but also from the proven link that the obese have MUCH higher cancer rates than those who are fit.  Is there a call to ban forks?

*Drunk driving killed over 11,000 people in the US in 2010. What is the chief cause of drunk driving ( if you really boil it down to the essential "heart of the matter" )? Operator error. An impaired person used the tool in an inappropriate manner. Is there a call to ban cars?

The answer is not gun control. The answer is better education.  The answer is keeping guns out of the hands of felons and those who aren't of sound mind.

The drunk driving lobby has done an EXCELLENT job educating people in the past 20 years about drunk driving.

What do you do if a guest at your party has too much? You take their keys.

What do you do if you've had too much at a bar? You call a cab, or a friend.


What should you do if there is someone in your home who is mentally unbalanced and you have guns? You keep the guns inaccessible to them. You own a gun safe and you keep your firearms in it.

What should you do if you have guns and children in your home? Keep the gun inaccessible when not in use, and educate your children to treat guns with the respect they deserve. Impress upon them you are handling it because you have received the proper training and you are in control of the tool.



Gun control isn't about the government stepping in to regulate the whos, whats, and wheres of guns. Gun control is about people taking responsibility for their actions, and for the people in their lives. Gun control is about education and understanding that like all tools, guns can and will kill when used improperly or by the uneducated or mentally ill.

Think about it, before jumping on the "Ban guns" bandwagon. It's just a tool.