“Long Tall Texican” Shooting AR-15 Late at Night Murders 5 Next-Door Neighbor Family Memberss

Texas Sheriff on small town massacre:

Dead Mothers “were actually trying to take care of the babies, and keep them babies alive.”

It wasn’t on a dark desert highway, there was no cool wind in anyone’s hair, and there was no sweet smell of colitas rising up through the air. Instead, it was after 11:30 at night, in a quaint, middle-class Texas neighborhood in a small, quiet town under 7500, and the stench of burnt gunpowder, blood, and death permeated the house.

Law enforcement officials remove bodies from a house in Cleveland, TX, the scene of grisly mass murder where 5 people were shot Friday night, April 28, 2023, in San Jacinto County.

By the time San Jacinto County Texas Sheriff Greg Capers was called by a frantic resident to the 1500-1800 square foot house at 171 Walter Drive, in a “regular country neighborhood” ironically named Trails End Subdivision, 5 people — 3 women, 1 man, and an 8-year-old boy — had been slaughtered in their residence by a next-door neighbor, all shot in the head, execution style.

This is 8-year-old Daniel Enrique Laso and his mother Sonia Argentina Guzman, age 25, who were both shot and killed execution-style by Francisco Oropesa in Cleveland, Texas, late Friday night, April 28, 2023, in San Jacinto County.

Deceased are: Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25; Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31; Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18; and Daniel Enrique Laso, 8.

The 5 sole survivors included 3 children.

Though it had been a fairly common occurrence for many men in the neighborhood to party and whoop it up with guns while drunk on the weekends, 38-year-old Francisco Oropeza was celebrating early, and neighbors, weary of hearing gunshots late into the night, had complained to Francisco that their family had a baby trying to sleep.

Sheriff Capers said it all started out whenvictimized family members walked up to the fence and asked Francisco to stop shooting in his front yard, followed by a call to 911 about harassment just after 11:30PM on Friday night. “Deputies have come over and

Nashville, TN, and the nation, weeps

Statistically, there are two extremes on the bell curve (the left and the right), and they both resemble each other. In fact, the bell curve itself — so named because its outline shape resembles a bell — is a mirror image of itself. Both halves are identical.

At the far end on either side, there’s very few of the thing being measured, or counted.

But, up in the middle, is where most everything is located.

It’s the same way with politics.

And guns.

Some say ban them all — but up in the middle is where consensus is found — while others say do nothing.

The Volunteer State and the nation are grieving over the deaths of three 9-year old children, and 3 adults gunned down at The Covenant School, a private Christian elementary school in Nashville’s Green Hills district. The world has taken notice not only the victims’ deaths, but of the heroic actions of Nashville’s Metro Police Department, whose members were on scene and resolved the problem in 15 minutes. Such quick action undoubtedly saved lives. They are to be commended beyond measure, and deservedly should be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, our nation’s highest civilian honor, perhaps even the Congressional Gold Medal.

Even the Babylon Bee, an online satire magazine stepped up to the fore and acknowledged MPD’s bravery, by Tweeting an article about it: “Putin Immediately Surrenders After U.S. Airdrops Nashville Police Officers Into Battlefield.”

Putin Immediately Surrenders After U.S. Airdrops Nashville Police Officers Into Battlefield https://t.co/ZUb9rf0EaW

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) March 29, 2023

Two former Tennessee Governors — Phil Bredesen, a Democrat, and Bill Haslam, a Republican, the 48th, and 49th Governor, respectively, who are friends — co-authored an Op-Ed published March 31 in The Tennessean, on the necessity of state, and Federal, lawmakers to collaborate to help bring about an end to the preventable tragedies of school shootings.

Both men share several similarities — both men were Mayor of a major Tennessee city, Bredesen of Nashville,  Haslam of Knoxville, both men were re-elected as governor, both men are entrepreneurs, and very wealthy — and for the past year, they have both co-hosted a podcast at the Howard H. Baker, Jr. Center for Public Policy at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Howard Baker (1925-2014) was a long-time Republican U.S. Senator from Tennessee (1967-1985), who was renown for his pithy axiom, “Always remember that the other fellow might be right.”

They restated what some consider to be obvious, which is that,

The Right To Bear Arms

A distinguished citizen takes a stand on one of the most controversial issues in the nation

By Warren E. Burger, Chief Justice of the United States (1969-86)
Parade Magazine, January 14, 1990, page 4

[NOTE: Chief Justice Warren E. Burger (1907-1995), was first nominated by POTUS EISENHOWER January 12, 1956 to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (often called the “Mini Supreme Court”) to fill the position created by the death of Judge Harold M. Stephens, was confirmed by the Senate 28 March that year, and on 23 June 1969 was nominated to be Chief Justice of the SCOTUS by POTUS NIXON following the resignation of CJ Earl Warren, who was also nominated by POTUS EISENHOWER, and  presided over numerous landmark Constitutional law cases and wrote the majority opinion in Brown v. Board of Education (1954), Reynolds v. Sims (1964), Miranda v. Arizona (1966) and Loving v. Virginia (1967). CJ Warren also led the Warren Commission, which investigated the assassination of POTUS KENNEDY, was Governor of California from 1943-1953, and widely considered one of the nation’s most influential Chief Justices. CJ Burger was known more for his administrative acumen than for his intellect, and in 1974 authored the unanimous decision in United States v. Nixon, which rejected POTUS NIXON’s claim of Executive Privilege in the midst of the Watergate crimes, and eventually chose to resign, rather than face certain impeachment, thereby becoming the first POTUS to ever resign from office.]

Warren E. Burger, Chief Justice, United States Supreme Court, official portrait

Our metropolitan centers, and some suburban communities of America, are setting new records for homicides by handguns. Many of our large centers have up to 10 times the murder rate of all of Western Europe. In 1988, there were 9000 handgun murders in America. Last year, Washington, D.C., alone had more than 400 homicides — setting a new record for our capital.

The Constitution of the United States, in its Second Amendment, guarantees a “right of the people to keep and bear arms.” However, the meaning of this clause cannot be understood except by looking to the purpose, the setting and the objectives of the draftsmen. The first 10 amendments — the Bill of Rights — were not drafted at Philadelphia in 1787; that document came two years later than the Constitution. Most of the states already had bills of rights, but the Constitution might not have been ratified in 1788 if the states had not had assurances that a national Bill of Rights would soon be added.

People of that day were apprehensive about the new “monster” national government presented to them, and this helps explain the language and purpose of the Second Amendment. A few lines after the First Amendment’s guarantees — against “establishment of religion,” “free exercise” of religion, free speech and free press — came a guarantee that grew out of the deep-seated fear of a “national” or “standing” army. The same First Congress that approved the right to keep and bear arms also limited the national army to 840 men; Congress in the Second Amendment then provided:

“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

In the 1789 debate in Congress on James Madison’s proposed Bill of Rights, Elbridge Gerry argued that a state militia was necessary:

“to prevent the establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty … Whenever governments mean to invade the rights and liberties of the people, they always attempt to destroy the militia in order to raise and army upon their ruins.”

We see that the need for a state militia was the predicate of the “right” guaranteed; in short, it was declared “necessary” in order to have a state military force to protect the security of the state. That Second Amendment clause must be read as though the word “because” was the opening word of the guarantee. Today, of course, the “state militia” serves a very different purpose. A huge national defense establishment has taken over the role of the militia of 200 years ago.

Some have exploited these ancient concerns, blurring sporting guns — rifles, shotguns and even machine pistols — with all firearms, including what are now called

If You Live in Alabama…

You should know this:

IN LESS THAN 90 DAYS, YOUR CHANCE OF BEING KILLED IN ALABAMA WILL INCREASE.

WHY?

 

On March 11 this year (2022), Republican Governess Kay Ivey signed into law House Bill 272, which was proffered, and supported by the state’s GOP legislators, to wantonly arm the citizens, WITHOUT requiring proof of anyone’s ability to demonstrate competency, or properly handle, the concealed firearms they will soon be allowed to carry EVERYWHERE THEY GO. The law will become effective January 2023. 

(see: https://legiscan.com/AL/text/HB272/id/2544995/Alabama-2022-HB272-Enrolled.pdf)

Of the 29 total votes against HB272, 3 were Republican, 2 Democrats did not vote, 2 Republicans were absent, Yeas totaled 70.

 

Even our Armed Forces, at the most fundamental level, MANDATE that EVERY SERVICE MEMBER demonstrate competency with numerous firearms, and other weapons of war.

 

But not in Alabama.

 

Guns… EVERYWHERE YOU GO.

 

EVERYWHERE.

 

Schools.

Hospitals.

Nursing Homes.

Worship Centers.

Grocery Stores.

Birthday Parties.

Libraries.

Pharmacies.

Retail Stores.

Restaurants.

Gas Stations.

Convenience Stores.

Work Places.

Doctors’ offices. 

 

Except for

Mother’s Day Mass Shootings 2021: It’s Mourning In America

The second Sunday in May in the United States is always Mother’s Day. This year – 2021 – it’s on the 9th of May.

Typically, Mother’s Day is a special day in the nation set aside to honor mothers nationwide.

Anna Jarvis, daughter of Ann Reeves Jarvis, remained a childless spinster her entire life, initiated the idea of Mother’s Day in 1908, and in 1914, Mother’s Day became an official U.S. holiday.

By about 1920, however, Anna became disgusted with what she perceived that Mother’s Day had become – an commercialized business opportunity for florists, card companies, and other merchandisers – and denounced the day, and urged others to stop buying Mother’s Day flowers, cards, and candies.

But one thing Anna Javis never saw coming, was mass shootings across the nation around, or on, Mother’s Day.

Doubtless, she would have spoken out about, and condemned that, as well.

While this is being written,

Gun Control Now A Matter Of National Security

Why Gun Control Is Now a Matter of National Security

Opinion
By Steven Simon, Jonathan Stevenson
04/22/2021 06:30 PM EDT
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/04/22/why-gun-control-is-now-a-matter-of-national-security-484323

Steven Simon, an International Relations Professor at Colby College, served on the National Security Council during the Clinton and Obama administrations, including as Senior Director for Counterterrorism.

Jonathan Stevenson, a Senior Fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies and Managing Editor of Survival, served on the National Security Council as Director for Political-Military Affairs, Middle East and North Africa, from 2011 to 2013.

For all the tragic mass shooting headlines this year, the American gun control debate seems permanently stuck. Last week, nine people were killed by AR-15 fire in Indianapolis; before that, 10 died in Boulder, and eight in Atlanta. Despite the anguish over the past month — and despite a push by President Joe Biden — Congress looks unlikely to take any immediate action.

We share Biden’s view that the level of U.S. gun violence is a “national embarrassment.” But as National Security Council veterans who have specialized in counterterrorism — with direct experience involving far-right American terrorism, burgeoning jihadism, and Northern Irish extremism in the 1990s — we also see a new threat rising, one that has the potential to change the urgency of the debate: the growing, and heavily armed, American militia movement, which made a show of force on January 6.

Armed demonstrators protest outside of the Michigan State Capitol on January 17, 2021 in Lansing. – Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images

Increasingly, as militias acquire and stockpile weapons, they’re turning guns from a public-health concern into a threat to national security. And it’s possible that if proponents of reform — including advocacy groups, congressional leaders and Biden — began addressing it that way, they’d have a chance of energizing the debate against the National Rifle Association and its allies. Indeed, the shock of the insurrection has increased the political burdens of an NRA in internal disarray and offered a new perspective on the need for significant gun control legislation.

As America learned on January 6, anti-government militia groups are more than willing to jump walls, break doors and disrupt the underpinnings of our democracy. These groups, with transnational ties, also enjoy easy access to high-power, high-capacity, small-caliber semiautomatic weapons—many of which can be converted to fully automatic. The concern isn’t that these weapons will somehow enable militias to challenge the U.S. military on the battlefield, which they certainly will not. It is that they make mass casualty attacks against political or cultural adversaries both easy to carry out, and easy to frame as inspirational events of the kind that mobilize insurrection.

The executive orders Biden issued earlier this month imposing restrictions on gun kits and devices that turn pistols into rifles are marginal safeguards and rather thin gruel overall. But his call for reviving the federal ban on assault weapons is more promising and an acknowledgment that serious action is required. An important additional measure would be more rigorous required background checks. At least one key Republican senator, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, has expressed openness to working with Biden on a gun bill.

Generating bipartisan consensus for an effective crackdown on firearms will always be difficult. While gun control is now unlikely to lose existing supporters, it is also unlikely to win many new ones. But reframing the issue as a national security imperative could galvanize passive backers now focused by the assault on the Capitol on maintaining political stability in the United States. A plausible objective would be to

Topsy Turvy America

In America, you can get arrested for drinking a beer in public.

In Germany, one can legally walk around in public while drinking a beer. To do so is neither illegal, immoral, or unethical.

Of course, illegality, immorality, and unethical behavior are three entirely separate, and unique things. Suffice to say, they’re not the same.

In America, one cannot walk around in public while drinking a beer, or any other alcohol-containing beverage. In many, if not most, places, it’s illegal to do so – save, perhaps, for a few specially-designated areas, or upon certain occasions in those areas.

For example, it’s not uncommon to see pictures, or read news stories of college-aged students who can otherwise legally consume alcoholic beverages (being aged 21, or older), and even adults, who while enjoying almost any public beach in America, are accosted by local law enforcement authorities who either confiscate, or demand that the beer owner(s) destroy those ice-cold beverages by pouring them out, and sometimes, even arrest them, haul them off to jail, where they’re fingerprinted, photographed, and incarcerated, however briefly, as if they’re genuine threats to society, or had committed some grievously atrocious felony.

Of course, it almost goes without saying, that if anyone, anywhere in America was walking around in their local Wal-Mart, shopping while drinking a beer, the police would be called to the scene, and doubtlessly, the shopper/drinker would be arrested, and the story of it published on the worldwide web of the Internet for all the world to see.

Typically, in most all such instances, those individuals would be violating so-called “open container” laws, which forbid the public consumption of alcoholic beverages.

Yet interestingly enough, morbidly obese people can walk around in public eating hot dogs, doughnuts, and junk foods of seemingly innumerable variety and type, wash it all down with gallons of soda pop, and it’s not illegal to watch them commit their slow suicide in public, and no one dares think about calling the cops on them.

While it might seem that

Meet APC9 – The United States Army’s New Submachine Gun

From time to time, military armament is “updated,” which is to say, the DOD requests new stuff to be made, and/or invented for their use. Sometimes, new armament is justified, but not always. This is not one such case.

The M-16, which was originally monikered as the AR-15, has been in use by the United States Armed Forces since the Vietnam era, and when it was “field-tested” in the heat of battle in the jungles of Vietnam, it failed miserably. It was necessary to be kept meticulously and spotlessly clean, because any debris could cause it to fail catastrophically, most often and unfortunately in the heat of battle. In stark contrast, the rugged Russian AK-47 was a weapon that was not only inexpensive to construct, but would operate even after being dropped in the mud and rice paddies of Vietnam and Cambodia. No soldier could honestly say that the American AR-15 was a weapon which they felt secure with, for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was that it continuously jammed – which is why the firearm has a device called a “forward assist” which

AR-15 forward assist device

“is used to push the rifle’s bolt carrier groups closed. To actuate it, you press the button on the forward assist assembly. This moves the bolt forward and chambers a round. The intended effect is usually to force a round into the chamber if it hangs up for any reason, sort of like the old trick of hitting the slide of a semi-auto pistol with the heel of your hand in the case of a failure to feed.

“The AR-15 forward assist was added to the rifle at the behest of the Army as Eugene Stoner (and the Air Force) actually didn’t believe it was necessary on his original design that became the M16 rifle. Colt created the forward assist assembly, including a pawl (the thing you press) a plunger (which engages with the receiver to send it forward) a spring and a roll pin. To actuate it, you press the pawl, pushing the plunger forward. That engages with teeth on the bolt, pushing it forward.”

Changing battle conditions require changing armaments to meet the need. But here’s an irony: The AK-47 is the world’s most enduring, most rugged, most feared, most deadly, and most popular assault rifle. And, having been designed in 1947, it has been around 10 years longer.

---

The American subsidiary of Swiss gunmaker B&T has won a multi-million-dollar contract to supply the U.S. Army with a variant of its 9mm APC9 submachine gun. For almost a year, the service has been evaluating a number of proposed weapons as part of an effort to give personal security details added firepower.

The Army quietly announced that it had awarded

Cancun Cruz: It’s Show Time!

Ted “Cancun” Cruz is a goddamn fucking moron.

Nobody likes him.

Nobody in the Senate.

Few in Texas.

Even fewer nationally.

Wouldn’t it be ironic tragedy if he was shot?

Somehow, being shot seems to change people’s minds about firearms laws.

It changed people’s minds after POTUS JFK was assassinated.

It changed racist White Supremacist Alabama Governor George Wallace’s mind.

It changed POTUS Ronald Reagan’s mind.

It changed Reagan’s Press Secretary James and his wife Sarah Brady’s minds.

It changed Arizona U.S. Representative Gabby Gifford and her husband Mark Kelly’s minds.

It changed Louisiana U.S. Representative Steve Scalise’s mind.

It changed peoples’ minds in El Paso.

It changed peoples’ minds in Parkland, Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. (Sadly, there’s a list of school shootings maintained here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_school_shootings_in_the_United_States)

It’s amazing how little pieces of lead have power to change people’s minds.

I wonder why?

Of course, none of that applies to Alabama’s 5th District Moron Brooks.

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Cruz Accuses Democrats Of Playing “Ridiculous Theater” In Proposals Following Mass Shootings

By Celine Castronuovo – 03/23/21 12:47 PM EDT

Cancun Cruz

Texas Senator Cancun Cruz (R) on Tuesday accused Democrats of playing “ridiculous theater” by proposing universal background checks and other reforms following mass shootings, which he claimed would take “away guns from law-abiding citizens.”

Cancun Cruz made his remarks during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on gun violence that had been scheduled before of the deadly mass shootings at massage parlors in the Atlanta, Georgia area last week and at a Boulder, Colorado, grocery store Monday evening.

Cancun Cruz said that

Oops… there goes the “Good Guy With A Gun” theory. #2A

In a direct blow to the firearm radicals (aka “gun nuts”) crowd’s assertions, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) has shown that, contrary to what the tax-free National Rifle Association has publicly claimed, “of over 14,000 incidents in which the victim was present, 127 (0.9%) involved a SDGU.” (Self Defense Gun Use)

In other words,

“a good guy with a gun”

does NOT

lower nor reduce criminal activity.

What is the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)?

The BJS writes this about the NCVS:
“The Bureau of Justice Statistics’ (BJS) National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) is the nation’s primary source of information on criminal victimization. Each year, data are obtained from a nationally representative sample of about 135,000 households, composed of nearly 225,000 persons, on the

A Simple Solution to America’s Gun & Mass Shooting Problems

The Ingram MAC-11 (Military Armament Corporation Model 11), a defunct American small arms manufacturer, made this subcompact machine pistol developed during the 1970s. Shown here with 32-round capacity magazine, and suppressor.
Weight: 1.59 kg (3.50 lbs)
Length: 248 mm (9.76 in/20.90 in)
Barrel length: 129 mm
Cartridge: .380 ACP
Caliber: 9mm
Action: Straight Blowback
Rate of fire: 1200 /min
Muzzle velocity: 980 ft/s
Effective firing range: 50 m

There’s little debate of any significance about the problem of firearms in the hands of those who use them to commit heinous acts. This year alone, to date (as of this entry 27 August, the 239th day of 2015) there have been there have been:
248 Mass Shootings, with
313 Dead &
926 Wounded.

One only need type in ‘mass shootings’ in any search engine to find literally thousands upon thousands of news items, complete with details about this uniquely American problem. There is, however, significant and legitimate debate about how to ameliorate and stem the growing problem.

Some say no laws are needed, that LEOs (Law Enforcement Officers) need to enforce current laws. Others say outlaw guns completely. Somewhere, there is a “happy middle ground” of compromise to be found that protects our law-abiding citizens’ 2d Amendment Rights, and protects the innocent from miscreant would-be murderers and assailants.

I have a rather simple solution
to the
gun / mass shooting problem.

To What Extent is the American Economy Propped Up by Arms Sales?

What should one expect when the whole damn defense industry has been whored out to arm the krazees of the world?

In a very prophetic manner, in his Farewell Address to the nation, January 17, 1961, then-President Dwight David Eisenhower warned about the “military industrial complex,” saying:

“We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United State corporations.

“This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence-economic, political, even spiritual-is felt in every city, every state house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

“We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.”

—

US sells $11 BILLION worth of arms to Qatar

Published time: July 15, 2014 09:46
Edited time: July 16, 2014 12:55

US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel (L) and Qatar’s Minister of State for Defense Affairs Hamad bin Ali al-Atiyah (C) arrive for a weapons sales signing ceremony at the Pentagon on July 14, 2014 in Washington, DC. (AFP Photo / Mandel Ngan)

US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel (L) and Qatar’s Minister of State for Defense Affairs Hamad bin Ali al-Atiyah (C) arrive for a weapons sales signing ceremony at the Pentagon on July 14, 2014 in Washington, DC. (AFP Photo / Mandel Ngan)

Washington and Doha have signed the largest arms deal of the year, preparing to enhance Qatar’s military capabilities with $11 billion-worth of Apache assault helicopters, PAC-2 missile defense complexes and Javelin man-portable anti-tank missiles.

The deal has been signed on Monday in Pentagon by US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Qatari Defense Minister Hamad bin Ali al-Attiyah. Altogether Qatar is buying 10 batteries of Patriot missile defense systems and 500 Javelin anti-tank missiles manufactured by US defense industry giants Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, and 24 Apache helicopters made by Boeing, an anonymous US official told the AFP.

Ronald Reagan on carrying loaded firearms in public

“Americans don’t go around carrying guns with the idea they’re using them to influence other Americans. There’s no reason why on the street today a citizen should be carrying loaded weapons.”

–Ronald Reagan, then Governor of California, speaking in Sacramento, California, Tuesday, May 2, 1967, after “a dozen of the armed youth – members of

Reasoned Debate: Our Second Amendment Rights & Preventing Firearm Violence

Alabama State House GOP “Dare Defend Our Rights” gun logo, from the FaceBook page of Speaker of the Alabama House of Representatives Mike Hubbard, R-Auburn

Recently in another Social Media forum, a long-time friend had posted a link to a site operated for the Alabama State House GOP faction, which is a so-called “supermajority” in that state’s elected legislative body. That site may be found here: http://ALHouseGOP.com/WeDareDefend/.

Perceiving that that those political ideologues were very likely drumming up support for their positions based upon pure emotion and fear, rather than reasoned, rational and informed debate, I initially responded by quickly writing a somewhat sarcastic response, precisely worded to give pause for thought. My initial response elicited a query, to which I delightfully replied more eruditely.

The exchange as it exists presently, now follows.

• Me: Yeah. Alabama was wrong on their right to segregation and their right to deny civil rights, too.

• Friend: So, do you support the

Ronald Reagan: “I do believe that an AK-47, a machine gun, is not a sporting weapon or needed for defense of a home.”

History’s a funny thing, ain’t it?

FaceBook The Internet is full of false “quotes” attributed to such luminous historical figures as Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and other Founding Fathers, along with fallacious – even mean-spirited and evil – attempted parallels to Hitler and the sitting President Barack Obama.

It’s just pure hatred. That, ignorance and selfishness.

But when it comes to one of the most iconic figures of the 20th century, a two-term Republican President held in high esteem by Democrats and Republicans alike, no one really likes to recall the things he said.

And so, here for your perusal and consideration, is an historical redux.

Enjoy.

—

Reagan’s 78th Birthday Includes Posh Party, Campus Speech, Courtesy Call

JEFF WILSON , Associated Press
AP News Archive Feb. 7, 1989 5:54 AM ET

LOS ANGELES (AP) _ Ronald Reagan celebrated his 78th birthday by saying he’s had enough of retirement and was ”saddled up and ready to ride again” for a balanced federal budget and repeal of the two-term presidency.

The 40th President’s birthday celebration Monday included an office chat with Japanese Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita, a black-tie party and a speech to students at the University of Southern California, where he was serenaded by the USC Marching Band.

”One of my biggest disappointments as president was I wasn’t able to balance the budget,” Reagan told the college audience.

Reagan received extended applause when answering a question about over-the- counter military weapons, such as the AK-47 assault rifle used to gun down five Stockton schoolchildren last month.

”I do not believe in taking away the right of the citizen for sporting, for hunting and so forth, or for home defense,” he said. ”But I do believe that an AK-47, a machine gun, is not a sporting weapon or needed for defense of a home.”

The speech was Reagan’s first public event since a spirited welcome home airport rally Jan. 20, the day he relinquished the presidency to George Bush. The former president said

Ronald Reagan co-signed letter supporting Assault Gun Ban

The Second Amendment, as some have so misbelieved, has no limitations. However, as we all know, there are limits to our First Amendment freedom-of-speech rights. For example, one cannot yell “FIRE!” in a crowded theater. It is reasonable, therefore, that limitations should similarly exist for the Second Amendment, some of which already include denying firearm ownership to convicted felons, and those who are mentally unstable.

As some have come to so interpret it, the purpose of the Second Amendment is to empower citizens with the ability to overthrow a despotic government – not to hunt wild game. If that be the case, one mustn’t be intellectually dishonest about the matter, and must acknowledge if that interpretation is at least accurate in part, then the Second Amendment was written to give citizens the right and authority to kill their governmental leaders.

Regarding how the spirit of the Second Amendment might be honored while simultaneously providing sane regulation to prevent tragedies as we have most recently witnessed, I offer the following.

The Second Amendment reads

“A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”

• People who own firearms – particularly military style assault weapons – should be required to, as part of their ownership – be active members in good standing of “a well regulated militia.”

• Individuals who only own hunting firearms could be exempted from militia participation requirements.

• All firearm owners should be required to pay a federal tax upon acquisition of the firearm, no matter the type.

• All firearm owners should be required to submit to a federal background investigation and security clearance, including fingerprinting.

• Military style firearms could be subject to an acquisition tax, the amount of which could be the equivalence of the purchase price, or more – similarly to the tax imposed upon fully-automatic weapons.

• Annual accountability for all firearm owners – essentially asking the legal status of the individual, e.g., whether they’ve been arrested, or convicted of any disqualifying crime or behavior, and performing mandatory annual background checks with federal, state & local Law Enforcement Agencies.

• Lying or attempting to deceive to obtain a firearm by deliberately misleading would be a federal crime, the punishment of which could be determined – perhaps even including a ban on ownership for a set period of time, up to and including a permanent lifetime ban.

—

Ford, Carter, Reagan Push for Gun Ban

May 05, 1994|WILLIAM J. EATON | TIMES STAFF WRITER

WASHINGTON — Three former presidents endorsed legislation Wednesday to ban the future manufacture, sale and possession of combat-style assault weapons as a closely divided House neared a showdown today on the hotly controversial issue.

Gerald R. Ford, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan sent a letter to all House members expressing their support for the measure, effectively joining President Clinton in urging approval of the ban.

Together, the four make a formidable lobby, stretching across