Tag Archives: National Rifle Association

The Beleaguered Southland

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Posted by on in Assistance, children, collaborating, Community, distraction issues, Historical, impediments, Inner Struggles, Personal Values, Service Activities, Social, Spiritual, Striving, Technical stuff, Travel

March 27, 2023- I got a text, and an e-mail, from the Red Cross, early this afternoon, wanting to know if I would be available to assist in the recovery efforts following the latest wave of tornadoes in the mid-South, especially in Mississippi. I will be available starting Sunday, so we will see what RC’s response is.

The South appeared to have endured a triple whammy, these past few days. Tornadoes have come to be expected, yet those which hit rural areas at night have tended to not get as much forewarning as their diurnal counter parts and are thus deadlier.

School shootings, sadly, have come to be expected-and are dismissed as “an unfortunate trade-off for the protection of rights under the Second Amendment”. That codicil says no such thing, but has been interpreted as protecting the “rights” of the craven and the mentally ill, to the extent that it is, itself, no protection at all for those who either don’t own firearms (the vast majority of underage students, for example), or do not bring their weapons to the workplace or leisure spots , OR are outmaneuvered/ outgunned by the aggressor. Oh, for the days of a well-trained militia and firearms safety classes, as the prime missions of the National Rifle Association.

Thirdly, the Thirtieth Anniversary of the Waco Massacre should have been a day of national reflection and shame. Instead, it was turned into a political circus. Fortunately, a good many of those who went there to reflect, grieve and process their emotions did their processing and quietly left, well before the politicizing and venting had come to a close. To me, the carnage that day was every bit as reprehensible as what followed in Jonesboro, San Ysidro, Lakewood, Sandy Hook, Sutherland, North Charleston, Fort Hood, Pittsburgh, Roseburg, Arlington, Peoria, San Bernardino, Uvalde, Parkland, La Plata, Oxford and Nashville-as well as the places which escape my recall at the moment. The deaths of people, in misguided loyalty to one man are a supreme cautionary tale-and I pray the Divine that this never is repeated, for the sake of any one leader, father figure or surrogate neurotic means to power.

I’ve spent many enjoyable days in the South, as in other parts of the country and the continent, over the years. My heart hurts for those affected by each of the tragedies above-and while certainly praying, I am also willing to go and help in the recovery process, should my presence actually be welcome-as it was in Louisiana and Dallas, three years ago.

Second Class

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Posted by on in Community, Personal Values, Social

August 10, 2016, Prescott- I find the ongoing raising of the issue of gun ownership to be one of the simultaneously most ludicrous, and most dangerous, activities of the political season.  The majority of firearms owners, which included my immediate family until 2011, and still includes my son, and several friends, are sober, careful people, who have had proper training in the care, use, maintenance and safeguarding of arms and ammunition.

I had my first class in firearms safety, in 1962, as an 11-year-old Boy Scout.  That class was offered by a Certified Trainer, at a National Rifle Association facility.  I  subsequently had training in a variety of weapons, as part of my overall training, whilst a soldier in the U. S. Army.  My son, in turn, had full certified training in the use of several firearms, prior to buying and properly owning a weapon of his own.

Although I  no longer own a firearm, I believe people are within their rights to do so, for the purposes of hunting, self-defense and target shooting, if that is their fancy. Where I draw the line is at the notion that the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution suggests it is permissible to rise in insurrection against a freely-elected President.

It does not.  The framers of our Constitution warned against tyranny- either of the elect, or by the electorate.  There are many non-legislated rules and regulations, emanating from governments at all levels, with which I disagree.  These have been promulgated by liberal and conservative elected officials alike.  There are some rules of which I approve, while others loathe them.  None of us, though, is so privileged as to kill or maim an elected official, or any law enforcement officer going about the day-to-day keeping of order.  Likewise, no government official or law enforcement officer can be so obstreperous as to randomly, or systematically, engage in acts of oppression against ordinary citizens.  There can be no second class citizenry.

There is a process, some parts of which are cumbersome, often tedious, for effecting change.  Protest is a legitimate part of that change agency.  Rebellion is not.  No person, therefore, can legitimately swear to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America, if his/her intention is to cherry-pick its provisions.  Our next  President must be…..presidential.  The people he/she defeats, must remain loyal to our government- and to our country.

The Road to 65, Mile 316: Shots Fired

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Posted by on in Uncategorized

October 9, 2015, Chino Valley- I woke today, to the horrible news that a student at my alma mater, Northern Arizona University, had killed a schoolmate and wounded three others.  This, at one of the most congenial and intimate of universities in the country.

I studied at NAU from 1979-81 (Master’s Program) and again, intermittently, from 1983-87, obtaining my school administrative certificate and credentials for teaching learners of English as a Second Language.  Any disagreements I had with other students, usually about them being noisy after 10 P.M., on a weeknight, were easily resolved, with compromises by both parties. (i.e. my wearing earplugs and their turning down the base and treble).

When I was eleven, I went through a firearms safety and marksmanship course, courtesy of the Boy Scouts and National Rifle Association.  NRA, at that time, was known and respected for making weapons safety its main concern.  I have not generally had firearms in my home, though there was one on hand in our house in Phoenix.  It never had to be used, and was sold when son and I moved out.

The one thing that was drilled into me, over and over, and which I imparted to Aram, is that a weapon- be it firearm, blade or what have you, is to be treated with full respect for what damage it can do.  A firearm is the easiest weapon to use, IF, and only if, proper protocol is being followed.  The Boy Scouts teach their members to NEVER POINT a weapon, toy or otherwise, at another human being.  Shooting in self-defense is seen by them as something to be done, sparingly, by adults.

We are too casual, as a nation, with regard to allowing the mentally ill to obtain weapons, period.  I once had to intervene and remove several steak knives from a place where they were accessible to emotionally-handicapped elementary students, and place those knives in a locked cabinet.  I lost an adult friend because of this, but I don’t care.

How much worse is it to let those under siege, in their own mind, have ready access to firearms?  The debate will go on, as long as we regard the Federal Government as an enemy.  In fact, it reflects who we are as a people- our strivings, our conflicts (both internal and interpersonal) and our priorities.

The bottom line, impacting both mental health and the very “need” to own weapons, is our twin tendency, as a society, for anonymity and insularity.  I see it in everything from being unwilling to share a table, in a public place, with strangers, to road rage to viewing those who simply have differing opinions, in an adversarial light.  I have been guilty of all three of these, though my anger on the road never compelled me to assault the other people.  I have also been on the receiving end of all three, though thankfully, never physically assaulted on the road.

Requiring background checks on prospective firearms owners, or would-be purchasers of long knives and swords, or explosives, or copious amounts of poisonous substances, is not going to be a cure-all for violent assault and murder.  It IS, however, a DETERRENT.  That which gives a person pause, which makes her/him think twice, is worth the inconvenience of delay in purchase.  It also makes it a lot easier to live under the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The Road to 65, Mile 13: Indianola/Sandy Hook

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Posted by on in Personal goals, Social

December 11, 2014, Prescott-   When I was eleven, the Scoutmaster of my Boy Scout troop, with my Dad’s blessing, took me to a firearms safety class, at the Essex County Chapter of the National Rifle Association.  There, I learned how to properly load, aim and fire a deer rifle, and how to clean it.  This lesson would be repeated, seven years later, in Army Basic Training- only with an M-16.

I was brought up to respect weapons,of all kinds.  In turn, I imparted this respect to my son, when it came time for him to purchase a handgun.  He practiced and mastered firearms care and safety at a shooting range in the Phoenix area.  He has since acquired further such training, with the Navy.

My late wife, also, was an expert rifleman.  Her father was a lifelong member of the NRA.  So, the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution is very dear to my family’s hearts.  None of us would want to see it breached, or compromised.

There is something else none of us like seeing compromised:  The life of a child.  Whether through orphanhood, maiming or flat-out murder, the effect of unregulated weapon use by unstable people, by the criminally insane, by the vengeful affects the life of a child.  It is a stain on the Second Amendment.

I do not believe that the Sandy Hook shootings were orchestrated by a shadowy branch of the Federal government, or by the FBI.  Saying such things is a dodge, as if the lives of 26 innocent people never mattered, much.  Therein lies the insanity, the illness behind self-serving callousness,  with which, by the way, the surviving families of those 26, including the children, were confronted, almost from the moment of their loved ones’ slayings.  Here’s why I don’t believe it:  Acts of terror involving firearms almost always are perpetrated by loners, by those who detest authority.  Adam Lanza fit that description to a tee.  So, too, did Daniel Nadler, who killed a classmate, in cold blood, in Indianola, Iowa, in June, 2010.  The same is true of so many others, similarly charged and so often convicted, of ending the lives of innocents who crossed their paths.

We can do better, but first, we must want to.   We must want to have firearms available only to those of sound mind.  We must want to keep the weapons we may need for self-defense, out of the reach of the immature and the unstable.  We must want to have a social contract which guarantees that firearms are being afforded the respect and careful use due them, in each and every household in which they are present.

It’s hard work, but this is America.  Time to roll up our sleeves.