Category Archives: Gun Control

The Stench of a Gale Force Wind

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I’m not alone in being blocked!

By GORDON GLANTZ

There is a long-running joke in Montgomery County, Pa.

The butt (pun intended) of this joke is County Commissioner Joe Gale.

“Joe Gale, he has it made,” a jokester will say.

“Why?” one will ask.

“He has a job for life,” the jokester responds.

And it is true, Gale does seemingly have a job for life as the lone Republican among the three serving as our county commissioners.

Sure, he had a temporary delusion of grandeur in May, as his hat as thrown into the ring in his party’s gubernatorial primary. He suffered the ignominy of a distant sixth-place finish, coming away with a paltry 2.1 percent of the vote. By contrast, “winner” Doug Mastriano – lunatic that he is — placed first with a 43.8 plurality.

So, the running joke that is Joe Gale continues.

As the song by The Smiths goes: “That joke isn’t funny anymore.”

And the joke is on us.

While rendered insignificant, Gale seems to be on a mission to earn enough brownie points with the far right that he seemingly thinks Donald Trump might even cut him a check or something,

Yes, Gale’s social media posts are that frightening.

And while the rules call for at least one Republican to be consistently out-voted by Chair Val Arkoosh and Vice Chair Ken Lawrence, perhaps the county would be better served by a less extreme dissenting voice.

Believe it or not, there are still plenty of Republicans, especially locally, that I have respect for in these times of Civil War. And I would respect them more if they raised the bar a bit on who speaks in their name at the county level.

Unlike Facebook, I pretty much steer clear of politics on Instagram, instead using it as a Sofia photo album. However, I admittedly chide Gale’s absurdities posted under “Vote Joe Gale,” which seems like a stupid title considering how few Republicans voted for him around the state in the primary and how he pretty much has a free skate in the county.

That has come to an end, it seems, since I am now blocked from posting comments there anymore.

Seems odd, though, He is an elected official. Last time I checked, I was a resident of the county. I’m a constituent, whether he likes it or not.

Should I be blocked at will because he doesn’t like my constructive criticism or polite protestations?

I guess he just wants to hear what he wants to hear from the small band of bible-thumping Karens whole tell him how great he is for being mean-spirited in the name of Jesus.

Or maybe, well, he’s just a snowflake.

It’s always a bit interesting to see a good portions Republicans wrap themselves up in their peculiar interpretations of the Constitution when they are simultaneously violating it themselves by blocking freedom of speech.

Gale’s whole play – as the good Catholic boy – blows a lot of smoke.

But, you know what they say about smoke, right? Eventually, there will be fire – fire and brimstone.

I guess the stuff about separation of church and state eluded him in school.

He can selectively bounce around the county, taking selfies with law enforcement and attractive women at fairs and carnivals – while throwing in a perfunctory shot of himself with black people – but it doesn’t wash away the more troubling posts on both Instagram and Facebook (also called “Vote For Joe Gale”).

The facts are these (according to betterliving.com): 64.3 percent of county residents identify as being religious, meaning that close to 36 percent (myself included) do not actively practice any specific form of organized religion (whether or not we believe in a higher power or not).

Catholics, based on historical immigration of Irish and Italians (and more recently of Mexicans), are the plurality (at 38.5 percent) but not the majority (that would mean more than 50 percent). And I wonder how may say they are Catholic when polled when they are really just perfunctory Easter-Christmas Catholics.

Someone should tell Gale that, as he seems to be a bit confused about the difference. When you add in the various other Christian denominations, as well as the county’s robust Jewish community (mostly in the Eastern part of the county and the Main Line) – along with the 33.7 percent of us “others” who live, work and pay taxes here – he needs to be made to realize, maybe through official censure or something by peers, that he was elected to represent everyone and not just church ladies with rosary beads who give him feedback of daily affirmations.

I personally know church-going Catholics who are flat-out not impressed with Gale. Those jokes about him? They are often the source, these people.

But he has ripped a page out Trump’s playbook, seeing himself as just governing those – the smaller vocal minority — who think like he does.

The only difference, from my view, is that Trump doesn’t even really believe half of what he says (he was for gun control before he was against it, for example) but feeds off the whims of his followers because it boosts his enormous ego.

For Gale, I’m assuming it is some sort of pathetic cry for attention.

Don’t believe me? Think I’m being hyperbolic?

Let’s look at tone of some of these posts, which seem to be increasing as the proverbial noose tightens around Trump’s neck on the national stage:

-After President Joe Biden came to Philadelphia recently to say some of the types of things that wishy-washy Democrats have been afraid to say for way too long, Gale posted: “This fake Catholic, baby killer has some nerve coming to the great state of Pennsylvania and assassinating the character of God-fearing Americans that rightfully resist the Democrat Party’s reckless, left-wing agenda.”

Whoa! Who is he to call someone a “fake Catholic?” Who is he to call someone a “baby killer?” Does he know what Biden feels, spiritually, in his heart– especially after experiencing a lot of personal family tragedy and a near-death experience? Does he have proof he has personally “killed babies?” And, the usual theme of dividing Americans between being heathens and God-fearing, just because they are for a women’s right to choose what to do with her own body, is so unoriginal that it hurts.

-In response to an article from Fox News (his favorite source, despite its history of playing fast and loose with facts) that said more parents are enrolling kids in Catholic schools to avoid “wokeness” (yes, that’s a word), he responded: “Better yet, consider enrolling your children in the Regina Academies who offer a Catholic classical curriculum that forms both the mind and the soul.” That was followed with an actual web link for the private academies that come with tuitions.

Since when does an elected official serve as an official spokesperson for one school over the other?

And what about non-Catholics, Joe?

There was acknowledgement of some Catholic holidays that seemed innocent enough until you read between the lines.

-For example, there was this: “Happy Feast Day of Saint Raymond Nonnatus, the patron saint of unborn babies, expectant mothers and Christian families. Experience has shown his intercession to be powerful for fertility.”

-And another: “Today is the Memorial of the Passion of Saint John the Baptist. Be fearless in preaching the Good News of the Gospel, no matter the earthly consequences.”

-In response to news that actor Shia LeBeuof converting to Catholicism, he said: “Proof that miracles are real! Saint Padre Pio, pray for us and the conversion of more souls on earth and in purgatory.”

So now we get down to the nitty gritty here. To Gale, all of the rest of us are ticketed for purgatory.

He is allowed to think and say what he wants behind closed doors – or wherever he goes to hide from the hard harsh world he sees (parents’ basement, perhaps) – but not on an official page called “Vote For Joe Gale.”

Before he blocked me on Instagram, I playfully asked if he was going to wish his Jewish constituents a Happy New Year. Certainly no violation of any Internet rules about violence or language, especially at a threshold for an elected leader, but I know the answer.

Crickets.

After all, his page also included a cartoon evoking old anti-Semitic tropes and the following comment: “Like many big city District Attorneys, Philly DA Larry Krasner is bankrolled by globalist billionaire George Soros. The chaos and destruction that’s ensued is no coincidence.”

In case you didn’t know, Krasner and Soros are both Jewish. I guess our pious commissioner couldn’t resist.

Henry Ford would be so proud.

If Gale can’t get an audience with the pope, maybe he can go hang out with Mel Gibson and Van Morrison.

While he doesn’t mention Trump by name much, which is probably by design, Gale is running a lot of the same fullback dives from Page 1 of the playbook.

-On Anthony Fauci stepping down: “Good riddance to this swamp creature who contributed to the needless suffering of many families, students and small-businesses across Pennsylvania and the country.”

Mature, huh? Not sounding real, uh, religious to me. The immaturity, though, does wreak of Trump.

Abortion is Gales repeated theme. While I admit that “pro-abortion” is a stupid and destructive term, as no one is really “pro-abortion” as much as they are “pro-choice,” he cherry-picked a post that Arkoosh “liked” as being “sick.”

He said funding for Planned Parent was “Blood money.” No word on the NRA, in terms of blood money, although he did provide some skewed stats about where guns are sold and where crimes happen, which was following by more conveniently religious psychobabble: “Statistics prove the problem is not law abiding gun ownership, but hearts without God.”

And – unfortunately — there is more:

-He also had another post of a Rosary in a hand, and added that he was “feeling kind of ‘extremist’ today, think I’ll pray my Rosary.” Yes, not a misprint, that’s an elected official openly referring to himself as an “extremist.”

-While Philadelphia is just a tad bit out of his jurisdiction, Gale couldn’t help but pounce on a School District of Philadelphia mask mandate for the returning to school: “Pre-Kindergarteners will suffer another year of indignity and fear-mongering at the hands of the radical leftists who run the Philadelphia School District. Families and children across the city deserve better.”

So does Montgomery County.

When it comes to Joe Gale, we deserve a lot better.

I Got A lot, But I Got Nothing

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By GORDON GLANTZ

GORDONVILLE — As of today, there have been 233 mass shootings in this so-called land of the free and home of the brave.

Not all told. Just in 2022.

As of tonight, the president, Joe Biden, will make a national address on the issue that seems to have gotten worse once people have crawled out of their post-COVID holes with shorter fuses.

As of tomorrow, and the next day and night, the numbers will rise. And, sadly, Biden’s words will ring hollow.

And be debunked as mocked by the far right.

He will be scoffed at by politicians who have it in their power to start us on a path to change by taking baby steps to keeping our babies — and all of us — more safe.

The most tragic aspect of all this is that they refuse to budge despite the fact that 80-90 percent of Americans — Americans from both sides of the aisle — support some form of gun control legislation beyond the flawed laws that already exist.

It is tragically ironic that these same politicians (mostly Republican, but not all) are vehemently pro-life on the divisive abortion issue, even when the majority of Americans (right, left and center) support a woman’s right to choose.

It would help if Democrats, the world’s worst at self-labeling, didn’t allow the “pro-abortion” tag to stick (it’s pro-choice, period).

But that’s another argument for another time, other than that the irony is that the same politicians who are vehement about protecting the rights of a fetus are just as firm about allowing all sorts of loopholes for our children’s lives, among others, to be easy targets in places like Uvelde, Texas and Newtown, Conn.

They square dance and two-step around the core issue that even the smallest changes could net big results.

Some resort to saying it wouldn’t matter.

Hey, maybe not, but why not try?

And where is the American “can-do” spirit?

These are the people who claim they want to Make America Great Again, which is impossible with this American crisis.

We put a man on the friggin’ moon, right?

We can’t do this? Really?

This American nightmare points to ultimate attempts at solutions that shape the new American Dream.

The problem within the problem is that these NRA errand boys (and girls) like to parse out then double down on quick fixes that are rhetorical and proven to be nonsensical.

They will bring up mental health, when Republicans are the ones who consistently vote against mental health funding (statistics show that most with mental health issues are not violent).

Beyond that, is there really a way to police against someone who has stopped taking his medication? Can you spot this person? They are all not walking around with tin foil on their heads.

And what about those who go temporarily insane, meaning they woke up not intending to go on a shooting spree but snapped and immediately regretted it (probably to the point of taking their own life).

With major holes in those arguments, they turn to the old fallback about armed security.

They say that “a good guy with a good stops a bad guy with a gun.”

To quote Uncle Junior from The Sopranos: “What, are we making a Western here?”

The reality is that John Wayne with a Colt-45 doesn’t stand a chance against a well-armed kid on a mission with a military-style rifle, extra artillery and body armor.

And, I’m constrained to point out that the supermarket in Buffalo had an armed ex-guard.

He shot the assailant, but it didn’t penetrate the body armor. The assailant shot the security guard, a former police officer, and the security guard died.

I’m fine with armed guards at schools. I’m fine with metal detectors.

A lot of schools, especially in inner cities, already have them,

But where does it stop?

Are we putting security guards at every preschool? Every private school? Every alternative school? Every tech school? Every beauty academy? Every community college?

What about at after-school facilities?

That’s a whole lot of armed guards, and it raises serious issues about the ability — and sanity — of those being entrusted to protect the schools.

Example: Now we are into summer, which means summer camp season.

Now what?

Let me spin you a little yarn from my overnight camp days.

Back when I was a lad at Camp Arthur, they staged a test case at the teen camp (Beker), when some actors were paid to enter dressed as Neo-Nazis (armed with were not loaded weapons).

It was Jewish camp, of which they are still many, making them prime targets.

There was some rock-throwing and cursing before staffers quickly settled it down and it was then turned into a teachable moment, with the actors still in character.

The point is that these pretend Neo-Nazis pretty much walked onto the wooded Jewish camp and into the teen village.

There are camps all across America that will be hosting children, our children, all summer.

Bible camps. Dance Camps. Sports Camps. Camps for underprivileged kids. Camps for kids with physical and mental challenges.

And there are more day camps to count.

Are we arming the counselors, many of which are teens themselves?

The whole thought sends chills down my spine.

The scenes of carnage run from coast to coast, up and down. The motivations are out of racial hate (most recently Buffalo) and from generally troubled teens (Uvalde), etc.

A simple start would be to raise the age from buying a gun from 18 to 21.

I think of myself at 18 and at 21, and I was like two different people.

All you have to do is see the songs I was writing, and books I was reading, at each age.

And, at 18, I liked bimbos. By 21, I went for smart girls.

But, looking back, I really didn’t know much at 21, either. The brain doesn’t fully develop until between the ages of 24 and 30.

If you are a politician doing the NRA’s bidding, your brain still hasn’t developed.

Sooner or later, with national opinion swelling on this, their days are eventually numbered.

Unfortunately, we still have to live with them and their rhetoric and fatally flawed logic.

They will tell you that “guns don’t kill.”

They are right.

They will say it’s “people” who kill, and that they need to be stopped by the “good guys” with guns in some sort of Modern Day shootouts in the Town Square.

That would be nice, at least in a Ted Cruz wet dream,

The fact — and we all know it (even them) — is that is people with guns who kill.

Work to take away the guns from those who shouldn’t have them, and there are laundry lists of methods to try, and I like our chances to move the needle out of the danger zone.

And, no, I don’t mean doing door to door to and collecting guns from “responsible gun owners.”

I’d like to peel away at the onion and redefine what a “responsible gun owner” really is, given that the number of suicides by firearm and other shootings in the home (heat of the moment domestic disputes and “accidental” shootings between, say, a 7-year-old and a 3-year-old sibling) dwarfs the number of phantom bogeymen picking out your house for a home invasion (most are “inside jobs’ and not random).

But, to quote the band Foreigner, this is an “urgent emergency,” so the onion can wait.

What destroys me here is that none of this is new. At all. I have been a broken record on it for years. I still remember dropping Sofia at school after Newtown. She was in Kindergarten. Those victims were in first grade.

I told her I loved her that day. And I still do every morning.

I would’ve expected substantive change after what was the worst schooling shooting in our sordid history.

After our second worst, nothing has changed.

What angers me is that, during the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, this issue was swept under the rug. Whole debates, whether within the primary season or the presidential battles, would come and go without gun violence as a topic.

It was like it was mutually agreed upon not to talk about it. It was like it was taboo.

We heard a lot about other stuff — like what type of people can use which bathrooms in public places and about school prayer and some contrived war on Christmas — but not every single one of us being moving targets every single day on the streets.

I could on forever here, but I’m weary over my somethings on the topic equally nothing.

Memo From A Windmill

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By GORDON GLANTZ

GORDONVILLE — Forget the name you see above.

I’m not Gordon Glantz.

Call me Don Quixote.

When it comes to the issue of gun control, that’s who I am. Driven to the point of heroic madness.

I’ve gone at the subject of gun control 1,000 times, so get set for No. 1,001.

We have so many inherent problems in this country.

We are literally torn apart by a covert Civil War, which was initiated by your former president (not mine).

Education? Environment? Bullying?

Gun Control still tops the list for me.

I’m not advocating going door to door and taking all your guns, either. If I would, I could, but I can’t.

But there are measures that can be taken to save lives. Why not move forward?

Let’s start with this bitter pill: More American have died from gunfire since 1970 than in all wars combined. And the death toll continues to rise.

Take a minute to swallow it without choking.

Now, to put it into more immediate terms, try this: There were more than 500 shootings this weekend that resulted in 233 fatalities.

Some like to parse it out between mass shootings and street shootings, but a gun death is a gun death. No matter the victim’s race or social standing, the blood of a victim runs in rivers of red.

What gets me is that the common response I get, even from those who are frustratingly neutral, is that there is nothing we can do about it.

Throwing up your hands and surrendering to the madness? Is that the American way?

Actually, I’ll tell you what it really is: It’s the Yemen way.

Yemen? Yeah, Yemen.

That’s the only other country with an attitude toward guns like we have.

Let me update you on Yemen, so that we have some context of who are partners in gun crime happen to be.

Yemen is in the midst of a humanitarian crisis. An estimated 12 million children are hungry, thirsty and lacking basic medical care.

Considered one of the most unsafe places on the planet, travel advisories are generally issued due to terrorism and kidnapping and overall violence.

Yemen is second – I repeat, second – to one other country in the gun ownership.

Take a wild guess?

United States? Bingo!

Maybe Yemen can’t help it.

We can.

We have this fantasy, perhaps a fetish, about playing John Wayne. The reality is that ever getting to do that in your own home, as compared to a tragic accident or heat-of-the-moment domestic disputes or suicide (two-thirds of gun deaths), are much great.

And I have news for you. John Wayne, while also a racist in the real life, was also wimp. He served as many days – zilch — in combat as the former president (not mine).

Let it go.

Let me tell you a story. Once or twice a year, we have a garage sale. Without fail, some “customer” will show up looking for guns and ammunition. We will politely tell him we don’t, and it’s not uncommon for this “customer” to refuse to take “no” for an answer.

“Youse, don’t got nuttin’ at all,” he’ll say, while rattling off different types of guns and bullets, and smirking as if we’re losers when we say no.

Is this how it’s supposed to go down? And it’s naïve to think these guys only use our garage sales to circumvent the flawed system where approximately 20 percent of the guns on the streets are sold outside the boundaries and countless others are stolen.

The common arguments I get, usually on Facebook, are that it’s a mental health issue.

I’m not going to argue that it’s part of it, but it’s blatantly irresponsible to thrown that blanket over it and walk away.

Statistics show that the vast majority of people with mental health issues are non-violent. What we can agree that it is not enough people who need access to mental healthcare are able get it (typically blocked in budgets by the same right-wing politicians that refuse to budge on gun control). Pretty much unrelated in reality, people seeking easy access to guns are able to get them.

What do the sobering numbers say? It is, in fact, easier to get your hands on a gun than to get psychiatric treatment. This is from that Harvard place, by the way, not FOX News.

The other one, and most laughable, is the car comparison.

How about this, ding-dongs? Let’s compare mind sets and see where we are on it.

Read a car magazine or through an online thread and compare it to those from gun enthusiasts.

One person is enjoying the open road, the other is enjoying pulling the trigger on a weapon with only one reason for its existence.

The reality is that, since 1921, the auto fatality rate per 100 has been reduced by 95 percent.

Gunfire? Not quite, sorry.

There is a conscious effort, from car owners and makers, to make them safer each year, with features like improved breaking systems and traction control. Most cars are equipped with features to assist with going in reverse.

The passage of time has seen seat belts, air bags, speed limits, lights (red, yellow, green, blinking, etc.), the need for an operator’s license, updated insurance (with incentives for safe drivers), high beams for the dark, a focus on distracted driving, etc.

Then, yawn, comes the misinterpreted and misunderstood argument about the Second Amendment and the right to bear arms.

Let’s back up the bus a bit here and talk about the First Amendment, which protects the right of free speech but does not guarantee the right to defame someone’s character.

The Second Amendment, often treated like it came down with Moses from Mount Sinai and cannot be touched without the planet being struck with an asteroid, does not preclude sensible regulation. For example, background checks would not be unconstitutional.

Still, do you own nuclear weapons?  Well, why not? Where is the line drawn? It’s OK to have an AR-15 or AK-47, which rattle off an insane amount of shots, but not antiaircraft missiles in your backyard?

And, speaking of the Constitution, it was written when people owned other people and women were allowed the right to vote.

Not only was it not etched in stone, the founding fathers – visionaries but also products of their time – didn’t want it to be etched in stone (look up the definition of the word “Amendment”).

I have no doubt that they never intended the Second Amendment to be anything more than state militias being prepared for the British Army trying to reclaim lost turf.  Considering we bailed out Britain in both world wars, becoming a power in the process, that is not a concern anymore.

The state militia members of yore have become the National Guardsmen of today.

I think we’re good.

As bad as times are.

This Is Us In The U.S.

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Won't Comply

By GORDON GLANTZ

GORDONVILLE – Reggie Brown.

That’s the guy’s name.

No, I’m not talking about the former Eagles’ receiver who had a couple of decent seasons after the departure of Terrell Owens and before the trio of DeSean Jackson, Jeremy Maclin and Jason Avant.

I’m am also not talking about the inventor of Snapchat or the children’s illustrator.

Instead, I am referring to the world’s greatest Barack Obama impersonator.

Brown (pictured below) was introduced to a national audience by Bill Maher shortly after your president (not mine) was elected. Brown used the platform of Maher’s nationally televised show on HBO to roll through what were then some of the “greatest missed hits” of your president (not mine).

Reggie Brown

The segment was called “What If Obama Said it?” and, man, it was a textbook case of using comedy to reveal a seriously underlying issues of racial hypocrisy that began bubbling on the surface – like the fires of Centralia – when Obama was first elected.

These simmering feelings turned acceptable when your president (not mine) fanned those flames with birther movement and then successfully ran for president by pushing those same buttons with the large print at rallies that would have made El Duce blush.

Brown’s performance that night – using the verbatim rants of your president (not mine) in Obama’s voice — ranged from the sexist Access Hollywood tapes that seemed to get lost in the shuffle in the election run-up to a multitude of other obnoxious remarks (i.e. about John McCan not being a war hero because he was captured and referring to Frederick Douglass as if her were still alive) that were not  befitting of a president in any civilized time and place.

Perhaps Maher was shortsighted, like many of us “snowflakes” on the left, thinking your president (not mine) would somehow grow into the position and stop uttering such immature nonsense.

After all — wink, wink – there are “good people on both sides.”

Instead, there has been serious shrinkage.

A whole lot of it.

And Brown (check him out on YouTube), as a regular – or semi-regular – would have be able to illuminate this overriding serious issue, whether it be as simple as who plays golf more to who really acts like a dictator with executive orders.

Consider it a lost opportunity, but it can be placed in the gone-but-not-forgotten file.

We still see it every day, this ongoing case of America in black and white – not to mention the tan suit Obama was vilified for wearing while your president (not mine) drags toilet paper on his shoe up the stairway to Air Force One.

We saw it when Michelle Obama was taken to task for “telling our kids what to eat” in her official First Lady cause of battling childhood obesity. Meanwhile, the current wife of your president (not mine) preaches anti-bullying while her own husband preaches from a divisive bully pulpit eight days a week.

I often look at that picture of Colin Kaepernick kneeling during the national anthem and take inventory of the viewpoints it reveals. To some, he was disrespecting the flag our forefathers died to protect. While I’m not quite sure they gave their lives to protect a piece of cloth as much as the other working class kid next to them in the foxhole, I can get it to the point that I could never personally kneel.

But I can respect that others see it as a form of peaceful protest of some serious issues – serious issues of  an America locked in a cultural tug of war over double standards.

Kaepernick

I have always said that once you have double standards, you have none. I’m sure someone said it first, and more eloquently, but I’m claiming credit for now.

I know, I know … We have bigger fish to fry right now, trying to survive an historic pandemic, than who said what first about hypocrisy.

But this disparity – this sickening Color War – rages on.

And on.

Citizens, largely Caucasian, are storming the Bastille, demanding their little lives return back to normal way before it is safe to do so.

These protestors are stomping their feet, and toting their AK-47s (not sure how that factors into their “argument,” but I suppose anything goes when it’s not founded in logic anyway), all around the country.

But Ground Zero seems to be Lansing, Michigan. That just so happens to be where Gov. Gretchen Whitmer sets up shop.

Whitmer was considered a leading candidate for the bottom half of Joe Biden’s presidential ticket, but her brand has been sufficiently damaged to the point that she is now on the “B” list just for doing the prudent thing and trying to keep all her constituents, even those who would shoot her on sight, safe.

Hard to believe the ying-yangs protesting are smart enough to know they were being exploited by some sort of nefarious effort to have a VP candidate tip the scales in a vital swing state.

But it is easy to believe that if the protesters were people of color – African-American, Hispanic, Arab, Asian, etc. – that the same double standards between Obama and the current fool’s fool who calls himself your president (not mine) bubble to the surface.

We are talking about people – you know, our friends from the White Right – waving a flag of treachery (Confederate) that shed American blood in its quest get buzzcuts again.

Protest Flag

We are talking about people getting so much into the faces of police, the same police that took on a new level of rightful respect after 9/11, that their spit is probably going to their faces on their clothes.

Those who are actually carrying American flags, either with or instead of enemy flags, are seen routinely letting them drop to the ground (but Kaepernick can’t a knee in their eyes).

But, well, it’s the First Amendment when they do it, right?

They get a wink and a nod from your president (not mine), just like the “good people” from that side who invaded Charlottesville like termites.

Meanwhile, as Covid-19 is infecting people of color, there are no plaudits from on high for their suffering in silence.

People wonder why the United States is suddenly ranking first in the world in cases and scratch their heads.

Why?

Really?

Easier answer: We are anything but united. And we have a leader who does lead, as he thrives in the vast divide.

That is why.

This is us in the U.S.

And The picture — people who don’t want to be tread upon asking to be tread upon — is not a pretty one.

Image: US-HEALTH-VIRUS-PROTEST

Protestors try to enter the Michigan House of Representative chamber and are being kept out by the Michigan State Police after the American Patriot Rally organized by Michigan United for Liberty protest for the reopening of businesses on the steps of the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing, Mich., on April 30, 2020.

 

 

 

 

Upon Further Review: Gun Control

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Ding Dong

The recent shooting in Nova Scotia will likely get the gun nuts all excited, saying it can happen anywhere. Yeah, it can. We know that. What’s the point of your point, though? I shouldn’t happen anywhere, with here topping the list.

Below is a column written in March, 2013. It still hold trust…

By GORDON GLANTZ

GORDONVILLE — Left of center. That means a lot of things to a lot of people, and not all of them good, but it is also the title of a semi-popular Suzanne Vega song.

It actually came on the CD player while driving Sofia to school Thursday morning, and it caught her increasingly discerning ear, as evidenced by her bobbing her little head and singing along in the backseat.

I was able to enjoy that she and I were on the same musical wavelength because, in a true rarity, we were running ahead of schedule.

Through the rear-view mirrors, I could check her out at stop signs and red lights. While we were waiting behind school buses with their lights flashing and stop signs popping out to temporarily halt traffic, it struck me how these road safety features are, more or less, anti-people devices.

It is human nature, regrettably, that many read a stop sign and interpret it as ‘yield’ while a ‘yield’ sign means ‘keep going.’

That’s why Sofia was in a child safety seat as we rocked and rolled down the road. That’s why I had my seat belt on. That’s why, if the worst happened, the vehicle is equipped with an airbag.

None of these safeguards existed back when the ‘motor vehicle’ first hit the road. They evolved over time, meeting the needs of the society.

These measures can’t be enforced all the time, and they don’t prevent every death or serious injury, but most of us would agree that they help.

It’s why we get our cars inspected once a year. It’s why we change our brakes and our bald tires.

It’s why there is a speed limit. It’s why laws are now in place, or in motion, to crack down on distracted drivers more interested in texting and yammering on their cell phones than being safe drivers.

It’s why they make cars with all-wheel drive and turn signals and high beams.

Realistically, people are still going to speed. They are still going to fall prey to temporary ADD while behind the wheel.

They are going to drink and drive. As long as there are bars and cars, you can bet your recession-depleted bottom dollar than some fool is going to tempt fate and think they have immunity.

To combat it, there are stricter rules for DUI. And there are DUI checkpoints.

As a system of checks and balances, we don’t give up on trying, even though people are still going to act like, well, people.

Yet, when it comes to gun control, the pro-gun types out there are sticking to their guns more than ever in the wake of renewed efforts to deploy the same common sense we have on the road.

Since Newtown, driving Sofia to and from school has been an almost religious experience, as I can’t shake the vision of the parents who said goodbye to their first graders that fateful day and never saw them again.

I have spoken out about gun control, and I’m still doing it because I refuse to consider it old news, and have gotten back a lot of venom.

Personally, I see no real need for guns and don’t get the fascination. In the few hundred years since the Second Amendment, cars have become a little more essential to day-to-day living than a gun.

But these instruments that should be in the hands of the military and law enforcement are ingrained in our culture.

I can respect that law-abiding citizens do the right thing, although I am compelled to point out the ‘tragic accidents’ that occur in homes and on hunting trips each year.

I am, like the Suzanne Vega song, left of center on the issue.

The operative word is “control.”

I never said ‘take away.’ Neither has President Barack Obama.

But people – being people – hear what they want to hear and read what they want to read.

At left of center, there is more fresh air; more realism.

Just like you can’t go around rounding up illegal immigrants and transporting them home, like many pro-gun types would like to do, you can’t go door to door and collect weapons.

But you can start to stop the madness.

If not now, when? The arguments against doing so simply don’t hold up.

‘Guns don’t kill, people do.’ ‘People die in cars each year, and you don’t ban them, do ya?’

The common denominator is ‘people.’

For the car argument, we have the rules of the road, enforced by your local and state police – a necessary arm of the g-g-g-g-overnment – to protect and save as many lives in the face of people being people.

And since people are people, and they are prone to temper tantrums and temporary insanity, we need better gun control as much as we need salt on the roads when it snows.

And if you want to take the defeatist stance, saying that it won’t matter anyway, let’s do away with all those traffic laws.

Let people be people, and drive 100 mph through a school zone. Let them blow through a red light at a busy intersection because they feel like it.

Just exercising their freedom, their liberty, right?

Wrong. I know it is human nature to want it all.

If the statement ‘you can’t have it both ways’ was made the 11th commandment, I’d be OK with hanging it up with the other 10 in public.

Cease resisting the president so much on his left-of-center effort to make the highway of life, circa 2013, a little safer.

Close the gun-show loopholes. Same as applying for a driver’s license.

Ban semi-automatic weapons. Same as not driving while intoxicated.

Immediate results? No. It may take a generation – when my daughter is driving my grandchild to school, in even safer vehicles than today – for tangible change, but it is worth the effort.

People are people, true No matter where we stand – or fall – on this thorny issue, whether we are left of center or far right, we share one commonality.

We only live once. If that’s not worth one step toward the middle, then what is?

Contradictory

 

News Turns To A Snooze

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By GORDON GLANTZ

GORDONVILLE — As I attempt to age as gracefully as possible for an otherwise graceless person, I have increasingly become a creature of habit.

One of those habits to turn on the TV every morning – sometime after the weekday alarms screeches at 6:30 — to watch “Morning Joe” on MSNBC. I don’t even really like the show, or the hosts and regulars (other than brilliant Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson), but I watch anyway.

Much to my disgust, Joe and the crew tend to belabor two issues ad nauseam: The Democratic race for the nomination and the ongoing ineptitude of your president (not mine).

The psychobabble seems like a colossal waste of breath, considering the primary season is in its infancy and your president (not mine) is never ever going to be impeached.

If I hear the words “Mayor Pete,” followed by a long and drawn out discussion by a panel of “experts” about his electability – all while they skirt the obvious issue, unfair or not – I may hurl the remote at Joe Scarborough’s smug mug.

Why, then, do they spend so much time cherry-picking a poll that shows Bernie Sanders up a point and Elizabeth Warren down two – all while doing a poor job of suppressing a clear pro-Joe Biden agenda – or giving too much attention to some late-night Twitter post that would make a middle school grammar teacher wince in pain?

Easy answer. It’s easy. It’s right there, with low hurdles to scale.

Better than anything else on, all things considered, but far from good enough.

The thing is, I’m a news junkie. It’s why I majored in journalism (along with not having to take many math or science classes).

I’m naturally curious, and some would say I’m really just a total gossip. I plead partially guilty, but with an explanation. I’m really just in search of information – even if I’ll do little to nothing with it, like a fisherman tossing his catch back into the water, once I reel it in.

Which brings us back to the facts, or lack thereof.

These days, the whole earth can shake itself out of existence while I’m sleeping. Excuse me if I like to know what happened overnight.

CNN? No better than MSNBC (especially at night). It tries to get both sides of the story so perfunctorily that neither side is satisfied. I know I don’t want to hear another discussion on climate change as if it is open for debate, especially as it ignites forest fires in Australia and California with the verve of a serial arsonist.

The few remaining friends I have on the right don’t want any human interest story, like the border camps, told with any bit of sensitivity.

And don’t even mention Fox News. I’m OK with trying to stomach a little bit of the opposing viewpoint before wanting to vomit, but independent fact checkers have issued reports on the network’s accuracy that make the ones I used to bring home look like those of a Rhodes Scholar.

The sad truth is that I can find out more about what it is really going on with the local news from 6-6:30, followed by the national news from 6:30-7, than all day on any supposedly superior all-news network.

Newspapers have morphed into digital entities, but a second mortgage is needed to get around the pay walls needed to get what you need.

That leaves fly-by-night sights that may or not follow the ye olde rules of actually putting people on the record, as opposed to being anonymous, and having at least two sources.

All the conjecture leaves us, in this advanced day and age, prone to be less informed than we’ve been in the industrial age.

The only option is television, and the flaws are obvious.

Yes, the wall-to-wall coverage of our recent near flirtation with igniting World War III was relatively well-done, but so much more has been going on – locally, nationally and internationally – that much of it falls through the cracks.

And it happens at our own peril.

The more the masses are numbed up with dumbed-down messaging, the easier it is to go on electing sociopaths with the hellish belief they are heaven sent.

While we were looking at polls that really don’t matter until a week or two before voters in Iowa leave the wheat fields and reading too much into unreadable tweets, the wheel in the sky keeps on turning for a frightening tomorrow.

Example: Did you know that, since late December, more than 500 earthquakes have hit Puerto Rico. That’s the same Puerto Rico still waiting on $18 billion in aid from hurricane damage incurred two years ago?

Did you know that, just on New Year’s Day, there were 45 non-suicide gun violence deaths across America? Including suicides by gun, there were 177 deaths.

Speaking of suicides, did you know that there were 228 suicides by police officers in 2019 in what has become a silent epidemic?

Veterans? Try a suicide rate of 17 per day.

Did you know that Philadelphia had 356 homicides last year, just nine short of one per day? You can say you are safe here in the suburbs, but this is the city you border and crime knows no boundaries.

Did you know that hate crimes have increased dramatically since a certain someone who calls himself your president began campaigning in 2015 with divisive rhetoric?

I shouldn’t just dwell on the negative, as there are positive stories every day – from simple acts of human kindness to medical advances to big bad athletes going out of their way for a sick child — that get buried under the if-it-bleeds-it-leads approach that goes a notch underneath the analysis of paralysis of politics and of an orange nitwit that the lack of real journalism left us with.

Rant over.

This column ran in The Times Herald on Jan. 12, 2020

A Right Turn Down A Wrong Road

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Rally Heads

By GORDON GLANTZ

GORDONVILLE — It’s that time of the year again.

Time for New Year’s resolutions.

With five-plus decades on the planet, I have been through them all – losing weight, gaining muscle, not losing my mind (as much) during Eagles games, gaining perspective, etc.

This year, I’m shooting for something a little bit different.

Instead, I’m going to see how the other half lives. I’m going to give it a go as a conservative.

No worries, fellow liberals, I’ll be back in time to vote against their president (not ours) in November.

New Year’s resolutions only last as long as the first whiff of a real Philly cheese steak (not what is passed off as such out here in the suburbs).

But, in the intervening months – or weeks, days or minutes – let’s see how it goes.

It is certainly a simpler lifestyle having this view, one where I can just line up all the talking points in a row and dutifully march in line behind them.

Example: Anything nasty their president (not ours) has done up until this point, before becoming president and since, can easily be explained away.

He was chosen by God.

Who can argue with that, right?

It implies he is not only absolved of all sins – past, present and future – but that all decisions are blessed by the almighty.

Sure, there is no tangible evidence to back this up. Usually, people who claim to be messengers from God are tossed into asylums, not the Oval Office.

And if any lefty wants to get into details about what he has done wrong, the new me can just say it’s all fake news and/or a witch hunt that’s all orchestrated by the same mainstream media that helped invent his campaign in the first place.

What about all the mounting evidence of incompetence, and incoherence, let alone evidence for impeachment?

No worries.

Deflect and distract.

Fight any forms of nuanced thinking.

That’s their job, not mine.

Don’t tread on me? Hell yeah, I’ll even buy that flag and plant it in my turf.

I’m the true patriot here.

Show empathy toward others, I’ll promptly call you a snowflake (while crawling toward my own safe space for being called a “deplorable” or if you recently wished me “happy holidays” instead of a “Merry Christmas”).

If they persist with their elitist check mates, I’ll lob a “What about Obama?” hand grenade.

When they ask for specifics, I’ll just double down and say “all of them.”

And then, when all else fails, there is the old standby: Benghazi, with a side dish of Benghazi and a desert of even more Benghazi.

Top it off with a “lock her up.”

See how easy this is?

See how much fun?

The next mass shooting? I’ll just shrug it off, callously, and say it could not have been stopped – even if there is evidence that it easily could have been with a routine background check, or waiting period, on the assailant.

Greta Thunberg? Ha. Too small to make a difference. Plus, isn’t she autistic or something like that there?

Plus, she’s Swedish, not American.

Plus, there is the old standby of waiting on a deep freeze and cracking wise about Al Gore (even though a cold snap in our little corner of the world is not reflective of all that is happening elsewhere).

Knowing that everybody plays the fool – sometimes – I can just say all the science isn’t in, or go to the slight moderation that there is no proof that the scourge is man-made. After all, there is always a crackpot contrarian at some third-rate unaccredited college still saying that the earth is flat or that there is not proof that tobacco causes lung cancer, right?

If those dogs won’t hunt, I’ll channel the mind of the average conservative who knows, full-well, that climate change is real.

“Doesn’t matter to me,” I’ll say. “By the time the planet is unlivable, I won’t know the difference because I’ll be dead.”

And that’s it, right there, in a nutshell.

I could go into being pro-life while being fine putting babies in cages.

I can just say they are “illegal” (when they are the children of parents seeking asylum in a country where the path to citizenship for brown people is vastly different than it was for white people during the industrial revolution).

Beginning in 2020, for as long as I can take it, I am going to be the synonym of being conservative, despite Bible quotes to the contrary.

I’m going to be selfish.

If all is good for me in my stock portfolio, all is good in the ivory tower.

Can I pull it off?

No, sigh, I can’t.

Upon further review, forget it.

As easy as life would be to trade being kind and sensitive for being blissful and blind, I don’t want to live that way for even a millisecond.

I’m good the way I am.

Happy 2020.

This column ran in The Time Herald on Jan. 1, 2020

Eighteen Years Gone: Here We Are

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Sepy 11

By GORDON GLANTZ

GORDONVILLE — I always resented what seemed like immediate parlor games of everyone sharing – usually on social threads – their boring yarns about how they were in the middle of this, that or the other thing when they heard about what was the worst attack on American soil.

Doing so 2-3 years after Sept. 11, 2001 — especially when the act led to a disingenuous rationale for a war in Iraq that quickly revealed itself as coming from Page 1 of the Vietnam playbook made these personal remembrances seem trivial.

I had what I thought was a more pertinent question: Where are you now?

But some time has since elapsed, and maybe it’s time to flip the script.

This past week, we commemorated 18 years since 9/11.

And Sofia is old enough – and intrigued by events that occurred more than five minutes ago – to share our own experiences, just like my father did with me about the JFK assassination (Oswald didn’t act alone, if at all, but that’s another column for another day) and the Japanese army (they acted alone) bombing Pearl Harbor.

I don’t know what makes me the final arbiter of when it is time to suddenly change lanes on the discussion. I just felt like it was too soon before and not so much now.

Where was I that day? I was just getting out of the shower in the Center City apartment I shared with my future wife (then fiancé). She worked in Wilmington at the time, and called with the news of a plane striking one of the twin towers. I had the TV on, but was pre-conditioned not to get too involved with the trivialities of Good Morning America, when it was clear something else was going on.

First reaction? It was terrorism, clearly, but it could be passed off as some sort of accident from air traffic control to avoid public panic (just like blaming the JFK assassination on a lone nut). But, after the second plane hit, which I watched as it happened, it was clear was going on. The whole nation could be under attack.

As the crime-beat reporter for The Times Herald, I drove into work that day while many others were scrambling to make it home from their jobs.

For all I knew, the nation could have been under total assault and this was only the start of it. But, like many Americans, I defined myself by my job back in those pre-Sofia years.

I was told by the editor at the time that I was a free agent, meaning stops at police stations to comb through blotter were out. The rest of it is a blur. I believe I had four or five bylines in the Sept. 12 edition, although I only recall two – from a bomb scare called into the Plymouth Township Community Center and from talking to congregants who came to pray at one of the historically black churches in Norristown.

I remember the sense of unity between a lot of scared people of all walks of life. While I was not a fan of the president who I thought stole the election, I felt he then had the nation in the palm of his hand.

Who knew how much he would blow it?

Eighteen years later, we are more divided than ever.

A new psychology emerged – a sort of acceptable narcissism — wherein we were inundated with a spate of reality television.

And the ultimate sociopath, who seemed to find a resting spot on reality TV after failing as a mogul, was elected as president.

The real patriotism we all felt in the aftermath of Sept. 11 has been subverted and perverted into a game of who is more patriotic than who, based on superficialities.

Mass shootings are now so commonplace that we aren’t even phased by them anymore.

Children drink water with lead in it, and we shrug it off.

Eighteen years later, that’s where we are.

Maybe that’s why it suddenly seems better to remember where we were, and get back to that place of temporary unity amid fear and chaos.

This column ran in The Times Herald on Sept.  15, 2019.

No Retreat, No Surrender

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GunArt2

By GORDON GLANTZ

GORDONVILLE – So now your president (not mine) is willing to do something about gun control?

He’ll knock on Mitch McConnell’s turtle shell, see if he pokes that obtuse face out, and will let us know.

Then, maybe if they get a permission slip from the NRA, they’ll consider some background check language to file under “Red Flag” legislation.

While it’s a start, and you can never run down a start, I think we all know it’s not going to be sufficient.

And I think we all know that the next mass shooting after these laws go into effect will meet with a lot of “I told you so” remarks and smirks from the right.

The reality is that so much more would need to happen before the passage of time – five years, 10 years, etc. – shows a marked decrease in gun violence (mass shootings, street shootings, accidental shootings and suicides).

There are many facets to gun violence. It’s not a single-cause crisis, and there is no one magic-wand approach to making it vanish.

It’s a syndrome, with multiple causes.

And solutions.

We would be spraying Raid everywhere, except the hornet’s nest, without addressing the type of assault weapons used in Parkland, Vegas, Orlando, El Paso, Sandy Hook and so many other tragedies.

There was once a ban on these tools of destruction, and gun massacres (six or more deaths) dropped 43 percent. After it lapsed in 2004, under the George W. Bush administration, there has been a staggering 183 percent increase.

They like to say that the key to prevention is to turn every outpost in the country – from elementary schools to beauty schools, from supermarkets to dollar stores, from Little League fields to houses of worship – into armed fortresses.

Not that simple.

“I didn’t do anything because I thought police would think I was the shooter,” said an armed witness to the El Paso massacre.

Still, despite rather hollow willingness and passing-the-buck drills, we need to start someplace.

Those who are quick wrap body armor around the sugar daddy that is the gun lobby don’t want to go there, but any willingness to go somewhere that leads us out of nowhere is promising.

At least we are seemingly working past the “too soon to talk about (gun control)” and hollow “thoughts and prayers” mumbo jumbo.

Most of the country, as has been the case for a while, remains in favor of background checks. Democrats more than Republicans, but not by as much of a margin as you would think.

And there was this, in the wake of the recent shootings, from your president (not mine).

“Mental illness and hatred pulled the trigger. Not the gun.”

Actually, hatred did pull the trigger of the El Paso shooter, who was bent on shooting Mexicans after leaving behind a manifesto that was dipped in the DNA of the rhetoric of your president (not mine).

Your president (not mine) was not a welcomed guest in El Paso, and it showed when all eight hospitalized victims refused to meet with him.

He won’t own that, but he seems willing to move – after which he will likely shove it in the face of his 2020 presidential opponent.

It might be worth the tradeoff.

What are being called “Red Flag” laws could just be a trap serving as sort of a political flypaper. It should, by no means, lead to waving the white flag on legislation – the type that would have to come after a powerful left hook in 2020 – really needed for substantive change.

Taking ancillary causes (mental health, video games, Hollywood, etc.) and making them the core issue could be as dangerous, long-term, as doing nothing.

There are people called epidemiologists who are experts in studying, well, the science of epidemics in all forms based on statistics.

And that’s where we have been for far too long with gun violence.

How do you explain, for example, that women also have mental illness but 98 percent of those pulling the trigger in gun violence are men?

There are varied definitions of who is or isn’t mentally ill, although it is generally accepted that as much as five percent of the population have a condition that would require a psychiatrist (as opposed to a psychologist, counselor or member of the clergy).

Research shows that only 43 percent get help, and it is also noteworthy than an estimated 60 percent of American counties do not even have a psychiatrist.

The epidemiologists point out that people with mental conditions are, in fact, 3.6 percent more likely to exhibit some sort of violent behavior but are 23 times more likely to be victims of violence.

The FBI did a study in 2018, and it pointed more toward factors beyond being insane.

This is more about those who go temporarily insane, as the study pointed to financial stress and disputes/bullying at school and/or the workplace with co-workers. Substance abuse was also cited.

What happens when someone is infuriated?

They might go home and punch a wall. They might get their drink on at the local tavern. They might go the gym and pump a battleship’s worth of iron.

But, in the land of the gun, there are other realities.

Even though our mental health issues are not different than that seen in other countries, the difference is access to guns.

We have 400 million civilian-owned firearms, which breaks down to 120.5 per 100 residents (i.e. more than one per person).

That puts us first, with lovely Yemen (just under 53 percent per 100) a distant second.

This is what we call a real red flag.

This column first appeared in The Times Herald on Aug. 18, 2019.

Playing ‘Taps’ for a New Generation

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AAguns

By GORDON GLANTZ

GORDONVILLE — Another Memorial Day has come and gone.

Some used the long weekend to invite skin cancer at the beach, attend picnics or parties to celebrate the unofficial start of summer, and/or shop for bargains at stores being priced out of existence by online retailers.

In between, there was the normal pomp and circumstance – heightened this year on the 75th anniversary of Normandy — to honor those who died in service to our country.

Still, the sound of “Taps,” which used to give us goose bumps, is background noise to too many.

As much as that seems unfair, there is a stark recent statistic, and it tells us that we need to create a second day to remember those who have fallen on a different type of battlefield – the streets, schoolyards, and schools on the home front.

Despite an 11-year head start, more children have died since the horror of the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. than all U.S. soldiers lost in combat overseas since 9/11.

According to a report from the Department of Defense, the military operations since 9/11 have left 6,929 soldiers dead (6,950, counting Department of Defense civilians).

Since the death of 20 first-graders – and six adults – at Sandy Hook, the number of children killed by guns has crossed the 7,000 mark.

And still counting.

While there was some fleeting 24-hours news cycle attention paid to a workplace shooting that left a dozen dead in Virginia Beach, the subsequent weekend saw another bloodbath on the streets of Chicago.

And I can hear it now.

“There goes Gordon again,” you say, with a snort. “That ‘Snowflake’ just loves to write about gun control.”

Actually, I hate it.

With a passion.

The day I don’t have to write about it anymore – and can replace with a list of my favorite songs by Three Dog Night or lessons learned from watching “Seinfeld” — will be cause for a Memorial Day beach barbecue.

What can we do to get on top of this magical place?

It’s so simple that, in fact, maybe we have been missing it all along. Maybe, no matter which side of the issue we are on, we just need to be realistic and keep open minds.

If you are in favor of some extreme form of gun control – like going door to door and collecting them – it’s just not going to happen.

It’s sounds nice, but so does kissing a frog who turns into a prince.

If you are one of those who don’t want the laws touched at all – based on some major misinterpretation of the Second Amendment or, more than likely, “just because” – you are setting yourself up for disappointment as well.

It can’t – and won’t – go on the way it is.

The ebb and flow of the political tide simply won’t let it.

At some point, whether it’s all in 2020 or in two-year increments beyond, mindsets are going to turn more toward change on the issue, if only because people have a “change” fetish.

It’s the only way to explain how someone who says they would have voted for Bernie Sanders for president went for the polar opposite, in terms of political viewpoint, by voting for your president (not mine).

It’s the only way to explain the historic vote of 2018 that put so many women, from so many different backgrounds and viewpoints, in Congress.

And it’s what put these same children – your kids, who wake up each day and go to school with at least passing thoughts that they may not make it home – on the streets in protest after a massacre at a high school in Parkland, Fla. to demand change.

National firearm- and nonfirearm-related homicides by youths_0

Like it or not, here they come.

These are your next generation of voters, and they have this issue at, or the near the top, of their “change” list.

What they push for, and may get, could be more than any of us bargained for – including someone like myself, who isn’t looking for some radical attempt at change that it will leave people who want to defend their homes unarmed.

It will, pardon the pun, backfire on all of us.

So, maybe the so-called adults in the room need to have an adult conversation about it.

If I were someone who considers myself a responsible gun owner, I would not be angry with those who are seeking gun control. Once my knee de-jerks itself, my angst would be directed toward those who abuse the privilege of responsible gun ownership, which is one of the main untapped sources of ongoing problems with gun deaths — whether through accidental shootings, suicides, domestic disputes, hunting accidents, etc.

There was a time in this country when cars were on the streets without much policing. Eventually, there became a need for traffic laws – stop signs, red lights, speed limits, etc. – to mitigate the damage of an increasing number of cars, built to go faster, on the road.

These laws, which continue to be put in place to this day – while car manufacturers, foreign and domestic, strive to outdo one another with safety features – are there to save every life possible.

People still die in car crashes, yes, but the sheer number of lives saved with seat belts and airbags and DUI checkpoints is unknown.

Stricter gun control laws won’t stop every tragedy, either.

But it would be a step in the right direction.

And that’s a whole lot better than shrugging it off, saying that we are apples and oranges from other countries (Australia, Japan, etc.) who have succeeded in stemming the tide of gun violence.

And it’s a whole lot better than having a second Memorial Day to play “Taps” to remember children who have been gunned down on domestic battlefields.

This column initially appeared in The Times Herald on June 9, 2019.

Peace with a piece