This idea came to me yesterday as I tried to work through why firearms are the one area where the Left in cooperation with a Leftist media industrial complex gutless and cowardly politicians and victims who have been horribly abused through a tragic and needless loss of loved ones only to be horribly abused and duped again into thinking that the deprivation of rights of the law abiding will stop their pain and stop future families from suffering a similar fate all conspire together to deprive lawful honest decent American citizens of their Constitutional right to own and carry firearms as if that somehow will magically transfer to stopping criminals. It wont.
It wont because everything done by the Parkland murderer whom I shall not name or describe was already illegal. It wont because making more laws to stop people who already dont obey laws is the definition of insanity. It wont because all the laws being made now are depriving people who dont break the laws in the first place which is irrational. It wont because what we have is not a failure of crime laws or gun laws two things which are completely different or a failure of law abiding citizens to stay out of gun free zones with guns because law abiding folks know they are prohibited from entering schools with guns because it is against the law. No what we have is a failure of government at every level and because the government has the power to make and enforce laws they also have the power to make laws to completely shift the blame responsibility and accountability from themselves and onto the only truly innocent party in this entire disaster -- the law abiding gun owner. The law abiding gun owner is the scapegoat for all the failures of government.
* Government Constitutional Rights Crime -- Definition: The confiscation of constitutional rights like second amendment rights because of political pressure to do something by scapegoating law abiding citizens to cover the failures at every level of government to prevent a tragedy an act of terrorism a murder or other high crime or emergency. This should carry severe fines penalties and prison time for all government agents and officials including elected officials who seize the rights of the law abiding to cover up the crimes of government.
What we need is a new area of law. As defined above it would be designated a Government Constitutional Rights Crime. As creator and director of the Action Radio Citizen Legislature and host of Action Radio on 1330 AM WEBY Monday to Friday from 8 to 9 a.m. we have a forum to not only hash out how such a new area of law would be implemented. We have the citizen legislature at https://writeyourlaws.com to write our own laws for submission to state and federal legislatures. This new area of law would take a lot of work. Lets work together to find and solve the problems of government and destroy the distraction from the Leftist gun rights ban movement to seize rights and guns from the law abiding and have both government and the Left live within the Constitution. So our job as citizen legislators becomes changing the government so they actually help and changing the laws so that law abiding gun owners and future owners stop having our rights taken away. All laws in any way connected to guns have to be isolated to the criminal behavior in the use of guns and not the right to own and carry guns for the Second Amendment clearly states that is what government can not touch (infringe.)
The fascinating part of this whole misadventure in illegal unconstitutional laws is that people tolerate the deprivation of rights and even march scream lobby write protest and beg the legislative and executive powers of government to deprive law abiding Americans of constitutional gun rights; where such confiscations bans condemnations guilt by association and mis-connection of the law abiding to the criminal would never be tolerated for a second in any other area. For example:
* A New York terrorist who came here on the visa lottery program drove a truck into a bunch of innocent tourists and citizens -- yet there were no truck bans truck restrictions to say 4 cylinders truck limits of 30 mph max. truck waiting periods truck purchasing delays until 21 truck ownership permits truck criminal background checks anti-truck marches in Washington or New York truck demonization in the news and no one blamed any of the many American Trucking Organizations or the Teamsters for the terrorist attack.
* Banks have been robbed and people have been killed in bank robberies for as long as banks have existed -- yet no call has gone out to kick out bank depositors checking account customers those with mortgages or business loans nor has any Chamber of Commerce been demonized as the cause of the bank robbery.
* From the Center for Disease Control: Each day in the United States approximately 9 people are killed and more than 1000 injured in crashes that are reported to involve a distracted driver. That equates to one Douglas High School every two days and that doesnt account for the injuries. And yet no one has demonized campaigned or marched against restricted denied or raised the age limit to own a cell phone other than laws against operating a cell phone when driving. And no one has attacked the First Amendment or labeled the ACLU a terrorist organization as has been done to the NRA and the Second Amendment.
Source: https://www.cdc.gov/motorvehiclesafety/distracted_driving/index.html
* Illegal aliens take more rights more benefits have more numbers in prison they have advocacy groups sanctuary cities mayors who warn of impending arrests and juries who refuse to convict murderers like Kate Steinles murderer because they dont want to be thought of as racist. Illegal aliens have no constitutional rights nor any right to be here but they are sheltered coddled and protected completely compared to the law abiding American gun owner who has very specific defined and enumerated constitutional rights. Sure would be nice if the threat of being called a gunnist had the same damnation as being called racist.
* There is a website dedicated to documenting and telling the life story of every person murdered in Chicago its that bad. Yet no one is blockading Chicago restraining tourism evicting people to save their lives or doing anything really. And worst of all the law abiding gun owners there are being denied their Second Amendment rights. Which makes Chicago the future for a gun free zone America. Not saving lives but costing lives in huge numbers because denying gun rights costs lives every place it exists. Here is the website:
http://chicago.homicidewatch.org/about/index.html
* The government never restrains or restricts itself and almost never punishes fines or imprisons its own. If you want proof just look at the Waco massacre by the ATF and FBI. Oh yeah the FBI again. Here an entire community was targeted falsely accused demonized dehumanized gassed incinerated mass murdered and the bodies and buildings were bulldozed into the ground to hide the crime. No one was arrested prosecuted or even fired from government I dont think. So the government like all governments gets away with murder and proves once again that the greatest danger anyone can face even in the freest country in the world is their own government. That is why we have a Second Amendment. Without which Wacos might be a somewhat regular occurrence.
* This is the point where you should read this article: The Psychological Origins of the Gun Control Fantasy by Dr. Charles Hurd. https://drhurd.com/2016/01/31/57853/
Which brings us to the Florida Gun Rights Restrictions and Reductions Act SB 7026 which some people are mistakenly calling a school safety act. It always comes down to people though. You can put in all the safety technology you want but it takes people to use it. You can train all the law enforcement officers you want but it takes people to rush in when lives are at stake. You can call it gun control all you want but in the end the only thing being controlled or regulated denied restricted demonized or the case of this ridiculous DO SOMETHING mentality are people. It is people who have been denied God given and Constitutionally guaranteed gun rights to own and carry (keep and bear) firearms. It is people control nothing more. And that is the opposite of a free society and directly reflective of a totalitarian one. And this law takes us one step closer.
I was deeply affected as we all were at the non-stop coverage which brought the senseless and needless murders at Douglas High School worldwide. The difference is that I know and everyone else knows who takes more than a few seconds to reflect that you can not stop mass murderers by taking rights from law abiding Americans. Yet that is exactly what happened in Florida with SB 7026. It is a reaction not an action. It is an emotional response that is childlike in its paranoia and immediacy. But it is terrible law it is unconstitutional it is illegal it is horribly expensive and it wont work as intended. That will leave two options when it doesnt: 1. Pass even more laws on the law abiding which will make another murder inevitable because these laws arent the solution. Or... 2. Realize that this is not a situation that is cured by laws but rather by people. By changing attitudes demanding increasing responsibility from everyone creating communities respecting the rights of the law abiding eliminating gun free zones for the law abiding getting involved and engaging in interventions when it is clear there is a problem and holding people personably responsible when they fail so obviously to fulfill the basic obligations of humanity to each other -- that is how we solve this problem.
School kids from around the nation marched today in order to have their Second Amendment rights taken away rights they may want someday as adults. Every speech was about what someone else should do usually legislators to pass more unconstitutional gun control. But not a single student not a single speech involved anyone saying this is what I will do this is how I will take more responsibility this is how I will see something and say something... All they did was celebrate their collective irresponsibility and ignorance of the rights they want taken from everyone else.
Consider what was passed and signed in Florida with SB 7026:
1. Raising the age limit above adult at 18 to 21 for buying a long gun which is just as unconstitutional as 21 to buy a handgun.
Effect: Law abiding citizens will have to wait to exercise their rights. Some will be put in the same jeopardy with self defense situations requiring the use of long guns as young adults who have to wait for 21 to defend themselves with handguns. Some young people will die and probably some family members who maybe cant defend themselves with firearms will die also. So much for if it saves one life its worth it. Much property could be stolen that would otherwise be protected.
* Here is the disconnect. There is an exception to this rule for law enforcement. However one of the key failures at Douglas High School was law enforcement. How can anyone justify a blanket exception for the very institution that failed most grievously which people count on the most for survival during active shooter emergencies? There was no provision in Senate Bill 7026 to test every officer to see who has the inner strength to go in and who is going to turn tail and run. You cant exempt law enforcement from the unconstitutional age raise until you test every officer statewide and weed out those most likely to run the other way or set up a perimeter or do something else irrelevant to saving lives right now. If you want an exception make it for combat veterans who went into the fight and law enforcement officers who have been tested successfully by critical and life threatening emergencies. Only government would reward itself after such a dismal failure.
This is Law Abiding Gun Owner Scapegoat #1.
2. Requiring a three day waiting period for all guns not just handguns.
This came from the same Florida Constitutional provision as the 21 age restriction for long guns. Article 1 Section 8 The Right to Bear Arms. You will see in part (b) the three day restriction on handguns. This unconstitutional provision was simply extended to long guns. Effect: Rights delayed are rights denied. If someone is eligible three days from now they are eligible today. All this does is put people into three days of jeopardy should they need a gun right now. So this is a bonanza for looters rioters stalkers home invaders car jackers thieves muggers and any number of other criminals who prey on the disarmed.
Law Abiding Gun Owner Scapegoat #2.
Here is the Florida Constitution provision regarding guns:
SECTION 8. Right to bear arms.
(a) The right of the people to keep and bear arms in defense of themselves and of the lawful authority of the state shall not be infringed except that the manner of bearing arms may be regulated by law.
(b) There shall be a mandatory period of three days excluding weekends and legal holidays between the purchase and delivery at retail of any handgun. For the purposes of this section purchase" means the transfer of money or other valuable consideration to the retailer and handgun" means a firearm capable of being carried and used by one hand such as a pistol or revolver. Holders of a concealed weapon permit as prescribed in Florida law shall not be subject to the provisions of this paragraph.
(c) The legislature shall enact legislation implementing subsection (b) of this section effective no later than December 31 1991 which shall provide that anyone violating the provisions of subsection (b) shall be guilty of a felony.
(d) This restriction shall not apply to a trade in of another handgun.
I tried but failed to get a revision to this Section to the Constitution Revision Commission which is considering propositions to amend the Florida Constitution. My proposition was to change the language to this:
Florida Constitution.
SECTION 8. Right to bear arms.
The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
Thats it.
Translation: The individual right to own and carry firearms can not be touched.
* Always remember that laws are prohibitions on people -- constitutions are prohibitions on governments...
3. Its not just a gun problem its a mental health problem now.
Im trying to think of an industry with more variables possibilities individual interpretation and more errors than our psychology industry. Everything is up for debate. You never know if you are doing exactly the right thing or not. Thats why they call it practicing medicine because they dont have all the answers. And how can anyone say for sure who exactly is sane abusive mentally ill fully competent or suffering horribly? So how can they make the life and death calls for who might be mentally ill and who might not? Short term risk protection orders and hospitalization without firearm access during that time make sense. But we are opening up a gold mine of opportunity for vindictive spouses in divorce proceedings to have their ex lose all their guns permanently by telling authorities the ex is mentally ill. Its a gold mine for Leftist family members and friends who would tell authorities about someone they want to lose their guns simply because they are against guns. It is really a gold mine for stalkers who can alert authorities that their intended victim is mentally ill the victim loses their firearms if the claim is successful and now the victim is disarmed and at the mercy of the stalker.
Problem: You cant legislate a comprehensive mental health program to identify and intervene with those most likely in the near future to commit horrible murders with firearms in gun free zones in the short space of time since the Douglas High School murders. Yet this bill was signed thinking it can. Here are the two worst Mental Health clauses:
* Allows a court to issue a risk protection order for up to 12 months.
* Requires the surrender of all firearms and ammunition if a risk protection order is issued.
Both of these serve the gun grabber agenda not the due process of a free country.
We need a new category of temporary suspended ownership for guns that have been basically put into protective custody. They cant be seized they cant be destroyed they arent the property of the police department to do what they want they dont go to family members this is private property that should remain untouched until the mental health issues have been dealt with. Again all this has to be on an individual basis where the firearms remain the property of the person under scrutiny unless they are deemed such a threat that they cant know the right from wrong use of firearms. And if that is the case they are probably in for years of institutionalization.
Law Abiding Gun Owner Scapegoat #3.
4. Letting the families of the victims of the Douglas High School murderer do the legislating.
This comes from the Florida Senate Press Release on Bill 7026. The opportunity to meet with and listen to survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting as well as the families of the victims has had a tremendous impact on each and every Senator and has significantly influenced the development of this important legislation" said Senator Bill Galvano (R-Bradenton) who presented Senate Bill 7026 today. We are listening. The Senate hears you and we are taking the appropriate steps to help ensure that a senseless tragedy like this never happens again."
Source: https://flsenate.gov/Media/PressRelease/Show/2877
Really... The Florida Senate House and Governor took people at the most distraught emotionally it is probably possible to be watched them be paraded before Leftist agenda driven media hell bent on taking all gun rights and marched them up to Tallahassee for the sole purpose of using their peak of severe emotional trauma to bring about Leftist gun control putting Florida government in the last week of the legislative session into guilt mode to Do Something before the end of the session all this to these tragic victims who have lost children in a horrible school murder. And these are the people the Florida Legislature and Governor relied on to make good legislation? That is beyond shameful and disgraceful.
I understand the victims their reactions and their demands. I cant say in the same state I would be much different. But what the Governor and Legislature did was criminal. It was a crime against everyone in the State of Florida INCLUDING the victims of the Douglas High School murders. The victims may not want their Second Amendment rights now and other high school kids might not either -- but someday they might. Rights can not be voted away but they can be taken away by bad laws and enforced with the brute force of government guns. Therefore our rights have to be restored for liberty and justice to exist. This isnt the end of the issue -- it is only the beginning. The fundamental duty of both the Florida Legislature and Executive is to honor their sacred Oath of Office to support and defend the Florida Constitution and the Constitution of the United States to make good law based on the preservation of individual rights private property separation and defined powers constitutional budgets and taxes and a guaranteed Republican form of government. They failed on all counts.
Law Abiding Gun Owner Scapegoat #4.
5. There was no testimony from anyone who used a gun to save their life their families lives or strangers lives. That apparently was not part of the discussion.
There was no testimony I know of from firearms constitutional and legal experts: John Lott of More Guns Less Crime Gun Owners of America the NRA the Second Amendment Foundation Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership or any respected source group or individual on the meaning of the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed which in modern language is the right of the people to own and carry firearms shall not be touched.
*** It is in the areas BEYOND the right to keep and bear particularly in the USE of firearms where the Legislature and Executive are constitutionally free to exercise their power. Just not in the right to keep and bear. Understanding that critical difference and distinction is what allows for the creation of criminal laws compatible with constitutional gun rights.
All of the people and groups mentioned above were blamed for the murder in some way.
Law Abiding Gun Owner Scapegoat #5.
And to my last point. Everything that happened at Douglas High School resulted from a failure of government at all levels. You know the story. Law enforcement school resource officers psychologists the FBI the Obama Administration plan to simply rewrite offenses off the record known as PROMISE all contributed. What government did for all the reasons mentioned above was scapegoat the law abiding gun owner. What they should have done was go through a massive oversight proceeding to determine every place that government failed and to find solutions to those specific failures and fix them. There is still time to do that. Because they did not do what they should have they have possibly set up the next murderer. And they wont understand why so they will pass more laws that wont work when it happens again God forbid and then pass more laws when it happens again.
I am not sure yet what to do about this Government Constitutional Rights Crime. That is something for us to talk about on my show and implement through the Action Radio Citizen Legislature. Perhaps we need a citizen constitutional oversight board for when these crimes are committed. Sort of a citizen jury whenever rights of the law abiding are so blatantly violated under the delusion and disconnect of thinking it will stop criminals and murderers.
Just as Attorney General Sessions and ICE Acting Director Thomas Homan want to arrest legislators and executives for harboring fugitive illegal aliens in their cities hiding under the guise of bogus sanctuary city laws why cant we hold legislators and executives responsible for constitutional rights crimes? We need to consider this. We need to consider whether these government high crimes and misdemeanors to scapegoat the law abiding should be punished with fines and imprisonment for how much and for what degree of crime.
Perhaps you have an idea? Call me at 850 623-1330 at WEBY during The Action Radio Hour 8-9 a.m. Central time weekdays and lets talk about it. Then go to https://writeyourlaws.com and propose your idea study bill action proposal or anything else the citizen legislature can act upon. That is why I created it.
As I said above. Realize that this is not a situation that is cured by laws but rather by people. By changing attitudes demanding increasing responsibility from everyone creating communities respecting the rights of the law abiding eliminating gun free zones for the law abiding getting involved and engaging in interventions when it is clear there is a problem and holding people personably responsible when they fail so obviously to fulfill the basic obligations of humanity to each other -- that is how we solve this problem.
Laws limit the law abiding and the law abiding arent the problem. So we as people have to think beyond the simplicity and childishness of just passing laws. First change your attitude. The excuse of Im not getting involved simply isnt good enough anymore. We are all involved. Adults are responsible for protecting children. We do that by watching what is happening in our schools with our government with law enforcement and when something is wrong or inadequate we get involved we point it out we demand the media cover it and we stick around to make sure the institution in question changes their behavior. This doesnt require new laws.
Create communities. We are so isolated and much of it is by government policy. Gun free zones racial classifications separate powers and rights for law enforcement and the feeling that everyone can simply lead their life alone with no responsibility for anyone else. Im not talking financial responsibility. Im talking about see something say something. And dont be afraid to be wrong. Law enforcement would rather investigate 100 things that amounted to nothing than let something happen. See something do nothing is what terrorists rapists murderers and any number of participants in evil count on to do their will.
Respect the rights of the law abiding. Individual rights are the best way to insure community safety. It was true at our founding and it is just as true today. Freedom of speech alerts us to problems. Freedom to bear arms by those willing to do so protects everyone in a variety of ways from deterrent to emergency response. That includes teachers arming themselves because it is their right and not because they got government permission. Disclosure of armed teachers to parents should be mandatory also. Id want my child in a classroom protected by an armed teacher. Reward those publicly and privately for getting involved.
Eliminating gun free zones. If rights mean anything they mean universal exercise. The perception that emotions or feeling safe trump the exercise of individual self-defense rights is ludicrous especially if someone or some authority claims feeling safe when it is our duty to make ourselves safe. Multiple court cases have long established that we are responsible for our own safety. The police are a societal deterrent with no specific legal liability to help any individual. The good ones do of course. But the bad ones who run away can not be held criminally liable. More is the pity. Because we are responsible for our safety we have to have the means to protect our safety without government infringement.
And lastly we have to engage in interventions. There are probably a ton of different levels for this. It could be everything from talking to a friend to demanding action on a government level involving restraint confiscation of property mandatory hospitalization drug testing and evaluation evaluation of psychiatric care by second and third opinions and many other such things. But these dont require any new laws. At least I dont think so.
Laws cover everyone. Laws can be abused. So blanket laws arent the answer. But a specific program that allows consideration of the individual mitigating factors individual rights due process and getting someone help before they do something horrible is the idea. Again each person and case has to be considered individually. And you dont need any new laws.
Trade the making of new laws for individual and community action. That is the answer. That is how you make school children safer.
Greg Penglis is the morning host at 1330 AM WEBY 6-9 Central time. He is turning talk radio" into action radio" by creating a citizen legislature" out of the radio/internet audience. He also authored The Complete Guide to Flight Instruction" a blunt critique of our flight training system and how best to get through it.
(At no point in this article has the Douglas High School murderer been named described or pictured. He shall remain that way to discourage copycat crimes and to not give him the notoriety he seeks.)
