But a key aspect of the gun-control debate remains hiding in plain sight. There's a major driver of gun violence in the U.S. that is neither the bloodlust of the “criminally insane” nor the weakness of public security forces. Failed gun policy is a manifestation of another, arguably more expansive, irrational policy regime: the War on Drugs. While the most spectacular incidents of mass murder spark public panic, a more relevant, yet typically ignored, source of gun violence lies in the brutality born of the gun industry’s marriage to drug prohibition policies.
More @ Common Dreams
This article seems to be saying,"If we legalize drugs, them we can ban guns because nobody will need them!" Its a bunch of lefty crap about "vulnerable communities" and how incarceration is bad by a liberal:
ReplyDeleteMichelle Chen is a contributing editor at In These Times. She is a regular contributor to the labor rights blog Working In These Times, Colorlines.com, and Pacifica's WBAI. Her work has also appeared in Common Dreams, Alternet, Ms. Magazine, Newsday, and her old zine, cain.
The war on drugs will never be won by a government who won't secure the border or keep offenders in prison.
We can't win it anymore than we did alcohol, so I agree as far as legalizing them.
DeleteWe could cut down on a lot of the imported stuff and start keeping dealers and manufacturers in jail longer. No parole. They will never go away entirely, but allowing free access would not be good for society.
DeleteI read that it is actually cheaper keeping someone in jail for life, than eventually after jumping through all the hoops, killing him.
DeleteWe need China's plan. Shoot 'em out behind the courthouse and charge the family for the bullet.
DeleteI don't know about now, but before if you were convicted of a capital crime in Vietnam, you were allowed one appeal which was heard 7 days later. If you lost, you were executed by a firing squad 7 days later. You received a cigarette, a pen and paper to write your family as well as a bowl of Pho for breakfast. Afterwards the family had to pay for the bullets.
DeleteWhat the majority of Americans are ignorant of is the fact that drugs were and are the main source of gun violence in the US.
DeleteThe murder rate of whites in the US has been more or less steady and comparable to that of western Europe's for decades.
On the other hand, the high murder rate in the 90s was due to crack; thus, the longer prison sentences for crack - nothing to do with the color of one's skin.
That was the only reason to post the article.
Tino
P.S. As much as I dislike drugs and those who use narcotics, I don't see any victory in that war either - ever. Just waste of money and an excuse to imprison some poor bastard for nothing while the government imports tons of stuff every day.
As much as I dislike drugs and those who use narcotics, I don't see any victory in that war either - ever. Just waste of money and an excuse to imprison some poor bastard for nothing while the government imports tons of stuff every day.
DeleteYup.
This morning's Denver Post carried a well-written article by State Rep. Rhonda Fields. I'm very hesitant to write the Post and disagree with her because I remember when she lost her son and his fiancee to murdering drug dealers because they were going to testify in another murder case. She is not the typical hysterical Democrat gun grabber but she wants stricter gun laws. I'll leave it alone, but I told my wife at the breakfast table that I thought the main problem that young black men have is not knowing their fathers. She amazingly agreed with me.
ReplyDeleteFatherlessness predisposes to violence. I also added that Abraham Lincoln was born in a Kentucky log cabin and became president. Our current Prez trumps that, being born in a Kenyan mud hut to an unmarried mother. Although there were many claims that A. Lincoln was not Thomas Lincoln's true son, I think they have been laid to rest. Obama had a ghost written book published about dreaming about his father, but I doubt he really knows who he was. When I was a boy there was a popular adage that went, "It's a wise man who knows his own father." I knew mine well. He was the man who drove my mother to Greenville, SC and married her, she being five months pregnant with me, and I'm 95 per cent confident that he was the father. Well, do you think I support abortion? He was simply the Great Man in my life long before being blown out of the foxhole in Alsace-Lorraine, where strangely both his ancestors and my mother's ancestors came from.
Rep. Fields represents Aurora and works hard. I admire her recovery from the death of her son and future daughter-in-law, killed by drug dealers. I would put a stop to the drug war and I'm a qualified drug counselor.
By the way, Rhonda's husband-the father of the murdered son is in jail having lost "years of his life to drug use."
My simplistic mind says, "Don't arm the Mexican drug cartel, arm every Mexican household head." And I don't fear young black men in Aurora being armed either. I have taken a family of young black men to a firing range and let them use my guns and ammo. The paunchy old white guy with all the NRA patches on his jacket who was range chief that day did everything he could to make us uncomfortable. In front of my neighbor's children I could not tell him what an a-hole he was. The kids didn't seem to notice the old fool, but their father, who has a PhD in Computer Science, and who is a Winston-Salem native certainly picked up on it.
Great comment and thanks.
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