The Role of Guns in our society

Nearly every legislative body is discussing the top of gun violence or gun control. For the past few days and including today hearings are being held at the Minnesota state capital on all aspects of guns. Today they will be holding a hearing on ammunition clip size. I know I have blogged prior on the issue of gun control and violence but we still need to keep the focus on the ball.

Just this week the Department of Justice released an argument for the use of Drones to monitor and kill American citizens abroad as well as here in the United States. Mind you that this is the same Department of Justice that felt our brave men and women fighting around the world should issue the Miranda Warning to those that are trying to kill them. People have made the argument that average citizens do not need "assault" or military style weapons in there homes and that our police force should never be out gunned. The fallacy to that point is the Police have nothing to fear from the law abiding citizen and the criminal will find a means to obtain those weapons regardless of what ever law is placed on the books.

It is true that as a hunter I do not need more than four or five bullets in my clip at any one time. Yet to go down that road is a distraction from the conversation. Our Fore Fathers, despite their short comings, understood what it meant to live under tyranny. Those that seek our shores for a better life have a firm grasp on tyranny as well. That understanding and first hand experience of our Fore Fathers is the foundation for implementing the Second Amendment.

Through the ratification of the Second Amendment in the United States Constitution is was forged that every citizen have the capability to fight back tyranny in what ever form it takes. While in my lifetime I may never witness such decay in our ruling class to the point that a King or Queen or Dictator is substituted for the Republic, there does exist that possibility at some point in the future. One step to enact that transformation is to ensure the citizenry has no means of protecting the Republic.

Some reading this will dismiss that last paragraph but look at recent legislation passed through Congress and signed into law. A few examples are NAFTA, Patriot Act, Healthcare Mandate, and now a legal argument for the use of Drones to assassinate Americans here and abroad. Individually these acts and resolutions by our Federal government has eroded our freedom and liberty of a free society. With the Supreme Court ruling that the Healthcare Mandate is Constitutional based on it is a tax opens Pandora's Box to more tax mandates.

Don't be surprised that if a Representative or Senator puts forth a bill to implement a steep tax on the number of bullets one has or on the number and types of guns one owns. Why do you think they are pushing so hard for this national database for background checks and gun registry? It is not to keep criminals from obtaining weapons it is to help them identify where the weapons are so at some point in the future they can levy a tax in hopes of disarming America. Demand your freedom before your ability to do so is taken away!

Perfect Storm for Cuba/American relations

The announcement by President Obama, delivered by Press Secretary Robert Gibbs yesterday, to loosen travel and financial restrictions toward Cuba is a positive shift in policy for Cuban-American relations. To expand on the policy shift, it was announced that United States will work with telecom companies to offer cell phone and television service to Cubans. Opening up communication with the island is a welcomed approach to dealing with the aging Communist Regime.

Why now?

With Fidel Castro in the twilight of his life and Raul Castro not far behind him, the opening of relations to the populous of Cuba is a perfect storm. By requiring relatives in the United States to pay for the cell phone and television access is a brilliant move by President Obama. The requirement will give the United States greater access to intelligence gathering via provisions in the Patriot Act signed by President Bush in 2006.

Finally the Patriot Act, which stripped away a level of civil liberty in the United States, will bear fruit as with the loosening of Cuba restrictions. While the United States is searching telephone and financial records of Cuban-Americans, a grassroots campaign can be launched via ads broadcasted into Cuba. The missing element to all this is how Castro’s feel about the shift. Since Fidel Castro has looked for an end to the Embargo for years, one can assume the shift is welcomed and encouraging.

The shift in policy also allows Raul Castro to tout a relationship change with the United States that his brother Fidel was unable to achieve. Raul Castro will be tempered by the potential ground swell of Democratic rhetoric that runs counter to the Communist doctrine. The perfect storm of the decline of Russian power, Patriot Act, Raul Castro, and the election of a Community Organizer to President of the United States may finally open up Cuba to America.