Virginia is for Drug Dealers

The drug war devastation in Mexico is being directly linked to gun dealers in the United States. Those fun gun dealers are located in gun-friendly states like Virginia.

While drug addiction may be costing Mexicans their lives and Americans their families, we need to keep in mind that more than just drugs dealers are making money. Gun dealers are, too.

The Administration's proposal to search vehicles going into Mexico as well as coming from Mexico is a good one. Depriving the Mexican cartels of guns will take away much of its power and certainly reduce the harm to innocent bystanders. The drug wars themselves will not stop, just the form they take right now.

Aside from all that, if Americans stopped using drugs, there would be no drug war at all. Another idea is to decriminalize drug addiction and treat it instead. It's a good thought, especially since arresting people and putting them in prison hasn't worked since we started doing that in the 1950s. Treating addiction would do at least something towards addressing American demand for drugs. Not much, but at least something.

My idea is that everyone who is arrested for buying illegal drugs more than once has everything they own confiscated. Yes, that would unfairly burden the more affluent. But wouldn't that be a nice change for once?

Granny With a Gun

CNN Video has a clip about great-grandmother Lena Smith holding a burglar at gun point until the police arrive. And it's a heart-warming, elder-empowerment story.

Now let's imagine the equally plausible possibility that she had a little bit of dementia and shot the mailman.

Seniors with guns is an increasing social issue, and one that is going to be repeatedly tragic in the coming years.

He Should Have Never Had the Guns

The New York Times reports today that the Virginia Tech gunman, whom I will not name, should not have had the ability to buy a gun at all under Federal regulations. But someone in Virginia decided to reword the Virginia regulations to be different than the Federal one, illegal by the way, and put that version on their forms. So the Virginia Tech gunman got his guns and ammo.

Let's read into this. Some gun rights wacko decided that he wanted to increase gun ownership possibilities and reworded the Federal regulation. Now over thirty people are dead.

Don't worry. We'll find out who did this. And then not even the NRA will be able to save them.

"Morally Retarded"

Let's begin the cultural shift with the introduction of a new phrase: morally retarded.

The phrase is an accurate description of those who go on these mass killing sprees. Too many messages in the popular culture associate a willingness to commit violence with a superiority of character, where the person is depicted as having transcended normal limits.

The opposite is true. People who can commit violence are morally retarded and need to be depicted that way. They've never developed limits because of their moral retardation. Their decision-making capacities are skewed. The result is violence our entire society has to suffer.

Let's change the conversation about violence.

Guns Don't Kill, People Do

And that's the problem. People kill. I know there are many responsible gun owners and hunters. My Dad is one of them. And I am sure that any one of them can pass basic safety criteria and not be upset at needing to have a clean arrest record and proficiency at the firearm they are buying.

And how would the world end if all guns had tracing microchips? If we traced gun ownership like we do car ownership? What is the big need for automatic weapons?

I'd really like to know.

God, Guns and Guts

Another American tragedy yesterday at Virginia Tech. And yet there is still more control over who can drive a car than there is over who can own a gun. A car is identified and traced through the VIN number.

And what is with the crazy pro-gun lobby? They issued a press release right after the shooting blaming a lack of guns for the incident. The idea being that if some students in the classroom had guns, and people in general knew that, then no one would enter a classroom with mass murder on their minds.

Or if they did, they would use a hand grenade. Or they would shoot someone upon entry to the classroom and duck out the door waiting for someone to chase them with their gun. Or they would pull the fire alarm and shoot people from a hidden vantage point. Or they would throw tear gas into a classroom and kill people in the confusion. That in turn would cause some gun-wielding students to shoot back.

Do you think a person who plans a cowardly attack like the one at Virginia Tech is going to be dissuaded from doing so because he will be killed? Obviously not, since suicide seems to have been part of the plan from the beginning. Instead, a gun battle will ensue, with just as many people being killed.

People who wield guns need to be referred as cowards. The media language needs to change and so does our culture.