–Do guns really kill people?

Twitter: @rodgermitchell; Search #monetarysovereignty
Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

Mitchell’s laws:
•Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
•Any monetarily NON-sovereign government — be it city, county, state or nation — that runs an ongoing trade deficit, eventually will run out of money.
•The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes. .
Liberals think the purpose of government is to protect the poor and powerless from the rich and powerful. Conservatives think the purpose of government is to protect the rich and powerful from the poor and powerless.
•The single most important problem in economics is
the gap between rich and poor.
•Austerity is the government’s method for widening
the gap between rich and poor.
•Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
•Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap between the rich and the rest..

===================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Justices Rule for Individual Gun Rights
By LINDA GREENHOUSE
Published: June 27, 2008

According to Justice Scalia, the “militia” reference in the first part of the amendment simply “announces the purpose for which the right was codified: to prevent elimination of the militia.”

Note to Justice Scalia: If that was the purpose of the “militia” reference, it has failed miserably, as the well-egulated militia has been eliminated.

But (Scalia) added that this “prefatory statement of purpose” should not be interpreted to limit the meaning of what is called the operative clause — “the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”

Instead, Justice Scalia said, the operative clause “codified a pre-existing right” of individual gun ownership for private use.

Note to Scalia: It that was the purpose, the 2nd Amendment simply could have read: “The right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

Apparently Scalia, believing the framers, not being as clever as him, decided to toss in thirteen unnecessary, essentially meaningless, words.

Contesting that analysis, Justice Stevens said the Second Amendment’s structure was notable for its “omission of any statement of purpose related to the right to use firearms for hunting or personal self-defense.”

Using Scalia’s own “originalist” method of interpretation, the people would not be allowed to use guns for hunting and self-defense, but only within the context of a well-regulated militia.

Scalia however, is originalist only when it suits his biases.

The right wing interpretation of the 2nd Amendment is a recent revision of the two hundred years understanding, and at this late date, that recent revision somehow has become “originalist.”

That said, the real question is: Does this interpretation help or hurt America?

States With Most Gun Deaths Have High Gun Ownership And Weak Gun Laws, Report Shows
The Huffington Post by Amanda Gutterman, Posted: 01/29/2015

The weaker the gun laws and the higher the rate of gun ownership in a given state, the more deaths from gun violence that state will see.

That’s the conclusion of a report released Thursday by the Violence Policy Center, a nonprofit organization that researches the public health impact of gun violence.

Alaska has the highest rate of gun fatalities in the country, according to data from 2013. The state saw 19.59 deaths per 100,000 people, which is significantly above the national average of 10.64 deaths per 100,000.

VPC’s report indicates that Alaska also has the country’s third-highest rate of gun ownership, with firearms in 60.6% percent of households.

The study found a similar correlation between gun ownership and gun deaths in the rest of the country. Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Wyoming, the states that followed Alaska in terms of highest gun death rates, had some of the nation’s largest percentages of households owning guns.

VPC also noted that states with weaker gun laws tend to see higher gun death rates. All five states named above have gun restrictions that the report’s authors describe as “lax.”

States with the lowest gun death rates — the top three were Hawaii, Massachusetts and New York — were found to have strong gun laws as well as low rates of gun ownership.

States with Weak Gun Laws and Higher Gun Ownership Lead Nation in Gun Deaths, New Data for 2013 Confirms

States with the Five Highest Gun Death Rates

States with the Five Lowest Gun Death Rates

Rank

State

Household Gun Ownership Gun Death Rate per 100,000 Rank State Household Gun Ownership Gun Death Rate per 100,000
1 Alaska 60.6 percent 19.59 50 Hawaii 9.7 percent 2.71
2 Louisiana 45.6 percent 19.15 49 Massachusetts 12.8 percent 3.18
3 Alabama 57.2 percent 17.79 48 New York 18.1 percent 4.39
4 Mississippi 54.3 percent 17.55 47 Connecticut 16.2 percent 4.48
5 Wyoming 62.8 percent 17.51 46 Rhode Island 13.3 percent 5.33

 

 
But it gets even worse:

The health risk of having a gun in the home

Having a gun in your home significantly increases your risk of death — and that of your spouse and children.

And it doesn’t matter how the guns are stored or what type or how many guns you own.

If you have a gun, everybody in your home is more likely than your non-gun-owning neighbors and their families to die in a gun-related accident, suicide or homicide.

Furthermore, there is no credible evidence that having a gun in your house reduces your risk of being a victim of a crime. Nor does it reduce your risk of being injured during a home break-in.

The health risks of owning a gun are so established and scientifically non-controvertible that the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a policy statement in 2000 recommending that pediatricians urge parents to remove all guns from their homes.

Notice that the recommendation doesn’t call for parents to simply lock up their guns. It stresses that the weapons need to be taken out of the house.

Bottom line: Guns kill people. The more gun ownership, the more people are killed by guns.

Because the interpretation of the law is faulty, the implementation of the law is deadly.

Beyond mere statistics is human psychology, notably fear and loathing. The right wing, which is strongest for gun ownership, also is consumed with fear and loathing.

Right-wingers, who inordinately fear and loathe blacks, browns, yellows, gays, the poor, non-Christians, non-Americans — virtually anyone different from them in some way — most feel the visceral need for guns.

Guns are the security blanket for people who live lives of fear and hatred, and those are the kinds of people most likely to shoot first and ask questions later. Fear, hatred, guns = a deadly combination.

So in answer to the title question, “Do guns really kill people?”: Yes, if you own a gun, you have an increased chance of being killed — despite what the gun makers and the NRA tell you.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

P.S. Two recommended laws that could reduce gun deaths while not infringing even the right wing Courts interpretation of the Constitution:

1. Any person who commits a felony while carrying a gun, shall be sentenced to a prison term of 20 years to life, in addition to the term for the felony itself.

2. Any provider of a gun that is used in a felony shall have the same criminal and civil liability as the actual perpetrator of the felony. (This latter is similar to the “dram shop” laws for liquor.)

===================================================================================
Ten Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D plus long term nursing care — for everyone (Click here)
3. Provide an Economic Bonus to every man, woman and child in America, and/or every state a per capita Economic Bonus. (Click here) Or institute a reverse income tax.
4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone. Click here
5. Salary for attending school (Click here)
6. Eliminate corporate taxes (Click here)
7. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually
8. Tax the very rich (.1%) more, with higher, progressive tax rates on all forms of income. (Click here)
9. Federal ownership of all banks (Click here and here)

10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (Click here)

The Ten Steps will add dollars to the economy, stimulate the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and the rest.
——————————————————————————————————————————————

10 Steps to Economic Misery: (Click here:)
1. Maintain or increase the FICA tax..
2. Spread the myth Social Security, Medicare and the U.S. government are insolvent.
3. Cut federal employment in the military, post office, other federal agencies.
4. Broaden the income tax base so more lower income people will pay.
5. Cut financial assistance to the states.
6. Spread the myth federal taxes pay for federal spending.
7. Allow banks to trade for their own accounts; save them when their investments go sour.
8. Never prosecute any banker for criminal activity.
9. Nominate arch conservatives to the Supreme Court.
10. Reduce the federal deficit and debt

No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth. Monetary Sovereignty: Cutting federal deficits to grow the economy is like applying leeches to cure anemia.
1. A growing economy requires a growing supply of dollars (GDP=Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports)
2. All deficit spending grows the supply of dollars
3. The limit to federal deficit spending is an inflation that cannot be cured with interest rate control.
4. The limit to non-federal deficit spending is the ability to borrow.

THE RECESSION CLOCK
Monetary Sovereignty

Monetary Sovereignty

Vertical gray bars mark recessions.

As the federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the growth lines rise. Increasing federal deficit growth (aka “stimulus”) is necessary for long-term economic growth.

#MONETARYSOVEREIGNTY

–What if the NRA was in charge of our international policies?

Twitter: @rodgermitchell; Search #monetarysovereignty
Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

Mitchell’s laws:
●Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
●The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes. .
Liberals think the purpose of government is to protect the poor and powerless from the rich and powerful. Conservatives think the purpose of government is to protect the rich and powerful from the poor and powerless.
●The single most important problem in economics is
the gap between rich and poor.
●Austerity is the government’s method for widening
the gap between rich and poor.
●Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments.
●Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap between the rich and the rest..

=========================================================================================================================================================================================================================

To the NRA, and gun lovers in general, the solution to gun violence is more guns:

NRA Board Member Blames Charleston Shooting Deaths on Victim
Brendan O’Connor

National Rifle Association board member Charles Cotton blamed Clementa Pinckney, a state senator and pastor at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, for his own death and for the death of his parishioners, Thinkprogress reports in Charleston this week.

“Eight of his church members who might be alive if he had expressly allowed members to carry handguns in church are dead. Innocent people died because of his position on a political issue.”

National Rifle Association Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre famously said, “The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun.”

The problem is, who are the “good guys”?

Charles Cotton seems to believe that every single member of the congregation of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church not only is a “good guy,” but will remain a “good guy” in the future.

He wants them all to be armed.

In fact, the NRA believes everyone is a good guy, and always will remain a “good guy.” It strenuously fights against any gun control laws that might identify “bad” guys.

The NRA invariably claims all gun control laws are part of a government plot “to take our guns away.”

So what is a “good guy,” anyway?

Is a “good guy” someone who never will lose his temper, so never will use his gun in a sudden fit of anger?

Is a “good guy” someone who never will have road rage, someone who never will have a fight with his wife or his neighbor, someone who never will threaten anyone?

Is a “good guy” someone who never will become a criminal?

Is a “good guy” someone who never will get mean drunk? Someone who never will celebrate by shooting his gun? Someone who always will keep his loaded guns out of the hands of children or bad guys?

So the question remains: How do you identify the “good guys,” especially if you aren’t allowed to review the past, nor able to predict the future?

Perhaps the NRA has an undisclosed formula for this, and if so, they might be able to help us with international arms control, specifically nuclear control.

By the NRA formula for peace, the best way to maintain world safety is for every nation to have atomic bombs. Using NRA standards, we should not attempt to prevent, for instance, Iran from getting the Bomb. And letting Hamas and every tiny nation in Africa obtain an atomic bomb would be a good idea.

Nor should we enter into treaties with Russia to reduce the number of ballistic missiles. The more atomic bombs, and the more missiles to fire them, and the more nations that have atomic bombs, the safer we all are.

Who could doubt that? Certainly not the NRA.

We cannot know the future. There could be some small nations, that in the future, “elect” a crazy leader, who decides to bomb his neighbors or us.

It’s unpredictable — just as unpredictable as which of our friends, neighbors and strangers could decide to shoot us.

But, what does it matter how we get killed — by bomb or gun?

The only solution to a bad country with an atomic bomb is a good country with an atomic bomb — and since we can’t know the future, every nation should have atomic bombs and the intercontinental missiles to fire them. (What good are bullets without guns?)

Thank you NRA and gun lovers everywhere, for solving that problem.

PS: Here again are two proposed laws that might reduce gun violence somewhat, while not taking anyone’s gun away:

1. Any person who commits a felony while carrying a gun, shall be sentenced to a prison term of 20 years to life, in addition to the term for the felony itself.

2. Any provider of a gun that is used in a felony shall have the same criminal and civil liability as the actual perpetrator of the felony.

Yes, #2 requires that any provider of a gun be able to identify “good guys” and to predict the future, but the NRA assures us they know how to do that.

All violence problems — domestic and international — solved by the NRA.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

==========================================================================================================================================================================
The Ten Steps to Prosperity:

1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Federally funded free Medicare — parts A, B & D plus long term nursing care — for everyone (Click here)
3. Provide an Economic Bonus to every man, woman and child in America, and/or every state a per capita Economic Bonus. (Click here) Or institute a reverse income tax.
4. Federally funded, free education (including post-grad) for everyone. Click here
5. Salary for attending school (Click here)
6. Eliminate corporate taxes (Click here)
7. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually. (Refer to this.)
8. Tax the very rich (the “.1%”) more, with higher, progressive tax rates on all their forms of income. (Click here)
9. Federal ownership of all banks (Click here and here)
10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (Click here)

Initiating The Ten Steps sequentially will add dollars to the economy, stimulate the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and the rest.-

10 Steps to Economic Misery: (Click here:)
1. Maintain or increase the FICA tax..
2. Spread the myth Social Security, Medicare and the U.S. government are insolvent.
3. Cut federal employment in the military, post office, other federal agencies.
4. Broaden the income tax base so more lower income people will pay.
5. Cut financial assistance to the states.
6. Spread the myth federal taxes pay for federal spending.
7. Allow banks to trade for their own accounts; save them when their investments go sour.
8. Never prosecute any banker for criminal activity.
9. Nominate arch conservatives to the Supreme Court.
10. Reduce the federal deficit and debt

No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth. Monetary Sovereignty: Cutting federal deficits to grow the economy is like applying leeches to cure anemia.
1. A growing economy requires a growing supply of dollars (GDP=Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports)
2. All deficit spending grows the supply of dollars
3. The limit to federal deficit spending is an inflation that cannot be cured with interest rate control.
4. The limit to non-federal deficit spending is the ability to borrow.

THE RECESSION CLOCK

Long term view:
Monetary Sovereignty

Recent view:
Monetary Sovereignty

Vertical gray bars mark recessions.

As the federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the growth lines rise. Increasing federal deficit growth (aka “stimulus”) is necessary for long-term economic growth.

#MONETARYSOVEREIGNTY

–We don’t need no damn regulations

Twitter: @rodgermitchell; Search #monetarysovereignty
Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

Mitchell’s laws:
●The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes.
●Austerity is the government’s method for widening the gap between rich and poor,
which ultimately leads to civil disorder.
●Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments.
●Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
●The penalty for ignorance is slavery.
●Everything in economics devolves to motive.

.

======================================================================================================================================================================================

A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

monetary sovereignty

NRA SAYS WE DON’T NEED NO DAMN REGULATIONS

(I am my own militia)

====================================================================================================================================================

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

Nine Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Medicare — parts A, B & D plus long term nursing care — for everyone (Click here)
3. Send every American citizen an annual check for $5,000 or give every state $5,000 per capita (Click here)
4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone. Click here
5. Salary for attending school (Click here)
6. Eliminate corporate taxes (Click here)
7. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually
8. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (Click here)
9. Federal ownership of all banks (Click here)

10 Steps to Economic Misery: (Click here:)
1. Maintain or increase the FICA tax..
2. Spread the myth Social Security, Medicare and the U.S. government are insolvent.
3. Cut federal employment in the military, post office, other federal agencies.
4. Broaden the income tax base so more lower income people will pay.
5. Cut financial assistance to the states.
6. Spread the myth federal taxes pay for federal spending.
7. Allow banks to trade for their own accounts; save them when their investments go sour.
8. Never prosecute any banker for criminal activity.
9. Nominate arch conservatives to the Supreme Court.
10. Reduce the federal deficit and debt

No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth. Monetary Sovereignty: Cutting federal deficits to grow the economy is like applying leeches to cure anemia.
Two key equations in economics:
1. Federal Deficits – Net Imports = Net Private Savings
2. Gross Domestic Product = Federal Spending + Private Investment and Consumption – Net Imports

THE RECESSION CLOCK
Monetary Sovereignty Monetary Sovereignty

As the federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the lines rise.

#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY