We start out with a piece from our resident historian
on the Second Amendment...
A Bit of History on the Second Amendment
by Coast Watcher
Yet again we see the sad spectacle of the NRA and its supporters trying to defend the indefensible. They claim their right to bear arms is more important than the life of a child. They claim this right includes ownership of military-grade weaponry such as the AR-15, a "civilian" derivative of the M-16 military issue assault rifle. As we all know, the AR-15 was the weapon used to gun down the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High. It has also featured in many other school shootings.
The primary argument of those wanting gun control legislation is not against the principle of owning firearms such as handguns, hunting rifles, and sports shooting rifles. It’s against the prevalence of military-grade weaponry in civilian hands where it has no business to be.
We have to go back to the time when the Constitution was written, the late eighteenth century. At the time the Founding Fathers were working on the drafting of the document and the Amendments, the most powerful portable
by Coast Watcher
Yet again we see the sad spectacle of the NRA and its supporters trying to defend the indefensible. They claim their right to bear arms is more important than the life of a child. They claim this right includes ownership of military-grade weaponry such as the AR-15, a "civilian" derivative of the M-16 military issue assault rifle. As we all know, the AR-15 was the weapon used to gun down the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High. It has also featured in many other school shootings.
The primary argument of those wanting gun control legislation is not against the principle of owning firearms such as handguns, hunting rifles, and sports shooting rifles. It’s against the prevalence of military-grade weaponry in civilian hands where it has no business to be.
We have to go back to the time when the Constitution was written, the late eighteenth century. At the time the Founding Fathers were working on the drafting of the document and the Amendments, the most powerful portable
I'm pretty sure the Founding Fathers would have kept these cannon secure in an artillery park where it would have been used exclusively by the military, not civilians, especially if there was the prospect of some maniac using it against a school. I’m certain they would not have phrased the Second Amendment the way they did if they could have foreseen the future. Are those who cry that military weapons should be in civilian hands saying the Founding Fathers would have been okay with a person walking into a school and shooting dead dozens of kids? If so, they really are trying to defend the indefensible.
Those same ammosexuals also claim they need their guns to overthrow the government if needed. Okay, let’s run with that idea in a hypothetical scenario.
Let’s say that one day Bubba Sixpack and his buddies decide they want to overthrow the United States government. They load their guns and ammo aboard their pick-up trucks and head off down the interstate to Washington DC, country rock blasting from their stereos.
They won’t see or hear the drone orbiting on a racetrack pattern 40,000 feet overhead. They won’t see or hear the Hellfire anti-tank missiles leave the drone’s launch rails. They will see a bright flash and might hear the explosion as those missiles turn their trucks, guns, ammunition – and themselves – into so much junk.
Because governments have Armies. They have Navies. They have Air Forces. They have Marines. They have all the special forces that public funds can pay for. Bubba Sixpack and his treasonous buddies may think they can take on professional military personnel on a one-to-one basis, but they’d be wasting their time and their lives.
The Founding Fathers ordered the amendments the way they did for a reason. They held the right to freedom of speech – the First Amendment – to be paramount, superior to the Second Amendment right to bear arms. Only through public pressure, through marches, rallies and other peaceful protest as guaranteed by the First Amendment can something be done about the slaughter in our schools.
Related article--AR-15: America's rifle or illegitimate killing machine?
Bio: Coast Watcher studies history and current politics. He eagerly points out the inconsistencies in the mainstream media narrative and the gun lobby's propaganda. Down with the military-industrial complex!
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Young People with a Vote
Photos by Adrian Matthews
Words by C.A. Matthews
The Toledo March for Our Lives was a great success in spite of cool and windy conditions. Approximately two thousand rallied in Promenade Park. The YWCA I-Rise coalition sponsored the event, but the students were the leaders.
Signs and chants demonstrated the crowd's frustrations with the growing epidemic of gun violence. "Books not bullets" declared signage carried by many educators, prompting the question of why politicians think spending money to arm teachers is a better use of taxpayers' dollars rather than giving teachers and their classrooms the educational resources they truly need.
The youth gave impassioned speeches on the topic of school safety and gun violence. Speakers didn't stop at just mass shootings in American schools. The very real specter of being gunned down in the streets simply for being the wrong person (read: color) in the wrong place at the wrong time was mentioned, and Toledo is no exception. Eight Toledo youths lost their lives to gun violence in 2017. They provided rational arguments for commonsense gun laws that protect everyone from harm, including those who feel they must own a weapon. The idea of throwing more firearms into the conflagration that is our modern society and expecting less deaths makes no sense.
Voter registration was offered during the rally. Attendees were encouraged to vote in the mid-term elections and vote out all under the control of the NRA. If young adults register to vote and turn out at the polls, their numbers will make a significant impact. Things will change.
A short parade through the windy downtown streets from Promenade Park to 1 Government Center garnered honks and thumbs up from passersby. There was little evidence of opposing viewpoints. (One possibly dissenting person held a hastily scribbled sign equating the current opioid epidemic with infringement of the Second Amendment. It was unclear what connection the individual was trying to make.) A short presentation in the plaza in front of city hall ended the day.
March for Our Lives was a worldwide phenomenon with millions of participants. Millions of motivated activists working toward a safer, saner future for all.
Related articles on Gun Control and the Marchers:
From Rep. Tulsi Gabbard:
The Gun Control Debate: What Debate?
https://www.sandersinstitute.com/blog/the-gun-control-debate-what-debate
How to Join the Movement to End Gun Violence this Weekend and Beyond:
https://www.thenation.com/article/how-to-join-the-movement-to-end-gun-violence-this-weekend-and-beyond/
Drain the NRA (Find out how much your elected representatives have taken from the gun lobby):
https://www.drainthenra.com/
The School Shooting Generation Has Had Enough--How Parkland Teens Are Leading:
http://time.com/longform/never-again-movement/?utm_campaign=time&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&xid=time_socialflow_twitter
THANK YOU.
We are so incredibly grateful for you and the hundreds of thousands of people who came out out Saturday to raise their voices.
Power to the people!
Late last month, the Koch Brothers and their network committed to spend up to $400 million on the 2018 election as a thank you for the Republican Party's tax cuts for the rich, and "to change the trajectory of this country."
Related articles on Gun Control and the Marchers:
From Rep. Tulsi Gabbard:
The Gun Control Debate: What Debate?
https://www.sandersinstitute.com/blog/the-gun-control-debate-what-debate
How to Join the Movement to End Gun Violence this Weekend and Beyond:
https://www.thenation.com/article/how-to-join-the-movement-to-end-gun-violence-this-weekend-and-beyond/
Drain the NRA (Find out how much your elected representatives have taken from the gun lobby):
https://www.drainthenra.com/
The School Shooting Generation Has Had Enough--How Parkland Teens Are Leading:
http://time.com/longform/never-again-movement/?utm_campaign=time&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&xid=time_socialflow_twitter
THANK YOU.
We are so incredibly grateful for you and the hundreds of thousands of people who came out out Saturday to raise their voices.
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From Sen. Bernie Sanders:Late last month, the Koch Brothers and their network committed to spend up to $400 million on the 2018 election as a thank you for the Republican Party's tax cuts for the rich, and "to change the trajectory of this country."
Given this
news, I thought it was an appropriate time to ask the question that the
media and most politicians won't ask: Who are the Koch brothers, what do
they want and what are some actions we can take to stop them?
As you may
know, the Koch brothers are the extreme right-wing "libertarian" family.
They are the third wealthiest family in the country - worth some $120
billion. They also, unbelievably, have more political power than either
the Republican Party or the Democratic Party. As this country slides
into oligarchy and, as a result of Citizens United, we see one family
not only making huge campaign contributions, but establishing think
tanks, appointing university chairs and creating a number of
organizations in almost every sphere of American political life. Their
goal: make the very rich richer at the expense of everyone else.
Not only
did they help pass the Republican tax bill - which will provide them
with about a billion dollars a year in tax breaks - they are also
working aggressively to move toward the privatization of the Department
of Veterans Affairs, Social Security, Medicare and public education. In
fact, they want to repeal virtually every piece of major legislation
passed since the 1930s designed to protect the elderly, the children,
the sick, the poor and the environment.
Now, it's
hard for me to understand how you could have almost $100 billion and
feel the desperate need to lower your taxes, or to take from those who
are struggling, so you can have even more. I would think that with that
much money you just might be able to get by. But given the news of their
projected campaign spending, it doesn't appear that they are satisfied.
Their greed demands more, more and more. They never stop.
What the
Koch brothers and their friends want is to spread their unique vision of
"freedom" in America. They want to dismember government so as to give
Americans the "freedom" to live in poverty working for $3 or $4 an hour
without health care, without child care, without a pension, without the
ability to afford to send their kids to college and without any hope
that their children will have a higher standard of living than they do.
They also
want to end - not cut - but end, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
One of the Koch brothers even once ran for president on a platform of
"the eventual repeal of all taxation."
Now, this
isn't personal for me. I don't know the Koch brothers, but I do know
this: the Koch brothers and billionaires like them have bought up the
private sector and are now well on their way to buying up the
government. And I can assure you, sisters and brothers, they aren't
spending that money with the interests of working families, women and
seniors in mind - they are doing it to elect candidates who will make
the rich richer and everyone else poorer.
Let's be
clear: Money dominates everything that goes on in Congress. Wall Street,
the pharmaceutical industry, the coal and oil companies, agribusiness
and the rest of corporate America spend billions every year not just on
campaign contributions, but also on lobbying. That is why we have a
government that represents the 1 percent, and ignores the needs of
almost everyone else.
Do you want
to know why we pay the highest prices in the world for prescription
drugs, and why there are no regulations preventing the drug companies
from selling their products for any price they want? It might have
something to do with the fact that the pharmaceutical industry is one of
the most politically powerful industries in the country and spends
endless amounts of money on lobbying and campaign contributions.
In
Washington, you get what you pay for, and the result is that the desires
of the rich and powerful are well-attended to. The pain of working
families is ignored.
This is the
rigged economy held in place by a corrupt system of campaign finance
that we talked about on our campaign. And it is just as important to
take it on today as it was in 2015 and 2016.
If we
are serious about creating jobs, gun safety, about climate change and
the needs of our children and the elderly, we must be deadly serious
about campaign finance reform. And Congress must know you are committed
to this fight:
The Koch
brothers understand the importance of politics. Meanwhile, people who
work for low wages, have no health insurance and live in inadequate
housing don't see a connection between the reality of their lives and
what government does or does not do.
Showing
people that connection is a very big part of what a true progressive
movement has to do, because it is impossible to bring about real social
change in this country if people are not involved in the political
process.
Our vision
for American democracy should be a nation in which all people,
regardless of their income, can participate in the political process,
can run for office without begging for contributions from the wealthy
and the powerful.
Our job is not to think small in this pivotal moment in American history.
We must
pass a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United. We need
legislation that requires wealthy individuals and corporations who make
large campaign contributions to disclose where their money is going. And
more importantly, we need to move towards the public funding of
elections.
The need
for real campaign finance reform is not a progressive issue. It is not a
conservative issue. It is an American issue. It is an issue that should
concern all Americans - regardless of their political point of view -
who wish to preserve the essence of the longest-standing democracy in
the world, a government that is supposed to represent all of the people
and not just a handful of powerful special interests.
And that starts with overturning the disastrous Citizens United decision:
What we
showed in our presidential campaign - in a way that can change politics
in America forever - is that you can run a competitive national
grassroots campaign without begging millionaires and billionaires for
campaign contributions.
That is
what we must demand of our elected leaders: a complete rejection of
their influence on campaigns. And that starts with making your voice
heard.
In solidarity,
Bernie Sanders
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