This next question came via Facebook. Facebook didn’t let me post such a long response I guess so I’m posting it here. Wasn’t sure if they wanted this to be public, so, again, I’ve made them an Anon.  

Media, Parenting and Guns

Going to answer these in the same numerical order they was asked in. 

1. I don’t think we should ban any style weapons. I think that background checks and cool-off periods are not only fine (I’m a big fan of these) but are integral to gun ownership. Guns are for protection, including from other gun owners. I’d like to know that an industry I support doesn’t also support the exact type of evil which caused me to arm up in the first place. I think that any sane gun owner is okay with this because it also protects them, as gun owners. I know a lot of people fight back on this issue, some because they fear that it’s only the start of regulations and that they will evolve into more restrictions. I think that’s foolish. Only the idiots at the NRA think like this (FYI, I hate the NRA). 

I just finished telling someone else about how gun laws and the constitution work. Federal laws are not constitutional. They aren’t expressed in the Constitution and anything that’s not written is allotted to the States or to the people, per 10th amendment. People in California can ask for and get gun regulations, but we can’t force other states to abide. If Texas wants to sell drones at gun shows, the State has the right to do so. If California votes to ban guns, that’s the law and I’ll have to go with it, but I won’t like it. 

I have a problem with federal blanket regulations because they aren’t justified and they aren’t legal. State regulations are a completely different issue. 

I actually wrote something on this so I’m going to copy & paste it here (excuse the repeats): Gun Licensing & Free Market Solutions

2. You can’t stop the media from being stupid (like you said, first amendment) but you can stop yourself from supporting stupid media. The media might like to shape how we think and what we read but at the end of the day they need profits to operate and those profits come from eyes and ears and mouse clicks. If we want to fix this particular issue, we need to fix it individually. I stopped watching and reading most mainstream publications a long time ago. Much better writing and reporting from international and independent outlets anyway. 

Just like that fake Morgan Freeman article said “turn off the news”. 

I think morality in general is responsible for both the violence and the reporting of it. Fix that and we fix a lot. We are a broken country for a lot of reasons, corruption, police violence, continuous war, idiotic things like drug war and private prisons. I wrote more on the morality topic here: America Has A Morality Problem, Not A Gun Problem

3. Are we talking about preventive or post-traumatic? 

I think that we have stopped parenting kids in this country because it’s become too damn hard to for a family to survive on a single income. That’s mainly because this country has nuked it’s own education system along with it’s economic system for the last 40 years. 

Think about this, before this baby boomer generation became parents, how many school shootings did we have? But that’s a tangent I don’t want to get into. 

I want to talk about the baby boomers. 

This generation is a bunch of greedy, irresponsible idiots. They want all the benefits of government without any of the costs. They all want social security and corporate bailouts without paying in their fair taxes. 

Our generation (You and I) are fucked. We will work our entire lives to pay off the $17 trillion in national debt plus the $100 trillion in unfunded liabilities for social security and medicare and other entitlements that they signed themselves into by leveraging our generation’s income. Fuck them. 

So I think that I completely blame the parents for not being parents. 

Just look at the Sandy Hook incident. You have a son with a mental illness and you buy 6 guns and give him access to them? The fuck is wrong with you? Lock them up! Even if you don’t have a mentally ill child. If they are starting to crawl, it’s time to put the guns away. A safe costs a few hundred dollars, a fraction of the price of a single handgun. Instead of buying 6 guns, buy 5 and a safe. And don’t give them the combo! I didn’t know the combo to my parent’s safe until I was 25. i still barely know it. It’s their safe, not mine. Problem solved. 

I think Marilyn Manson and Eminem are 100% right on this one. Parents don’t want to parent anymore. Like Louis CK says, talk to your shitty kids, that’s your responsibility. People are much to contempt with handing their kid an iPhone and letting them be. And the previous generation was too busy working 2 jobs each to raise us. 

I also have issues with how disconnected people are. We text, we don’t call. We facebook stalk but we never visit friends. We chat instead of meet up. We see someone that needs help and we call them a weirdo and walk off. I’ve worked in the ghetto for a long time. I have conversations with bums all the time. You’d be surprised at how smart most are. They just have problems battling addiction or mental illness. But most of us think that most of them are grifters or lazy. We don’t care about our fellow man. I encourage people to reach out and actually talk to people. Find out what’s wrong with them. Don’t ignore people’s problems, help them solve them. 

People perceive niceness or concern as nosiness, and that’s a problem. The same people that know every detail about Kim Kardashian’s anus get weirded out when you ask them how their family is doing. That’s a problem. 

Should people who actually care also participate in help groups? Sure. I used to coach kids all the time and I’d quiz all of them on their personal lives. Make sure they weren’t fucking up. Something that simple helps yet very few do it. The organization I used to coach for had 3,000 members and they struggled to find coaches for teams. That’s a problem. 

So what can we do for kids? Parent them. Talk to them. Interact with them. If we see a problem, explore it don’t ignore it. I think it’s rare that any of these things happen. 

On last example and I’m done. Wifey and I were at cheesecake the other dy and this family is sitting next to us, their 4 year old gets off the table, goes behind a big tree and is pulling leaves off the tree. the tree is at the furthest edge of the patio and right next to the exit door. He’s also hidden from all view. He was there for 10 minutes and not a single one of the 4 adults looked for him. And then, the kid returns to the table, no one says where were you or what did you do or even a simple hello. Kid is bored and gets up again. If you’re familiar with the Woodland Hills Cheesecake, the kid walks out of the gates patio, into the tennis court (it’s a stadium) and he disappears for a good 5 minutes. Again, no one looks or sees him. We can see him from our angle and we’re keeping an eye on him for these idiots and we’re looking at each other like what the fuck is going on here! Then the kid, who’s been sitting in the bleachers by himself and just staring around starts yelling “mom!” he repeats this like 7 times and the mom finally starts looking around for him. She spots him and calls him back. He gets to the table and again, no questions and not even a hello. 

Microcosm of modern parenting. Out of sight, out of mind. As long as we don’t see them doing anything wrong, we assume they aren’t.

I think that, just like in every political debate, the real solutions can be found somewhere in the middle ground. The problem is that America is becoming more and more polarized and we’re hearing more radical views which drown out the saner moderate views. This is why one side wants 7 year olds to go to school with guns while the other wants armed police in schools and to strip Americans of their arms. The ridiculousness of both of these arguments has convinced me that we’ve lost our way. We’re no longer a nation of great solutions, we are a nation of unsolvable problems. 

Also, I’m honored with the question. I don’t think I’m knowledgeable enough, I think that I’m moderate enough. 

- Sha

I’ve gotten a lot of great questions on guns and gun controls, gun licenses and such. This particular individual asked that I keep his identity private but allowed me to answer publicly, so here it is. 

Gun Licensing & Free Market Solutions

Licenses, Training, Cool-Off Periods, Etc.

I think it’s important to state, before we go any further, that federal gun laws are not constitutional in my opinion and that only states can regulate their gun industries. But banning of guns, even at a state level, is unconstitutional.

I actually believe in certain levels of gun “control” or gun “regulation”, but I think that the Free Market can provide that without government interference (or incompetence).

Why do I believe in gun “control”, such as background checks and cool-off periods? It’s simple, I own guns for protection. Protection from a lot of things, including other gun owners. Usually the threat is from illegal arms but we also have to be suspicious of legal owners at times (as the statistics show). I’d like to know that an industry I support doesn’t also support the exact type of evil which caused me to arm up in the first place. I think that any sane gun owner is okay with this because it also protects them, as gun owners. I know a lot of people fight back on this issue, some because they fear that it’s only the start of regulations and that they will evolve into more restrictions. I think that’s foolish. Only the idiots at the NRA think like this (FYI, I hate the NRA). Think of this as no different than wanting to know other drivers are capable of driving or that your doctor is capable of operating on you. 

I think everyone should take gun safety classes and get certified. I think cool-off periods are logical. I think background checks are logical. I think that periodic tests are logical. No different than owning a car. This is an tool for capable, skilled persons and I expect only capable, trained and skilled persons to own and operate them. If you’ve ever been to the gun range and seen “that guy’ that has no idea what he’s doing yet he refuses to learn, you know what I’m talking about. Other gun owners aren’t just weary, they don’t approve of this type of behavior. 

All of this is not just logical, it’s actually good for me and my family’s safety, the very thing I own guns for. 

Free Market Solution

I don’t think this has to be done by force. I think there’s a few free market solutions to achieve this outcome. One idea I’ve been working on is the idea of a gun and ammo store which gives people a discount if they get periodic training and won’t sell you ammo unless you have gotten training. It will attract people with low prices or the idea of a discounted training session with purchase and eventually, other stores would follow suit because not only do people like “deals”, most gun owners actually love gun training and they also love gun safety. 

This is also beneficial to the gun stores since most people who come in for training usually end up spending additional money on ammo, targets, gun rental, accessories and sometimes new guns. Just like the business model of other stores, use cheap ammo as a loss leader to get people in the store, use licenses and training as a form of membership, a price to pay up front for future discounts and you will generate profit. It’s the Costco model. 

Those on the fringe who don’t want gun safety will soon be left to choose between more expensive guns and ammo or training and discounts. Over time, we will breed smarter and better prepped gun owners.

This isn’t the only solution, it’s something that just came to mind. I’m sure some others have their own solutions. This doesn’t fix everything, but it’s a good start.