Rights and Responsibilities

Too bad that Civics isn't taught in school anymore. The Evangelicals keen and wail about prayer and 'god' being removed from classrooms in public schools. (Granted, that group is forever keening and wailing, such is their provenance.) - Setting aside the separation of church and State for the time being,  what we actually need are lessons in basic civics and civic responsibility.

It might be remembered that the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the US Constitution, is also an implied declaration of responsibilities which undergird those declared rights.
http://www.billofrightsinstitute.org/founding-documents/bill-of-rights/

Simply said, all civic rights come with integral responsibilities. Voting Rights come with the responsibility to educate oneself about the issues and the candidates. The Right to a speedy trial imparts the duty to create and maintain a judicial system that is efficient. The Right to free speech imparts the duty of the citizens to forbearance of conflicting views. The Right of the people to peaceably assemble requires that those assembled do not become violent. The Right to the free exercise of religion obligates the religious to respect other religions as well as respect those who are non-religious. 

Rights are predicated by responsibility. Anyone who knows the legend of Spiderman knows that 'With great power comes great responsibility...'.
The Rights guaranteed by the Constitution are the Power of the People. 

Now, we come to the Right guaranteed by the Second Amendment; the Right to keep and bear arms. With that Right, comes the responsibility that guns in society do not become a threat to public safety. The problem is that many gun owners (under the influence of the NRA and/or grand, machismo Rambo visions) refuse to accept that underlying  responsibility and duty inherent in exercising that Right.

Those who exercise their Right to 'keep and bear arms' must accept responsibility for the alarming number of gun deaths in America. One might bandy stats around and argue about the accuracy of data collection but the tragedies of Sandy Hook, Las Vegas, Parkland, (etc, etc, ad fecking nauseum) go well beyond numbers of dead or the number of guns or the number of rounds.

Think what you will about the causes of gun violence. It makes little difference to the basic tenet that Rights come with Responsibility and duty.

The very troubling case at hand is this: there is gun violence. It exists. It exists at a level unmatched by any other First World Nation. It exists at a level unmatched even in our own violent history except for times of war. It is also very clear that the level of gun violence is unacceptable to the large majority of the population.

It is time for those who wish to be Gun Owners to accept the Responsibility incumbent to that Right.

The blame for the mass shootings, the suicides, the accidental deaths by gun-fire, the murders are not relevant to the Gun Owner's Responsibility and Duty to safe-guard society. Don't blame the shooter, Law Enforcement or society. Society is your charge as well, Gun Owners - citizens. Don't rail against those who wish to stop the carnage. Do your Duty and accept Responsibility for gun deaths.

Figure out the legislation which will mitigate the deadly effect of guns in our society. Keep all the guns you want but do so by making certain Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook, Sutherland Springs, Tx, Orlando, Las Vegas, Parkland, etc, never happen again and the horrific number of suicides, murders and accidental shootings are considerably reduced to a socially acceptable level.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/10-deadliest-mass-shootings-modern-us-history/story?id=50234345

Caution! The School Marm is Armed

A week after the Dec. 14, 2012 shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, Wayne LaPierre, the executive vice president of the National Rifle Association, said Americans need more guns in schools.

 

From 2014 - http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/utah-teacher-shoots-herself-the-leg-while-school

That 'arm the teachers' plan has been working pretty well already it seems.
Teacher down! Call for a substitute! Do they have firearms training?
And will they be bringing their own gun to school? If not, will the school have an armory to provide weapons to teachers? And how 'bout ammo? Will there be an allotted number of rounds per armed teacher much like the number of photo-copies each teacher can make per semester? And if the teacher brings his/her own gun, will they be paid an annual/semi-annual depreciation for using their personal weapon for school use? And will they be re-compensated for use of any rounds fired? What is the rounds are fired accidentally? Or in error, say? And how about liability for actually shooting someone?

...and this is the plan that the POS POTUS, the Blob-in-chief, the Drumpfen-feck, so glibly pronounces as the solution to school shootings from his 'crib sheet'? BOYCOTT the NRA! Renounce your membership. Refuse to send your membership fees.

Ex-squeeze me?

(Nov. 12, 2017)

President Donald Trump told reporters that he believes both the U.S. intelligence agencies when they say Russia meddled AND Russian President Vladimir Putin's sincerity in claiming that his country did not interfere.

Citizens, the POTUS...

"What I said that...I'm surprised that there's...uh... any conflict on this...what I said there, was that I believe he believes that, and that's very important for somebody to believe. I believe that he feels that he and Russia did not meddle in the election."

"As to whether I believe it or not, I'm with our agencies, especially as currently constituted with their leadership. I believe in our Intel agencies, our intelligence agencies... I've worked with them very strongly... uh... there weren't 17 as there was previously reported, there were actually 4... but they were saying there was 17, there were actually 4...but as currently... uh, led by... fine people...I believe very much in our intelligence agencies. Now...at the same time...uh...I wanna be able 'cuz I think it's very important to get along with Russia, to get along with China, to get along with Vietnam, to get along with lots of countries because we have a lot of things we have to solve. And frankly, Russia, China in particular can help us with the North Korea problem which is one of our truly great problems."

"So,...I'm not looking to stand and start argung with somebody when there's reporters all around and camera recording our conversation. I think it was very obvious to everybody...I believe that President Putin really feels and he feels strongly that he did not meddle our election.

What he believes is what he believes. What I believe is that we have to get to work and I think everybody understood this that heard the answer. We have to get to work to solve Syria, to solve North Korea, to solve Ukraine, to solve terrorism."

"Russia has been very, very heavily sanctioned. They were sanctioned... at a... very high level...and that took place very recently. It's now time to get back to healing a world that is shattered and broken. Those are very important things. And I feel that having... Russia...in a friendly posture as a opposed to always fighting with them is an asset to the world and an asset to our country, not a liability."

"We’ve got this perverse situation in which the vast analytic powers of the entire world are being spent trying to understand a guy whose thoughts are often just six fireflies beeping randomly in a jar." David Brooks