Fooled Me Once…

If there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s underestimating the stupidity of the American public. Rewind to June 16, 2015. A reality show host descends a gold-trimmed escalator to make a bigoted, xenophobic announcement that he is running for the Republican nomination for president.  Oh, how I laughed at the absurdity of it – the over-the-top pageantry, the horribly racist speech, the very idea that anyone could take this clown seriously. I continued to be smugly certain that he would crash and burn in the Republican debates. When he actually won the nomination, I thought, “Well, there’s a head-slapper, I guess this is where the Republicans have been headed for years – they’ve nominated a monster of their own creation and will pay royally.”

The election dragged on. Trump ridiculed a disabled reporter, and I said, “That will do it. Surely no one will support this idiot after that little performance.” Well, don’t call me Shirley, the polls continued to be tight as a Texas tick right up to the fated night of the election. I sat down with my lovely wife that night, champagne at hand, ready to toast the first female president of the good ol’ U.S. of A.

Then the nightmare began. Once again, I had underestimated the gob-smacking stupidity of a significant portion of the American public. The absurdity carried on unabated, even to the point of watching the president of the world’s more powerful nation suggest bleach injections as the obvious cure for Covid, or maybe stick a horse tranquilizer up your bum. That was it, I sat down and did what I do when things are too overwhelming, I wrote a dark story about the danger of a second term, one that would turn into a third. A bit out of date, but the conclusion is still valid. Let’s not be fooled again…

I called it The Third Term – A Cautionary Tale.  On Amazon. On Barnes & Noble.

 www.billzbookz.com

It’s the Guns, Stupid

 Say What?

 Recently I learned that Red America’s Sweetheart, Lauren Boebert, is co-sponsoring a bill, along with Alabama Rep. Barry Moore and George Santos (or whatever he’s calling himself today) to designate the AR-15 as the “National Gun of America.” The full title of this critical bill reads, “An AR–15 style rifle chambered in a .223 Remington round or a 5.56x45mm NATO round is declared to be the National Gun of the United States.” So many snarky remarks I could make here, but I’ll just let you insert your own.

Kills Really Well!

 Instead, let’s talk seriously about this prime example of American engineering. Notice that the bill references AR-15 STYLE (emphasis mine). The original AR-15 was a military weapon designed in 1956 by the ArmaLite corporation. The AR-15 style rifle’s “advantages” include: it’s small and light compared to more conventional rifles; it has low recoil due to being gas operated; it has a very light trigger pull, even without a bump stock it can fire about 60 rounds per minute; the AR can hold up to 100 rounds with a drum, and at least twice the capacity of a handgun with a large clip; its bullets are exceptionally high velocity, designed for “maximum wound effect,” and leave the barrel at 3 times the speed of sound, close to 3 times the speed of a handgun. This means the effect on the human body is devastating. Trauma surgeon Peter Rhee from the University of Arizona puts it this way in comparing the AR to a 9mm handgun – “One (the AR) looks like a grenade went off in there, the other looks like a bad knife cut.” In other words, it was designed after a weapon of war and kills really well and efficiently.

I Need It Because…

 “But I just want it for hunting.” Yeah, if you want your game to look like it was killed by a grenade. Love that venison, yum.

“I need it for personal protection.” This is probably the most reasonable argument. After all, the are so many nuts with AR’s out there… But seriously, just get a shotgun, or maybe a dog, and lock your doors. You’re statistically much more likely to have a family member shot by your own gun than by an outsider.

“Second amendment, second amendment.” Sigh. What part of “Well regulated” don’t you understand?

“It will make my, uh, package larger.” I think this is the bottom line. Can you say fetish, you manly man, you? Not sure what to think about Lauren…

 It’s Not Just About AR’s

So, if we just get rid of all those AR’s, problem solved. Sadly, no. AR’s account for only about 3% of shootings in the U.S. They just do it a hell of a lot better, and are particularly suited to MASS shootings. They have been used in virtually all of the mass shootings since Sandy Hook in 2012. There are many more times the number of people killed by guns in the U.S. compared to other developed nations. On average, 7 times higher. The problem is the number of guns, the lack of regulation, and the pervasiveness of gun culture.

While I’m on the subject of how the U.S. is awash in guns, think about all the controversial police shootings. I’m the last guy to support police shooting people, particularly black ones, in the back, for holding a cell phone, or for refusing to immediately follow an officer’s instructions. But I do have another take on this ongoing problem. There are typically two reactions – Support the blue no matter what; or Cops are racist and ill-trained. I have a third opinion. While many police, especially in the South, may be racist or ill-trained, they are terrified. Police know better than any of us, how guns of all types have proliferated in our society. Imagine being a police officer and never knowing if that that person reaching into the glovebox for proof of insurance will come up with a handgun and begin firing. Imagine being in a dark alley and seeing someone pointing something at you – is it a gun, or is it just a cellphone? No amount of training will overcome that fear.

 

Let’s Get Personal

 Full disclosure, I grew up in a gun owning family. My father was an avid hunter, it was his primary form of recreation, and how he bonded with his buddies. I would never have wanted to take that from him. I quit hunting myself long ago, when I realized I didn’t want to take pleasure from killing things, but I do understand how much hunting is an important part of life for many people.

My father owned 2 hunting rifles, a 30-06 and a 243. Like the AR, they were semi-automatics (this means that each time the trigger is pulled, the gun shoots). Their clips held no more than 5 rounds (of a size that would not ruin the meat), and Dad was derisive of anyone who shot more than twice. If the first shot doesn’t kill or disable the deer, it is running away – fast. If you’re an expert shot, you might get a second round off—if there’s not too much cover for you to get a clear shot. He also owned a couple shotguns for bird hunting, and a small pistol to put a wounded deer out of its misery of it wasn’t killed by the shot that brought it down. The AR is a lousy gun for hunting.

So other than rant, what can we do? Some of it is obvious, vote against anyone who accepts donations from the NRA, vote against anyone who has a record of not supporting gun control legislation, donate what you can to organizations that are fighting for gun control. Find your own personal way to make your voice heard.

It is personal for me. I had just left campus to go home for lunch when Charles Whitman began his rampage from the University of Texas Tower. On most days I would have eaten lunch on campus and might have ended up in his sights. And then there’s the more recent event - The Uvalde massacre.  Following the mass shooting in Uvalde Texas, I wrote a short story, Diary of a Dead Girl – A Shooting Victim Speaks from the Grave. It’s written from the perspective of an 8-year-old victim of the Uvalde massacre. I don’t make any money off of this, I donate twice my royalties to gun control organizations such as Mothers Against Gun Violence.  My only objective is to get the word out in any way I can. Click the cover to get a copy, it’s short, and an easy read. It also contains more statistics about the ongoing slaughter from guns in the U.S.

A Fluttering of Wings

An old adage states that a butterfly flapping its wings on one side of the earth may cause a hurricane on the other. Small changes can yield profound results.

I’m thinking of a different sort of butterfly — the ballot type. About 17 years ago we were warned of “An Inconvenient Truth,” by the man who had been defeated in the 2000 presidential election.

What if that infamous Butterfly Ballot had been designed differently — maybe so the checkboxes for the candidates actually aligned with their names? 

The United Nations just released its global stocktake report that concluded we only have 2 years to meet the (already inadequate) Paris accord emission targets, and dire prognostications flood the newswires.

Would a Gore victory have made a difference? We’ll never know.