| By Marc Kelley In 2012, following the school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary school in New Town Connecticut, which ended the lives of twenty innocent children and six adults, one of the “great thinkers” of our time, the late Charles Krauthammer, penned an article in the Washington Post entitled: The Root Causes of Murder. In his article, Dr. Krauthammer contends there are three elements common to every mass shooting: the weapon, the killer, and our culture. While very little has changed since Dr. Krauthammer wrote his article, it is well worth noting, that our political leaders have long known about the root causes of mass shootings and have chosen to do nothing more to address these issues short of fundraising for their re-election campaigns. |
 Recently, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a “heightened security alert” covering the next five months. The increased security alert cites an expected uptick in domestic terrorism, as a result of the many political factors facing our country including: the 2022 mid-term elections, SCOTUS decisions, the U.S. Border crisis, and the increased availability of illicit Fentanyl. As a result of this warning America is experiencing feeling’s of anxiety and fear for the safety of those they love. It is exactly this type of fear which had led to huge increases in the sale of firearms and bolstered the ever growing belief we take our lives into our own hands whenever we leave our homes. It should come as no surprise, many American’s no longer trust our own government to protect us. Countless examples of the insane policies which got us to this point can be found just outside our own front doors. The sour fruit produced by left wing policies including: “The defund the police movement, allowing riots to rage night after night in the name of social justice, and the unrelenting death toll related to the flood of illicit Fentanyl pouring over our southern border, have now taken hold across our nation. To make matters even worse the Department of Justice appears oblivious to the risk our citizens now face as a result of their political ideology. |
| For those of us who have actually taken the time to become educated on the history of gun legislation and the results which these laws have produced, the truth is clear and overwhelming… no laws can be written which will deter evil or prevent a criminal mind from acting upon their own irrational thoughts. The single minded approach of blaming the gun for gun violence, is tantamount to the notion removing historical monuments will in and of itself, erase the dark times and shortcomings of our nation. As Dr. Krauthammer contends, gun violence is a multi-factorial problem and focusing singularly on enacting new gun laws, will not change anything. |
| For their part in helping us to understand the truth about gun violence, the media has undertaken a new tactic and has changed their definition of a mass shooting. To be fair, an accepted definition of a “mass shooting” has long been difficult to define. In Australia, where guns are no longer legal to possess, the 2006 definition of a mass shooting is “ five or more victims being killed in a single event, while excluding victims who were wounded, but survived.” In 2012 the accepted definition of a mass shooting was defined by the supposedly, non-partisan, Washington D.C. based think tank known as, “The Gun Violence Archive”, as a shooting in which four or more people were killed or injured in a single event, not including the shooter themselves. In 2022, we find the definition of a mass shooting has once again changed. The media, not exactly the most trusted source, now defines a mass shooting as any shooting in which two or more individuals were killed or wounded, to include the shooter. The take home lesson found in these changing definitions highlights the first issue which prevents us from finding a solution to the problem. If we cannot even define the problem, how on earth can we find a solution? |
| When Joe Biden said, “Second Amendment is not absolute,” he was making clear his opposition to an individual’s right to keep and bear arms for self-defense. Rather than seeing the Second Amendment as a restraint on the government, Biden and the radical left want to interpret it to be a constraint on We The People, and our right to self defense. It is this judicial philosophy, which is at the heart of the left’s belief, the government can strip us of our rights by simply ignoring that pesky document known as, The Constitution. During his presidential campaign, Joe Biden’s position’s on many subjects were on display for the American public to see. Anyone who took the time to visit the Biden/Harris campaign website (joebiden.com) would have found a section entitled “The Biden Plan to end our gun violence epidemic.” From the very beginning of his campaign, Joe Biden openly stated his belief in the need to eliminate the Second Amendment. Biden has long supported reinstating the assault weapons ban, mandatory gun buy-backs, red flag laws, a national gun registry, limiting magazine capacity, and increasing the ability to file lawsuits against firearms manufacturers, as a means of eliminating the industry. Biden’s position on the Second Amendment has not changed one iota, and the verbiage coming out of his mouth in 2022, is exactly the same as it was in his 2020 Presidential Campaign. So spare us your righteous indignation Joe and stop using the death’s of innocents to push an agenda and the ideology, you have long held. |
| We are living in a culture of violence which has grown once again, not from a single idea or problem, but rather is a complex web of issues, fueled by Social Media, Hollywood celebrities, Marxist ideology, and requiring law enforcement to embrace the revolving door of no consequences. Just last week, in Los Angeles, LAPD responded to 911 calls reporting a man wielding a machete was threatening people. When PD arrived on the scene, they found this individual did indeed have a machete and had barricaded himself inside a building. Over the next several hours the media reported on the “standoff in LA”, begging many of us to ask the question, how in the hell can a person bring a knife to a gunfight and wind up in a stand-off ? The answer is simple, it’s California, and the machete wielding man was not seen as a “criminal”, but rather as the “victim” of a systemically racist system. During the same time period, in Yuma County Arizona, another violent attack was perpetrated, this time by an individual wielding a pistol. The entire incident was caught on the video surveillance camera of the convenience store where the incident occurred. A masked criminal armed with a handgun, burst through the front door, threatening the clerk and demanding the cash from the register. Unlike in California, this individual was not seen as a victim, but rather as a threat needing to be neutralized. Unbeknownst to our criminal, a retired combat Marine had just finished his purchase and stood between the shooter and the clerk. In the video, you can clearly see the retired Marine, James Kilcer, disarm the assailant with his left hand and strike him in the head with the bag holding the two bottles of Gatorade and two large Monster energy drinks he had just purchased. Unlike the LAPD, Kilcer did not give a damn about the criminals preferred pronouns, he simply did what he was trained to do… eliminate the threat. When the Yuma County Sheriff Deputies arrived on scene, they found Kilcer rendering aid to the still stunned criminal, proving once again, there is no worse enemy and no better friend than a U.S. Marine. |
| Until we begin treating criminals as criminals, begin to enforce the laws which are currently on the books, and rid ourselves of the woke, soft on crime ideology infesting the offices of DA’s, nothing will change and American’s will continue to suffer at the hands of evil and sadistic individuals, who do not fear the consequences of their actions. In Joe Biden’s world, We the People are not entitled to a firearm for personal protection, we are not entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, because in Joe Biden’s world, the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun, is a Marine armed with his bag of Gatorade and Monster. |
