Non-combat ops Iran and gun grabbers at it again

Today is infusion #10. Woo Hoo we're into double digits!  This could effect posting over the next few days.  Hang in there gang.  I'll be back!

Non-combat operations in Iran
I hope we do not go to war with Iran.  The ball on that decision is totally in the Iranians’ court.  Short of an attack on US forces or interests, I do not think that the US military will attack Iran. 

That said non-combat operations are on the table.  My hope is that we still have clandestine CIA and special operation forces that can play havoc with the Iranian government and military.  My hope is that the US Navy can make it clear that they are done f-ing around with the Iranian “navy” and those Iranian assents will start to have unexplained difficulties operating near tankers and US Navy assets.

My hope is that US allies in the area - Israel, NATO, Saudi Arabia et al - will step up non-combat ops that will make life for the Iranians more and more difficult in Tehran and in the gulf.

If war does come, it would be a good excuse to level Iran’s nuclear sites, sink their navy in total and destroy their ability to pump and refine oil.  I think that can be accomplished without putting boots on the ground in Iran.  Of course Iran will try to target US ground forces in Iraq or wherever else they might be able to reach out to try to draw us into a ground war in Iran.  We should not take the bait.  The goals should be clearly stated at the outset and the troops should come home when the stated goals are met.  No more endless open-ended wars.

My sense is that PDJT will get sound military advice and follow it.

Today's JG rant - Gun grabbers challenge  

Re: JG editorial “Threat of inaction” of June 18, 2019.  As always, gun grabbing constitution ignoring Lefty Libs target the wrong crowd.  All of the “remedies” contained in the JG piece target law abiding citizens, blatantly violate the 2^nd amendment, use silly undefinable terms or would rely on police-state action for enforcement.  It’s Obamacare for guns.  Lefty Libs would have to concoct thousands of pages of undecipherable gobooldygook and then have to pass the nonsense to find out what’s in it.

Whenever Lefties start this foolishness, I have offered this challenge to ignorant gun grabbers:  The 2nd amendment is 27 plain words that have withstood challenge after challenge in the Supreme Court.  Repeal the 2^nd amendment and write a new one that captures all of the Lefty Lib goals with regard to the people’s right to keep and bear arms.  Put it to a vote. So Paul Helmke, I offer the challenge to you.

Lefties complain that the amendment process is just too cumbersome.  That’s Lefty Lib shorthand for: The American people want nothing to do with our anti-American gun grabbing proposals.

The Left will NEVER accepted the challenge. Here’s why.  The Left never targets one their largest most reliable voting blocs – criminals.  Instead they propose laws that only affect law-abiding citizens.  If the left was truly worried about lawless gun violence, they’d propose laws that required a 10 year minimum sentence for any crime committed with gun.  They’d propose equally harsh sentences for theft of a firearm for the purpose of committing a crime or transfer of a firearm to a felon. They don’t.  Instead the Left only targets law-abiding gun owning citizens with their onerous freedom crushing laws.

The left relies on undefinable terms like “assault-style weapons.”  Sounds good until one discovers that there’s no such thing as an “assault-style weapon.”  What the left is really targeting are popular semi-automatic sporting rifles that operate no differently than common hunting rifles that do not have black composite stocks.  The Left is too stupid or willfully ignorant to understand that targeting weapons for how they look rather than how they operate is a fool’s errand.

The left relies on police-state policies like registration so the government can track gun owners.  They call for “safe storage laws” that would allow the police to enter your home to check for compliance - and thanks to extra constitutional gun registration - the government now knows exactly where you live.

The Left continually whines about “the gun lobby.”  That’s the NRA, I suppose.  The NRA has approximately 6 million members.  Here’s a bit of bad news for the Left, NRA membership grows every time Lefty starts up their gun grabbing stupidity.  NRA membership was up 350,000 for 2018. 

“The gun lobby” is nothing compared to gun owners.  Estimates are that 43% of American households own at least one gun.  That percentage is almost certainly on the low end.  The number of gun owners pales in comparison to the total number of guns in America.  No one knows exactly how many guns there are in America.  The estimates run from 311-317 million.

Now, Lefty will tell us that there is no way government can control 12 million illegal aliens who break our laws, but it can control 150 million plus law abiding American citizens in possession of 300 million plus firearms.  Good luck with that one. 

Last, how stupid is it to warn that “[t]he threat is no longer distant” and then try to limit the ability of the people to defend themselves?

Tuesday, June 18, 2019 1:00 am

EDITORIAL

Threat of inaction

Weekend shootings drive home urgency

Gun death rates by State

Indiana had the nation's 20th-highest firearm death rate in 2017, based on deaths per 100,000 people. 

Kentucky.......................................................16.39

Indiana...................................................15.24

Ohio...............................................................13.63 Illinois............................................................12.05 Michigan.......................................................11.42

Source: Violence Policy Center, based on figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control

When gun violence rocks a neighborhood miles from your own or a business you don't patronize, it's easy to dismiss it as not a threat. But it can't be dismissed when the gunshots break out in a shopping plaza on a quiet summer evening, at a busy intersection or at the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo on a sunny afternoon.

Two gun-related incidents in three days – one deadly – drive home the growing danger of guns in our midst. Either one could have resulted in tragic consequences for bystanders. What level of risk must we reach before elected officials act?

Friday afternoon, the threat was to families visiting the zoo and to anyone near the busy Lima Road-Fernhill Avenue intersection. That's when two vehicles were involved in a chase, with passengers exchanging gunfire. Police said a driver in a stolen vehicle crashed into a pole on Wells Street, near Franke Park Drive, and two men jumped from the car and climbed the zoo fence. One of the men was hit with a Taser next to the sea lion and penguin area, according to a woman visiting the zoo with her children. Thankfully, no one else was hurt. Three men were arrested on multiple charges, including criminal recklessness.

Sunday evening, shoppers at ColdwaterCrossing Shopping Center were at risk when 20-year-old Andre Paris Leslie was shot to death in the parking lot of the Walmart store. A witness told The Journal Gazette her car, about 50 feet from where Leslie fell, was struck by a bullet. No arrests have been made.

“The stories are very disturbing. I think it should be obvious that there are too many guns out there in the hands of people who should not have them,” writes Paul Helmke, former president and CEO of the Brady Center/Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, in an email. “Solutions to the problem are not easy, but we need to be debating the issue and the different proposals that have been made (such as universal background checks; restrictions on 'assault-style' weapons and large-capacity ammunition magazines; increased use of “red flag” laws; licensing and registration; safe-storage laws; tougher laws against gun trafficking; allowing lawsuits and stronger enforcement steps against negligent and 'bad apple' gun sellers; etc.).”

Helmke, now director of the Civic Leaders Center at the O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University Bloomington, noted the U.S. House recently passed legislation to expand the background-check window from three days to 10, and to require the checks for sales at gun shows. U.S. Rep. Jim Banks, R-3rd, and all other Republican members of the Indiana delegation voted no on the bills. The legislation is going nowhere in the GOP-controlled Senate, Helmke noted. 

“The Indiana Legislature has preempted local governments from doing anything directly on guns,” wrote the former three-term Fort Wayne mayor. “What do our local candidates think of that? Are they willing to push for more local control, or at least stronger state gun laws?”

Helmke noted that the U.S. Supreme Court has made it clear that stronger gun regulations do not run afoul of the Second Amendment. Justice Antonin Scalia, in the Heller decision 11 years ago this month, wrote that the right to bear arms is “not unlimited.”

“Failure to act is a political choice by our elected officials, not a constitutional requirement,” Helmke wrote. “Failure to debate and discuss the proposals that have been suggested means that those candidates/officials either feel that gun violence is not a problem, or they don't want to do anything about it for one reason or another.”

If elected officials won't act, voters must choose candidates prepared to take on the gun lobby. The threat is no longer distant.