Correctional Officer's Prayer video

Correctional Officer's Prayer

the rule of causation video

the rule of causation video

Gun Debate or Debacle?

Gun Debate or Debacle?

Gun control people are lining up their sheep to march on Washington DC to protest gun violence and insist on stricter gun controls. Thousands are expected and many will try to influence our federal law makers to change what the Second Amendment has guaranteed us from the beginning of our birth as a free nation. Granted the clause states “a well regulated” phrase that is being interpreted in many various ways to suit individual and partisan needs at a time when our country is so vulnerable to domestic terrorism and internal strife to survive the hell it has become.

It is speculated that this fever of gun control was sparked or initiated by the school massacre at Newton Connecticut but I suspect it goes much deeper than that. It is my opinion that this is a direct assault by those that oppose gun ownership by law abiding citizens and another attempt to strip away those rights given to us in our Second Amendment.

There is no doubt that many politicians will jump on this band wagon to repel the NRA and other pro-gun views with their own interest in mind and not that of our country’s heritage or Bill of Rights. This has become a fight between what is constitutional and what the government wants of its people. To disarm America is to disarm liberty and freedom.

It must be pointed out that the NRA does not speak for me nor does it represent the views I have on this subject. It is with pure intentions that I want to preserve our Constitution as it was written to preserve the ideals our founding fathers brought forth when they created the Bill of Rights.

One might say it’s a debate between liberty and tyranny with an outcome that will impact us all, gun owners and non-gun owners as once the Bill of Rights has been diluted, other rights will fall right behind the Second Amendment and destroy our moral foundation called America.

Yahoo News reports that “The Newtown massacre has galvanized the U.S. debate on guns and spurred President Barack Obama to propose the most significant gun-control steps in decades. It goes on and states in part “Obama wants to revive a ban on military-style assault weapons, a proposal that faces a tough battle in Congress. He also wants to put in place mandatory background checks for all gun buyers.”

This debate will turn into a debacle for two reasons; the first reason is selfish interests of those wishing to remove our hands and ownership from the guns we already own and carry lawfully and the second is to destroy the moral fiber of our constitution that has been attacked numerous times now through litigation and lawmaking by extremists that have no interest in preserving our way of life and liberty.

It is up to every legal gun owner to speak out and contact their federal and state representatives and express their own opinion and stand on the Second Amendment and the right to carry guns without specific legislation restricting or eliminating certain guns from being bought through existing and legal channels today.

If you decide not to take any action and sit back to watch this debacle from the couch, don’t come crying to me about how your constitutional rights were infringed or violated when you wouldn’t lift a finger to protect those rights.

Why are we Forgetting God?

Why are we forgetting God?

Reaching out for the answer to this question has taken me down a road that is anything but simplistic or logical in most sense. I found mixed clues of why we are forgetting God in our daily lives and have a hard time putting it in words that would make sense to you or anyone else that is interested in seeking the answer to this question.

I guess the first thing we have to do is determine how God impacted us in the past and how His centuries lasting but slowly dissipated influence within our society has taken us to another place where the Bible is no longer the main reference book on daily behaviors and influences on decision making and self-discipline.

We must all agree there was a time when the Bible was instrumental in bonding us together with a common sense of devotion and high-commitment towards Christianity and other related religions that preached the Ten Commandments as well as other important parables of the scriptures written.

There was a time when society gathered together with an abundance amount of faith that kept us all spiritually bonded with each other and fosters mutual respect and self-discipline. As a result people had respect for each other and mended their ways to find common ground to live together in harmony and share mutual community interests for the good of many if not all.

Since then, society has formed new priorities and has become divided into different cultural groups with different priorities in life and their pursuit of happiness. In this journey they chose to leave behind much of their spiritual institutions and substituted religion with other man-made institutions.

 The more society drifted away from religion the more indulgence was created to allow more freedoms of expressions and acts that were not necessarily words or deeds guided by the scriptures unlike in the past. Ignoring repeated warnings from learned scholars there was a movement to abandon God and seek new ideals unfounded by any religious purpose.

Along the way we destroyed nature and its pristine settings as the earth was robbed from its beauty and minerals to attain wealth and power. Such movements to control natural resources such as oil, gas and other energy sources continued to boost exponential growth of industries harmful to the environment but totally ignored for the sake of profit and riches killing God’.

The pattern repeats itself through history but as these riches and corruptive patterns increase, so will the character or qualities of man diminish in pride, respect, anger control and most of all love. Love for mankind, love for human beings and love for nature.  Technology and the internet have erased faces and names and only leave an IP footprint that can be traced around the world in seconds.

Now that we have cheap slave labor through thriving prison industries on domestic and foreign soil and our nation continues to destroy itself from within by fighting wars and ignoring peace, we are attending to the basic values of life less and less than ever before. It appears this self-destruct cycle has reached catastrophic proportions and nobody has taking the first step to stop the destruction of our country as we once knew it.

We are taking down crosses and other religious items in our churches, our schools and our government buildings. We are becoming less and less spiritually motivated to accept God as our Savior and more and more emphasis on those things the scriptures describes as evil and demonic in nature and influence.

We have abandoned the words “in God we Trust” and thrown away our Pledge of Allegiance to our Flag that represents the very fiber or morality we once believed in and fought for.

This human cycle of destruction began with Adam and Eve but has escalated into mankind’s inability to handle the new technology that brings prosperity to the selected few and ignores the welfare of those that can’t compete or maintain such growth as those with more wealth or power. Today we have turned face on God and have forgotten what God has given us as we no longer revere and thank Him for such blessings from above.

In this process of change we have forsaken real leaders for pseudo make believe man-made idols and forgotten that it is wrong to do this in hopes this idol gives us riches and prosperity with false promises and well-told lies.

Americans have abandoned their own faith for the hopes of receiving something intangible and unreal from false prophets that walk the Earth today as elected and non-elected leaders of governments that intend to destroy our own moral fiber through corruptive and illicit behaviors ignoring our religious foundation, our Constitution and our check and balances in our government branches that keeps liberty in the hands of the people and not the government.

Faced with oppressive ideas and third world thinking, we are slowly dying as a nation of non-believers. No longer eager in faith and servitude to God, we are in a midst of poverty and complacency as well as apathy slowly giving up our individual rights to entities that control the nation’s debt internationally and supportive of terrorist nations.

No matter how many times the Bible warned us about these famines and wars and self-destruct happenings, we continue to be self-centered and arrogant that we could in fact survive this abolishment of our faith and live without the self-discipline and faith we had once before and what made this nation so great.  Instead of being the rich we are now the poor and persecuted by those in power out of sheer desperation to control our way of life and to rule the world’s wealth and power.

Vulnerability as a Human Being ~

Are you susceptible to committing a crime?

Have you ever asked yourself this question? Have you ever wondered why you haven’t committed a crime and stayed out of jail? The answers may be more complex than first assumed as your answers could reveal more about yourself than you are aware of in determining the real reasons for people to commit crimes.

One may simple answer the question that it was the way they grew up and having positive influences within their lives as they read and watch television show about crime fighters and superheroes.  It may also be influenced by strong family ties and staunch religious practices that kept you on the straight and narrow throughout your entire life. So if put simply as two words to describe your feelings about not committing a crime it comes down to honor and moral values.

But is there more to it than that? Is it more than character strengths and setting a strong set of values that keeps you from making bad decisions? Was it just those influences in your younger days from family friends and social contacts that taught you how to make better decisions? Strong parenting skills have a lot to do with this creation of values and development of the moral compass.

Role models are essentially the primary caregivers and care takers in your life that may without any coercion or direction channel your energy towards the positive side of being a law abiding citizen.  Certainly a big contributor to this concept would be your own experiences and involvement is social skill building that included sports, school plays and other social events that focused on working together as a team and creating equal importance to all that participated.

Whether you were an introvert or an extrovert didn’t matter as long as you were surrounded with people you could enjoy being around with and learn from each other the good things in life. Certainly, being a loner does not embrace such a concept thus it is important that you seek out socialization to a higher degree than solitude. Since solitude denies a child or youth outside influences there are no values to reinforce or replace the values that exists within the child at home or at school.

Then there are other factors that play into the development of a sound mind that sees obeying the law as a positive way to behave. Eliminating hypocrisy, lying and other deceptive practices allows better examples to be brought forward. Staying away for drugs, alcohol or other mind altering influences also strengthens the inner self to stay on a righteous path rather than think as a criminal would.

Seeing people go to jail or prison serves a good purpose of bringing awareness to the consequences of doing bad things in life. Accepting the positive values when you witness the results of negative values allows you to make better decisions about yourself and those around you.  However, it is plain to see that this does not impact everyone that is aware of the consequence of going to jail or prison for committing a crime.

Being raised by a solitary person or a “village” can make the difference and could make you realize there is more than one way to do something you are challenged with to overcome. This also applies to single parents and head of households that work their darnest to provide but often do not have the time to spend quality time to reinforce these positive values to their kids.

Emulation is a powerful tool. When you see your mother shoplift and plays it off as a minor event you can accept the behavior more readily than if your sister was caught shoplifting and your mother admonishes her for her misconduct and makes you realize that it was wrong.  Therefore siblings play a part of social developments as well.

Thus we are learning keywords such as parenting, discipline, rewards, acting appropriately, consistency in behaviors, love, support, and making mistakes. Each has its own reactionary reflex and must be done in such a manner where it either rewards the act or punishes the act. We are staying focused on being part of the solution and not the problem.

Last but not least is the way we perceive crime to be as a normative concept. We must in all reality admit there are many people who commit crimes who are never caught and fooling only themselves they are not criminals. Not being caught or detected does not exonerate you from guilt or being wrong about what you did. It is true that many youths have grown up believing there is a lesser degree of crime and accept that quickly but they will eventually graduate to a bigger crime and get caught.

Is it more than religion and good family skills or does nature impose its power on the morality of this question? Is it really about the concept of law and order or is it about acceptance of the traditional family values?

Do demographics play a part as well and do your region, neighborhood, poverty or rich influence your decisions? does living in a gang infested area determine your social values or will your family values survive or be compromised. The fact is that every person has different internal pressures to deal with and how they deal or react to these pressures determines their decision making to a rather straight up right or wrong decision to live with throughout their lives.

Do these factors play into the formula for positive-negative reinforcement actions or do they withstand such cultural influences. Have you considered any of the factors that played a major part in your life to keep you from being a criminal or a person with criminal habits? There are so many variances on this question as it plays into consideration individual weaknesses and strengths unlike the criminal that commit wrongful offenses but never really accept responsibility for what they do and are persistent in nature that they did not recognize what they did as doing wrong or why they did it in the first place.

 

Utah Sheriffs & Gun Control

Utah Sheriffs & Gun Control

 

The relentless fury over gun control has dominated every source of media out there and is out of control. There are speculations of presidential executive orders restricting or confiscating our guns that are guaranteed within the contents of our United States Constitution. Many questions have been posed by elected and non-elected officials how these proposals will play out at the end and if anything can be done to curb the violent trend in America related to mass shootings inside our shopping malls, college campuses and schools.

 

One group of Utah sheriffs have taken the proactive approach by writing a letter to the President of the United States that states in part "Make no mistake, as the duly-elected sheriffs [of] our respective counties, we will enforce the rights guaranteed to our citizens by the Constitution. No federal official will be permitted to descend upon our constituents and take from them what the Bill of Rights--in particular Amendment II--has given them."

 

It goes and adds that “The citizenry must continue its ability to keep and bear arms, including arms that adequately protect them from all types of illegality," and basically warns the federal government that if the ban for guns is acquired through an executive order without debate or legislative action, they will refuse to confiscate such weapons from their constituency.

 

Police officers are strange fellows to say the least. There are good cops and bad cops but when it comes to enforcing such a gun control ban, the majority of them are speaking out against such a plan to confiscate guns from their respective law enforcement areas.  Although it is possible that no such action would ever take place there are those who are adamant about this possibility and have stated quite frankly their position on this matter is uncompromised.

 

Many really seriously doubt the ATF, FBI or Department of Justice will go door to door confiscating assault weapons from anyone. First, it's not in the federal laws or state laws to confiscate weapons from individuals unless pursuant to an arrest of the suspect and when a search warrant has been issued by a judge. Second there never would be enough federal agents to accomplish any such confiscation nationwide even if it were legal to do so. Hereby their goals are clear that they would never violate their oath to the United States Constitution to do or perform actions contrary to the Second Amendment.

 

However, if  Congress were to reinstate the assault weapons ban, as a police officer they are wondering whether it will be their responsibility to confiscate them separating federal law from state law. As I look around I have learned that strict controls over existing arms failed in many places within the United States as well as other countries thus despite needs-based licensing, storage laws and transportation restrictions the efforts to enforce such a gun control law is very difficult and impractical from many different viewpoints. One must also wonder if some items are being “grandfathered in” as there are mass supplies of proposed accessories and weapons already sold.

 

 

 

Perhaps the answer to this entire this are two solutions that have been proposed in some states already. Either everybody that has no felony record and not restricted by law from owning a gun carries a gun all the time or we do away with guns all together and mandates all of them [police included] carry a stick.

 

After all, the police in United Kingdom carry nothing but stick so perhaps that is the solution for taking control of our guns in this country. Of course this stick carrying mandate would apply to the police as well and then the only ones that have guns are the criminals or those that refuse to obey the laws and use them in the commission of a crime against person’s property or state.

 

The United Kingdom is made up of four constituent countries: England, Scotland, Wales (which make up Great Britain) and Northern Ireland. In Northern Ireland, all police officers carry firearms. In the rest of the United Kingdom, police officers do not carry firearms, except in special circumstances. One can imagine why police officers carry guns in Northern Ireland and the need is expressed around violence and resistance against government forces. The United States of America falls into this same category as we fear domestic terrorism as well as foreign attacks.

 

This originates from the formation of the Metropolitan Police Service in the 19th century, when police were not armed, partly to counter public fears and objections over armed enforcers as this had been previously seen due to the British Army maintaining order when needed. The arming of police in Great Britain is a perennial topic of debate.

 

So the question is do Americans want the right to carry guns as well as their police force or do they want to be subjected to the rules of military laws when their guns are taken away and martial law exists if the police are not empowered to carry guns either on duty or off duty. This sounds a lot like the makings of another revolution alike the one of 1776 against England as America was a mere colony and oppressed and dictated to by a foreign power.

 

However, I pray these options will never be and should never be on the negotiations table for gun control. The answer is in individual responsibilities of owning a gun or the person’s right to refuse to possess a weapon inside their home or property.  Gun control is not working as they are established today.

 

As a retired law enforcement officer, I would never participate in the confiscation of privately owned guns or weapons. I would rather face the jail time than step up against our Second Amendment as it stands today. I am confident that many other LEO’s feel the same way as I do.

 

The government and the President must acknowledge that when Congress or the office of the POTUS pass laws or directives contradictory to our Constitution, their bans or restrictions will be very similar to those of prohibition days and the 1994 ban of assault weapons as the public will continue to find ways to buy such weapons, articles of accessories or high capacity magazines and for most certain a fact that criminals will never give up their guns as it is the leverage against those that fall victim to the predatory and violent ways to commit crimes against persons or state.  

 

Other incidents come to mind where there were acts of discriminatory and biased judgment orders given during WWII against our Japanese American citizens and placed them in detainment control units so they could not plot against our government’s efforts to fight the war in the Pacific.

Japanese-American internment was the relocation and internment by the United States government in 1942 of about 110,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese who lived along the Pacific coast of the United States to camps called "War Relocation Camps," The internment of Japanese Americans was applied unequally throughout the United States. All who lived on the West Coast of the United States were interned, while in Hawaii, where the 150,000-plus Japanese Americans composed over one-third of the population, an estimated 1,200 to 1,800 were interned.

 

Of those interned, 62% were American citizens. President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the internment with Executive Order 9066, issued February 19, 1942, This illustrates that government is not always aware of our constitutional rights and threatens the existence of our Bill or Rights.

 

There is also the right to privacy/expectation of privacy as established by the US Supreme Court. Our homes are considered private, and unless a citizen(s) are a person of interest, then it is no one's business if there are guns in the house. The only exception to that would be if LE is doing a house to house search for a fugitive, and ask if there are guns for the safety of the officers not for confiscation purposes.

 

The meddling of our Bill of Rights will lead to further intrusion of our right to speech, press, lawful search and seizure, to vote and to remain silent if the words can cause self-incrimination for the individual. There is more than gun control at stake here. Once allowed to be enforced and altering the Constitution, the United States of America will no longer be a free society founded on the very principles that were written and adopted to prevent tyranny and government control over people’s lives.

Last but not least was the major impact of President Obama signing in his executive order related to gun control. Within a week of his announced ban, there were record breaking sales of the very items proposed to be banned and not sold to the public via private gun dealers to private gun owners.

 

However, the fact remains that there are no current executive orders specifically banning guns or confiscation of weapons in any shape or form.  Reading the 23 executive orders it shows no impact on the guns people currently own-or would like to purchase- and that all proposals related to banning assault weapon and accessories will be proposed for Congressional action.

 

Source:

 

http://washingtonexaminer.com/utah-sheriffs-warn-obama-of-deadly-war-over-guns/article/2519176#%2EUP3SnB3y-MG

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_use_of_firearms_in_the_United_Kingdom

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_American_internment

Political Suicide in 2013

Political Suicide for 2013

By Carl R. ToersBijns

People are tired of the status quo inside our state and country. We, the American people are being overwhelmed by political rhetoric on gun control and many other topics that have invaded our living rooms and brought us nothing but propaganda or fear mongering but no real action by government to solve the problems today.

It’s time to rebel against the way government is doing business today. It is time to tell politicians to follow a different beat of the drum as it is time to address those things that have been set aside because of political distractions by those elected to public service and not following their oath of office.

Every state will have to address their own priorities in the manner they believe them to be appropriate. For Arizona people, they need to begin a grassroots effort to address education and mental health laws that are being stalled out due to political forces opposing change and following the whims of their lobbyist or corporate sponsors rather than the will of the people.

Governor Janice Brewer and the legislature need to take the lead. She needs to make sure that her state of the state address fulfills her goals as many were good and sound government ideas as well as proposals. We need to encourage legislative reforms in gun control, mental health reforms and education for our kids. Although I discourage too much regulation and keep government small, there is a dire need to address these issues promptly and effectively. To do nothing is just not acceptable any longer.

State leaders should take the lead and address health costs and the coverage as well as premiums that have impacted the middle class with higher medical premiums and less take-home wages in their paychecks starting this year.

The governor should insist on job creation bills to improve our economy as we reduce the funding for prisons and their tremendous growth over the past five years. She should know that her priorities with prisons has drastically reduced funding for schools and to remain on that course would be harmful and dangerous for Arizona as well as her and those that follow such an agenda.

I hope our state leaders avoid political suicide in 2013 as they take this opportunity to redefine Arizona priorities and agree to re-allocate funding and take a new approach towards the manner guns are sold at gun shows and valid background checks are conducted to avoid them falling into the hands of criminals and not law-abiding citizens that are responsible gun owners and citizens in this state.

January 20, 2013