Guest Post: Parkland

This is from my youngest son, now a student at Brigham Young University:

88 Every Day
On February 14, 2018, a live shooter entered into Stoneman Douglas High School and proceeded to kill 17 of his former classmates along with injuring 17 others. Since the hours of this tragedy, proponents and opponents of guns and gun control have entered the media in an attempt to prevent future tragedies such as this from occurring. The culture of the debate results in extremism on both sides that leads to no progress. Gun control opponents don’t want to see more school shootings. Gun control proponents don’t want to take away every gun from every citizen. To make progress, we need to analyze effects of guns on our communities and families and break away from our gun culture to allow for more gun control laws that promote safety for everybody.
The debate on gun control is an increasingly sensitive topic that dates clear back to December 15, 1791, when the Bill of Rights was ratified. Within the Bill of Rights was amendment 2 “The right to Bear Arms.” This constitutional amendment is often a foundation of the debate. Within the amendment, it is stated that “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

God, Guns, and Prophets (not Profits)

Time for an update. And I'm actually encouraged this time.

President Russell M. Nelson of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) is reported to have said that agency has allowed men to pass laws to allow guns to people who shouldn't have them.

Let me paste in here a recent FaceBook stream that brings up statements of the prophets. I'll take out he personal identifiers and links to friends who commented. In so doing, I also challenge the gun people out there to proof-text me wrong.

Renounce Guns, Proclaim PEACE

It's time to call an end to Mormons arming themselves to protect against an imaginary tyrannical government or even for "self-defense." 

Don't get me wrong. I get the anti-government sentiment. I've worked for the feds for 34 years and don't like them much. But heaven help us if we continue on the path we are on!

There is a sickness in American culture (and I mean the US, not our Canadian or Latin American friends). Actually, there is more than one sickness. One is racism and the original sin of slavery which we have not shed, not nearly as well as other American neighbors who were also under this curse. The other, related sickness is the obsessive love of gun culture.

The LDS Church is more and more a world church. Sure, still with dominant American culture, but that is fading more and more and will only accelerate. We are the only nation where the LDS Church is established, Zion in the Latter-days, where we violate the laws of Zion on a regular basis by arming ourselves.

Gun Love Kills

Just sent this message off to each of my Senators and Congressman:

Gun Love has gone too far in this country. There is no need to ban all guns (just assault weapons). There is blood on the hands of the NRA and all who resist any attempt to regulate weapons of quick and easy destruction of school children. My wife teaches at Mueller Park Jr. High in Bountiful where last year a student blasted a hole in the ceiling of a classroom which could have gone so much worse. We must stop the gun culture in this country that promotes guns as tools for problem solving. Guns are not the problem. The Love of guns and gun money is.

These are the Tweets and FB messages I sent off on yesterday's Valentines Day Massacre:

1. Grant L. Vaughn‏ @Whistlestar_PMM 24m24 minutes ago
   

   Gun Love Kills

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2. Grant L. Vaughn‏ @Whistlestar_PMM 11h11 hours ago
   

   Just one more. The infamous St. Valentine's Day Massacre in 1929? Seven dead. 7. Not seventeen. 7.

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3. Grant L. Vaughn‏ @Whistlestar_PMM 14h14 hours ago
   

   Hearts bleed in Florida and all over this country because people love guns more than other people.

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4. Grant L. Vaughn‏ @Whistlestar_PMM 14h14 hours ago
   

   Guns don't have Rights, People do!

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5. Grant L. Vaughn‏ @Whistlestar_PMM 15h15 hours ago
   

   The @NRA @HouseGOP @SenateGOP @utahsenate @utahhousegop all have blood on their hands. Gun Love has gone too far. Gun Rights require Gun Responsibility. You stand condemned!

Hell to Pay

Sick to my stomach doesn't begin to express what I felt watching the links below. I suffered so you don't have to unless you want to.

The first is the President's melt-down, press conference of yesterday (Tuesday, August 15, 2017, a day that should live in infamy). I watched the whole thing. The first part was about infrastructure. At about 7 minutes, he opened it up for questions and he went way downhill from there.

NY Times Transcript and Video of trump's Press Conference

Then there was this from one of the organizers of the legally permitted march in Charlottesville (Yes, First Amendment protected). It's a selfie-video he did when he learned that there was a warrant out for his arrest. He claims to be a peaceful and law-abiding neo-nazi. [WARNING: rough language].

Miracles Great and Small

The back entrance to Mueller Park Jr. High that my wife uses the morning after the shotgun blast.
My wife heard that the neighboring LDS Stake President initiated this effort.

There have been a series of bruises to this liberal heart since returning from the Land of my Fathers (Cymru) last summer. First, the Malheur Armed Occupiers were found not guilty. Then, somehow, America elected the most despicable woman-abusing, self-aggrandizing, klepto-capitalist to be President. And finally, a troubled kid with a shotgun blasted a hole in the ceiling of a classroom in the school where my wife teaches.

The first miracle is that in spite of significant emotional trauma to that school community (yours truly included), no blood was shed. The Washington Post noted this is in a fairly accurate article revealing some of the difficult details of he incident that I wasn't going to share, but that 's the press for you. Locally, KSL also had good coverage of the aftermath. Those details do, however, reveal how close this was to becoming a horrific tragedy. Thank Heavens and all involved who acted with good training, smarts, and compassion. No one had to shoot the poor kid down and he was unsuccessful in whatever he was attempting except that first blast.

The Second Amendment says "WELL REGULATED," You D*** Fools!

This morning my eldest daughter, a school teacher, called me in obvious distress asking if I had heard the news. She asked me to check if her mom, also a school teacher, was OK because she was afraid to do so. So I quickly checked:

REGULATE YOUR DAMN GUNS, AMERICA! IT'S CONSTITUTIONAL!!!! THIS IS MY WIFE'S SCHOOL!! YOU GUN NUTS ALL STAND CONDEMNED! I WILL HOLD EACH AND EVERYONE OF YOU ACCOUNTABLE BEFORE THE JUDGMENT BAR OF GOD AND EVERY COURT ON THIS EARTH THAT GIVES A DAMN!

1 in custody after active shooter reported at Mueller Park Junior High School | KSL.com

Police responded to Mueller Park Junior High School Thursday morning on reports…

KSL.COM|BY KSL.COM

Cliven Bundy and the Contract Citizens of the United States

While his two sons languish in jail and the Finicum Family moves forward preparing for a tragic funeral, Cliven Bundy continues his vendetta against the People of the United States.

Having the form of legality by denying the authority thereof. And he can't spell "Malheur."

From Cliven Bundy's Blog dated Sunday, January 31, 2016, I copied the following:

With money and fear we will justify the assassination of LaVoy Finicum and make political prisoners of all that dare to lift their hand. (We can, we will kill.) This is our livelihood and we will protect our right of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, so help me Devil!

George Washington Didn't Say That About Guns Either

As a proud defender of our founding fathers (putting slavery to the side in the context of its times - it was still wrong), I rise again to respond to the latest false meme sighted (or falsely cited) on Facebook. George Washington did not say:

When any nation mistrusts its citizens with guns, it is sending a clear message. It no longer trusts its citizens because it has evil plans.

Nope. Nada. Nothing of the sort. It doesn't even sound like him. It certainly doesn't sound like the President George Washington who federalized militias to put down the Whiskey Rebellion. It's nowhere to be found in any official source from George himself! Check out a few:

Another School-Teacher Hero!

And a senseless, stupid, horrific, American tragedy in Roswell, New Mexico!

I've kept quiet through a few more of these, but not tonight.

What is wrong with us, America?! Let me tell you. We argue about rights vs. regulations when we can have both. We argue about guns vs. children when we can have both (even if I prefer the latter).

Booze Doesn't Cause Drunk Driving!

Absolutely true!

Booze doesn't kill, people who drink too much and drive kill. I think that's pretty obvious.

Let me tell you a little story. Back in the 1990s we lived in New Mexico. A political issue arose about drive-up liquor stores. As an odd side note, the campaign to close drive-up liquor informed that there were only four states in the U.S. that still allowed unrestricted drive-up liquor sales.* I realized that I had lived in three of the four! Wyoming, Maryland, and New Mexico! The fourth was Louisiana.

Real Men Shop Not Stalk

Spousal abuse is the most cowardly deed a person can do. It is overwhelmingly committed by males on women. I don't call them men, because they are disgusting bullies, not real men.

Today we read in the Salt Lake Tribune that Utah's Number One gun lobbyist and activist is no man. His guns are to be taken away, maybe permanently, under the law. (This is the same bozo who had an AR-15 stolen from his vehicle a while back.)

It was a surprise to me the other day when my friend at Keepapitchinin.org linked to one of my recent blogs about trying to help my wife find a Mother-of-the-Bride dress. It was the come-on to her link "Going where few men are willing to tread." that made me feel oddly heroic, which is what I was going for with my whole Don-Quixote-Parsifal-Galahad-Disney's-Prince-Philip thing. With that sort of fantasy life, you might expect me to be living in my mom's basement working at a comic book store. Nope.

Tweeting the NRA

Just couldn't resist sharing a collection of tweets relating to guns and the NRA Convention from the past day or so. Check out some of these:

David Waldman ‏@KagroX2 May

In the last 3 days, an 8-yo has shot his 5-yo sister (AK), a 5-yo shot his 2-yo sister (KY) & a 7-yo shot his 9-yo sister (WA). #GunFAIL

 Retweeted by Pat Bagley

One Nation under Guns

Shame on the United States Senate for defeating the Manchin-Toomey compromise on extending background checks to gun shows - a gaping hole in preventing criminals and the dangerous mentally ill from purchasing guns.

The other day, I posted a list of honorable Republicans who voted for cloture to block any grandstanding filibuster. While glad there was no such phony dog and pony show, I have to revise to list the Republicans and a few Dems who have lost honor in my book:

Guns & Kids

Remember, the language of the Second Amendment to the Constitution is:

"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

Hopefully, everyone can recognize that this language is a little convoluted and confusing. "A well regulated Militia" is in the first part, then the "the right . . . to keep and bear Arms" in the second part. And the "shall not be infringed" is in the final clause. The commas don't seem to help.

Guns & More Nephite Disease (by Anonymous D)

Sharing my ideas for tonight's post, Anonymous D emailed me with some of his thoughts. He has such a great way of getting to the core of things. Take it away, D!

Well there is hope, if but slim. The whole business is so sad it brings you almost to tears, then to anger. I’m still a little flabbergasted by the general culture of Utah, its flirtation with fanaticism, nay outright love of it. I just finished the Joseph Smith Biography again [Bushman], and then Turner’s Brigham Young. I’m starting the Leonard Arrington Brigham Young Bio. I understand why they turned to what seems fanatical to us, having endured the mobs of Missouri, and Nauvoo having been hunted and driven and many killed it’s understandable. But our current fanaticism? Could it be a persecution complex? The need to divine every political movement through the lens of the coming apocalypse? Whenever the end comes I’m sure it will take us completely off guard. The Nephites had been warned and yet it seems were clueless when they were actually destroyed.

Senator Lee Schooled by Former Home Teacher

The Senate voted 68-31 for cloture on the tea party senators' latest grandstanding attempt to filibuster any gun legislation. That's sixteen (!) Republicans! Majority Leader Reid sent his most conservative Dem, Sen. Manchin of W. Virginia, to negotiate with one of the most bendable blue-state tea-partiers, Sen. Toomey of Pennsylvania. This helps establish the Constitutional principle that the Senate is a masterfully designed political body made up of scores of prima donnas. And that's a good thing.

The honor roll of Republicans (in respectful blue, this vote only) is as follows:

Shame, Shame on Senator Mike Lee (R. Utah)

Mike Lee has signed on to a letter promising a filibuster on any gun safety legislation that comes before the US Senate. This is a disgrace. And shame on any of you who support him in this.

The fundamental human and constitutional right is the Right to Life. Any interpretation of the Second Amendment that ends up with some idea of self-defense or even rising up against the government is certainly secondary (of course, totally wrong as well). As I told Senator Lee whose comment options included "Gun Rights": Guns don't have rights, People do.

Confederate Love

Saratoga Springs Mayor and failed candidate for U.S. Congress, Mia Love
Promoting gun rights at Utah State Capitol