Shame On You, Mr. President.  What in heaven’s name is our President up to?  After a “validation re-election”, he is continuing to operate as though he will be eligible to serve a third term in office.  For God’s sake, Mr. President….quit campaigning and start governing!

Taking at face value your arguments for gun law revisions, it is nothing short of pathetic and sad to see your shameless use of children to promote your positions.  Have you really reached the point in your career of great political accomplishments where you are no longer competent to engage in a debate based on merit and substance?  Your continued manipulation of your adoring press and “three blind mice” staff is demeaning to a man of your standing.  Surely you are not concerned about what you will be doing for living after this second term?  A man of your obvious communication and social skills, accompanied by your resume, should provide you with a myriad of money-making possibilities upon retirement from the White House.  You are acting as if you must squeeze every drop of juice from your imperial position as President of this great nation.  Stop…playing…games.

May I humbly suggest that you thoughtfully discount the words of your adoring hoards and narcissistic inner workings and realize that you have not really accomplished that much so far and your time in the catbird seat is growing short.  History, as it is wont to do, will judge your performance from a healthy distance and will likely rely on facts and not rhetoric.  Even after squandering a historic opportunity to make positive and significant changes in this government during your first term, you still have a marvelous opportunity to be a bridge of reason between the two parties and do some real business in WDC.  Please…for the sake of our country and your legacy, begin to mature into a President of substance, understand that compromise is the art of good faith negotiations, and start to address the great issues of the people…national debt, chronic unemployment, the challenge of international diplomacy, entitlement reforms, and most importantly, a semblance of a return to statesmanship, effectiveness, efficiency, and bipartisanship in our government.

Gun Control: A Starting Point.  As part of the preamble to this conversation, we must indict about 75-85 percent of the vocal critics of gun owners due their hypocrisy.  Any actor, musician, or tech game marketer has no moral validity in criticizing gun owners.  Clean up your own house and shut the $#@ up!

Like many of the emotional issues that are currently swirling in our country these days (abortion, capital punishment, gay rights), the debate on gun control is dominated by the extremists on either side of the argument.  It is entirely possible that the broad swath of people in the middle could agree on many steps that could actually improve the gun environment in our nation.  Let’s attempt to seek that middle ground.

Gun ownership is a right; but it is also a privilege.  And as with any privilege, it carries responsibility with it.  Any responsible gun owner should be willing to register their weapons and report sales or transfers.  The fear that action of this type is a “foot in the door” to confiscation is valid given the extremism of the anti-gun lobby, but that argument is insufficient to the principle of holding gun owners responsible for movement of their weapons.

Automatic weapons should not be legally owned by the public.  I am defining automatic weapons as one that can have its trigger depressed, held, and thus empty the clip.  There is no place in the private sector for this type of gun and its ownership should be restricted to military, police, and selected security applications.  A serious debate should take place regarding semi-automatic weapons; those that require successive trigger pulls for firing (this category would include many assault rifles).  It is a knee-jerk reaction to include these guns in the same breath as automatics, since a practiced gunperson can fire just about as quickly with a lever-action rifle or other types of guns.  There is also a legitimate place in sport for semi-automatic guns; whether you agree with the sport or not. 

Existing gun laws must be enforced; uniformly and consistently across our entire nation.  If this requires some type of federal precedence over state law, so be it.  There has to be improved co-ordination and communication between law enforcement agencies from state to state and inter-agency at the federal level.  This can only be accomplished if the set of laws applying to the purchase, ownership, and transfer of guns are uniform across the country.  The commission of crimes with guns must have mandatory sentences and these sentences must also be applied uniformly across the country, regardless of the political leaning of the judge.  As this area is explored, our lawmakers must take a minimalist approach, starting first with a careful discussion and examination of existing gun law before adding new layers of bureaucracy to legal enforcement.  There must be a balance between the rights of gun ownership with the right to public safety.

It is patently ridiculous that gun shows do not conform to the same law as gun shops within the same state.  This loophole must be closed.  Gun and sporting shows will survive, but the process of gun transfer will simply be more restrictive and burdensome.  Once again…This should not be prohibitive and should respect the right of free trade, within the confines of the same laws that apply to the gun shops.

There is so much hyperbole floating around in the gun control discussion.   It is true that people kill, not guns.  Last year, more homicides were committed with hammers and clubs than with guns.  It is also true that an unbalanced sociopath can walk out of a gun show with a lethal weapon with little or no trouble at all.  Each side must begin to respect the concerns of the other without staking out “lines in the sand” prior to debate.  If the middle does not find a way to bring a semblance of reason to this debate, I fear one side or the other will eventually realize a false victory that is misconceived as righteous.