By Donald A. Collins | 25 October 2024
Church and State
A friend from Greensburg where I grew up in Western Pennsylvania about 32 miles southeast of Pittsburgh recently sent comments to his local newspaper which perfectly captured the dilemma we face now and going forward on overall governance including sensible gun regulation. After the flawed open carry rules on guns by our savagely anti citizen Supreme Court majority and the real possibility of a Trump election the prospects for any improvements are likely nil.
Trump to the NRA: I will roll back every gun safety provision passed by President Biden if I win.
pic.twitter.com/AYEOWECr5P— The Intellectualist (@highbrow_nobrow) October 2, 2024
Pennsylvania is key to the election and a substantial majority of people outside the large cities of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh and their suburbs are predicted by experts to be Trump voters. These out of metropolitan areas are likely to be strong Second Amendment advocates which led me to appreciate this letter from a long time friend. My friend wrote
Here’s a response to a recent letter (Oct. 22) to the Tribune Review by Cliff Long, in which he called Kamala Harris stupid, faulted President Obama (who is not on the ballot) for not strengthening the Affordable Health Care Act and vaguely criticized Tim Waltz for saying that the NRA has deviated from its old mission of promoting gun safety.
In fact Congress did pass the Affordable Care Act and President Obama signed it into law. It is good but not perfect, despite its adopting the basic ideas of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. In the 24 years since its passage, Republicans have voted to repeal it more than 50 times. Once Obama’s name was attached to it, Republicans found that they hated their own ideas. Now, Harris has promised to improve and strengthen this law which has majority public support. Trump has offered no alternative other than his risible “concept of a plan”. While in office he promised to have a “plan in two weeks” —-continually. But as he said, “Nobody knew that health care could be so complicated”.
The NRA does indeed promote gun safety. However, they also actively lobby to let gun manufacturers sell any kind of gun to anyone who may want one. They are basically a gun manufacturers’ lobby. Thus, the United States has the highest incidence of gun related deaths of any country that is not actively engaged in war.
Our current gun laws make us have the largest number of civilian killers in the world. Look at these typical daily press accounts in media a couple of day ago.
New Mexico governor won’t renew ban on carrying firearms in public
Teen suspect and father indicted in Georgia high school shooting that killed 4
10 shot, one fatally, after Tennessee State University homecoming parade
Victims identified in Washington state quintuple homicide
Washington teen accused of fatally shooting 2 adults, 3 children
Father and son indicted on new charges related to Georgia school shooting
Multiple people shot after TSU homecoming parade
You can read a great piece from NBC here.
It's really telling when a major national media outlet dedicates an entire webpage to news about gun violence.
I'm old enough to remember a time when an incident of gun violence was shocking, front-page news.#ResistanceGunReformhttps://t.co/Gzc4nMf9Gm
— Bambooshooti™ (@bambooshooti) March 11, 2024
Having no plan for anything except attempting to assume maximum power over our democracy Donald Trump’s chances of being elected are not remote. Fortunately, many credible prestigious voices are now coming forward, hopefully to be heeded in time to reach those who may have not yet voted for Trump.
Are Americans willing to give this authoritarian such immense power because of their concern over the the temporary high price of groceries versus the Trump takeover of our democracy? Trump’s former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly calls him a fascist and unfit to serve. He is joined by a lengthy list of those who served during Trump’s Presidency.
Do not fail to read this landmark article in the October 24, 2024 Washington Post which tells perfectly why Trump is unfit for any office.
John F. Kelly, a retired Marine general who served as Trump’s White House chief of staff, said in a recent interview that Trump seeks unfettered power.
John Kelly, Donald Trump’s longest-serving White House chief of staff, said in a new interview that his former boss met the definition of a fascist, would govern like a dictator if elected again and did not understand the Constitution or the rule of law. https://t.co/lTXXAWlyd9
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) October 23, 2024
Many other Trump Presidency insiders share his view.
Former US Navy officer, banker and venture capitalist, Donald A. Collins, a free lance writer living in Washington, DC, has spent over 50 years working for women’s reproductive health as a board member and/or officer of numerous family planning organizations including Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Guttmacher Institute, Family Health International and Ipas. Yale under graduate, NYU MBA. He is the author of “From the Dissident Left: A Collection of Essays 2004-2013”, “Trump Becoming Macbeth: Will our democracy survive?”, “We Humans Overwhelm Our Earth: 11 or 2 Billion by 2100?”, “What Can Be Done Now to Save Habitable Life on Planet Earth?”, “Vote”, “Can Homo Sapiens Survive?”, “Will Choice and Democracy Win?”, “Can Our U.S. Survive 8 Plus Billion of Us”, “Economic Growth: A Cancer on all Earthly Life”, “On the Precipice of Political Disaster in 2024”, “Democracy at Red State Risk”, “Does Trump Go to Jail or to The Oval Office?” and “Trump: Pardon or Punish?: The Nixon Precedence Was Not A Trump Coup Denied!”.“What Can Be Done Now to Save Habitable Life on Planet Earth?”: https://t.co/fHuh0CG6JD
“We Humans Overwhelm Our Earth: 11 or 2 Billion by 2100?”: https://t.co/TA4j7cp1tE
“From the Dissident Left: A Collection of Essays 2004-2013”: https://t.co/lkC2t3E1A9 pic.twitter.com/bQsL2mLBcO— Church and State (@ChurchAndStateN) November 1, 2021
A look at Harris’ and Trump’s ideas to counter crime and gun violence
Trump Tells Parents Of School Shooting Victims We Need More Guns For Entertainment
Harris believes Trump is a ‘fascist’
Trump Is a Fascist Who Praised Hitler and Hitler’s Generals, John Kelly Says: A Closer Look
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