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Colonel Mustard and the Candlestick?

Oct 7, 2015 — by: Dennis Linthicum
Categories: Culture, Regulations, Politics

Notorious crime and violence are typically experienced in the midst of war. We are accustomed to seeing images of it in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Syria. Many Americans dealt with it in Vietnam, and Korea and our parents experienced it first-hand during World War II.

Additionally, far too many Americans living in our inner city neighborhoods experience the senseless violence and murder of their children. Shockingly, this can also happen in small, rural communities in the Pacific Northwest.

In Roseburg, Oregon last week, a killer accomplished horrendous evil at Umpqua Community College. The nine victims who died in the massacre ranged in age from 18 to 67, crossing five different generations of friends, family members and loved ones.

The father, Ian Mercer, from California, said that he was unaware his son had firearms,”I had no idea he had any guns. I have no idea that he had any guns whatsoever.” Mercer also said, “And I’m a great believer – you don’t buy guns, don’t buy guns, you don’t buy guns.”

His son, the killer, was not listening.

Worse, this is nothing more than an  attempt to transfer the blame from his son to the firearm. President Obama, always being hungry for warped rhetoric, latched onto that idea like a pigeon gobbling French fries off the sidewalk.

His media hacks and their political allies are focused on the killer’s parental claims that guns are the problem.

This claim is patently absurd.

I’ve owned and used firearms for 50 years and they have yet to kill anyone. The police, sheriff or district attorney would never attempt to lay blame on the weapon. They rightly lay blame on the moral agent, the human being. Their investigation attempts to determine the facts by answering basic questions –  “Who, What, When, Where, Why and How.”

The “Who” question is the most important.

Think about the simple board game “Clue.” Even though we may know it happened in the Billiard Room, with a candlestick, last Wednesday night, and we might have what appears to be a murder, there is no room for indicting the candlestick. The candlestick didn’t do it; it is not “responsible.” If our investigation can’t determine between Colonel Mustard, Mrs. Peacock or Miss Scarlet, then we are stuck. There will never be a criminal indictment without a responsible party.

Guns are not responsible for violence any more than the candlestick. President Obama and his mouthpieces in the media rush to the microphones after a tragedy and repeatedly claim that “We need tougher, better, more stringent gun laws.”  They are simply seeking to use a “crisis” to enact unconstitutional  gun ownership restrictions on law abiding, American citizens.

This is another government intrusion on individual liberty and personal responsibility.

Should federal bureaucrats be your family’s guardians?

There was a time when parents bore the responsibility for seeing that children were well-educated, inculcated with Judeo-Christian values and able to provide for themselves in society. Well-governed families produced well-ordered societies. Thus, the family was, and should be, the guardian of our society’s character and culture.

Parental responsibility included the proper use of firearms and other weapons of self-defense. Chris Kyle and Alvin York were taught firearm usage by their parents. In fact, many of you, who grew up in small rural towns like Roseburg, probably remember that your parents didn’t give a second thought to you going to school with your rifle still inside your rig – on school property no less!

More importantly, parents were responsible for moral training. These timeless values are best taught by parents because they are the stewards who have ultimate responsibility for establishing the next generation. This is the only means for developing individuals capable of decision-making as moral agents in response to the “Who” question, above.

Army Veteran, Chris Mintz, had the moral courage to stand up to the killer. Eyewitnesses report that he told the killer, “You’re not getting past me!”

Undoubtedly, if Chris Mintz, who was shot 7 times, or someone else in the classroom had been armed there would have been less carnage.

“Peace through Strength” was President Reagan’s famous line concerning world conflicts and it also applies to our daily lives.  We know that having a “victim” mentality is unhealthy.

Being unarmed in a gunfight is victim hood!

Suggestions for getting involved.

Get trained – More information about firearms training for yourself, your family and your children.

Get Involved – Friday, Oct. 9th, 9:00 AM, near the Roseburg Airport. Check the Link for details.
Travel to Roseburg, Oregon and stand with local citizens as they reject Obama’s blatant disregard for families in mourning in order to promote his gun-grabbing agenda.

Listen – An interview with Roseburg Beacon Editor.

5 Comments

  1. I do hope that the Lefties in charge don’t awaken long enough to read the FBI stats and find out that more people meet a violent end of life each year by hammer, fist and foot than by rifle! We’d probably be literally disarmed if they did; with hammers no less. Yet if they found out how many lives and futures were diminished, ruined, shortened and lost through misguidedly passionate overstepping domestic totalitarian governance they might move to ban themselves. Actually I don’t think they actually think enough about that to even give self implication or personal responsibility a thought. As usual (with respect to firearms etc. etc.) they will probably just go ahead as usual and act in accordance with the Curse of the Garden of Eden. That’s where humankind ended up with opinion, or that dangerous mix of knowledge replete of godly wisdom. Now, good is so easily confused with evil that the faux enlightened can take action on their false conclusions, prejudices and biases without shame, balance or care. I am sure our enemies are chuckling about how we are locking up and setting our natural resources aside for them, bringing in a controllable labor force to harvest it all, while we work so hard to dope, demoralize, immoralize and disarm ourselves. Finnious

  2. So what happens after guns are banned? Well like in the not so jolly ole UK they decided that they needed to start banning pointy things: “Knives, offensive weapons and the law: A number of different rules apply to knives and offensive weapons and it may not always be immediately obvious what is legal and what isn’t. What’s legal and what’s not? • it is illegal for anyone, including a shop, to sell a knife of any kind (including cutlery and kitchen knives) to anyone under the age of 18 • it is illegal to carry a knife in public without good reason or lawful authority, for example, a chef carrying their own knives to and from work • it is legal to carry a pocket knife such as a Swiss Army knife (where the blade folds into the handle), as long as the blade is shorter then three inches (7.62cm) • it is illegal to threaten anyone with any knife or other object • the maximum penalty for carrying a knife illegally is four years in prison and an unlimited fine Offensive weapons: It is an offence to carry an offensive weapon in a public place if you don’t have a valid reason to do so. An offensive weapon is any article that is designed to cause injury to another person or any article being carried with the intention of causing injury to another person. This means that carrying something that could be viewed as an offensive weapon, and then using it in a threatening way, could mean that you are prosecuted. The maximum penalty for carrying an offensive weapon is four years imprisonment and a fine. Banned knives and offensive weapons There is a complete ban on the sale of certain types of knives categorised as offensive weapons, regardless of their use. These include: • flick knives – where the blade is hidden inside the handle and shoots out when a button is pressed – these are also called switchblades or automatic knives • butterfly knives – where the blade is hidden inside a handle that splits in two around it, like wings or the handles swing around the blade to open or close it • disguised knives – where the blade is hidden inside something, like a belt buckle or fake mobile phone • push daggers • gravity knives • ‘airport’ or stealth knives • sword-sticks • samurai swords • knuckle-dusters • hand-claws • foot-claws • blowpipes or guns • kubotan (cylindrical container holding spikes) • shuriken (also known as death stars or throwing stars) • telescopic truncheons (automatically extending) • kusari-gama (sickle attached to a rope, cord or wire) • kyoketsu shoge (hook-knife attached to a rope, cord or wire) • kusari (weight attached to a rope, cord or wire) • straight, side handled or friction-lock truncheons Police ‘stop and search’ powers Police officers have the right to stop and search any person or vehicle if they suspect an offence. This includes illegally carrying a knife or offensive weapon.” Looks like they, like us, may have a more of a human nature problem than a weapon problem. In the end will they ban rocks and sticks? If they stay their current course they will have to. That is unless they stop banning any mention of the hated guy who advocates grace in action, AKA turning the other cheek. Finnious

  3. It turns out that Umpqua college isn’t a gun-free zone. There was a CHL holder present, John Parker. But he was in a classroom and didn’t know about the murderer until SWAT was onsite. He didn’t want to leave the classroom because he was worried that SWAT would kill him. He also says that the other people in class asked him if he would protect them, and he stepped up. People in the media seem to be focusing on how he wasn’t able to stop the murderer, ergo having people with guns won’t stop killers. But John’s worry about being shot by the police is legitimate, and he wasn’t really in a position to do anything more than he did. John Parker protected the people in his classroom, which is a benefit that should be extended to everyone. I wonder how much circulation his interview will get: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bK-Ht57AdBA%3Cbr%20/%3E -NC

  4. The first issue is that there are humans among us that do not cherish life as the majority of us do. The shooter at Umpqua and the theater shooting were very similar. Both struggled with what could be called a lack of normality as well as being insane or at a minimum social interaction problems. The second issue is that our government, yes our government whether it be federal or state, has removed a parents rights over their children beginning at the age of 15. How can a parent successfully get a child the mental health they need if they are kept out of the loop of mental health? This is another act by the government to remove parental rights. At that young age, a child can go to the doctor and have an IUD inserted without parental consent yet they cannot sign themselves out of high school without an adult. This must be changed, parental rights should be first and foremost. It is not impossible to make a weapon. The thought began at the beginning of our animal and human existence with the understanding of the use of a stick. Sticks were used to dig with, hit with, make a spear and then to kill. Fire followed the stick; fire was used in a good way to not only cook food but surround food in order to harvest the animals. It is the human who wields the weapon who holds life and death in their hands. Today in a newspaper a teacher wrote a comment that it was not her duty after years of education and studying to carry a weapon in school. Our understanding is that in 1974 Israel armed all their teachers, male and female, and they have not had a single school shooting since then. A teacher being armed could be the difference between life and death, their life and death.

  5. I remember having our shotguns in with our duck decoys and waders in the trunk of our car in the high school parking lot so we could catch a quick duck hunt after school.This was in California no less. A friend from up state New York used to walk to school with his shotgun a leave it in the Principal’s office to use it to hunt rabbits on his way home. I totally agree it is the person ;not the firearm that is the problem when murders are committed as these aforementioned guns never came forth from their assigned places to attack anyone.

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