more ON THE STREETS IN SAN DIEGO
THE NRA , MITCH McCONNELL, AND THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

Holding firm in their commitment to gun ownership for everybody... we’re talking any kind of gun here... Washington’s powerful gun lobby the NRA has come out strongly against the nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court. The organization’s published statement: “Kagan has repeatedly demonstrated a clear hostility to the fundamental, individual right to keep and bear arms...” As expected, the Senate’s Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, sang a duet with the NRA that began with the usual “The American people expect...” Thank goodness they are not likely to prevail against the majority in the Senate, and Kagan’s nomination will likely be approved... and the NRA and McConnell know it. In order to assure the continued flow of money into their campaigns, most Republican congressional leaders will vote the NRA’s way, but they will lose this round.

Mitch McConnell does not speak for me. I hope he does not speak for the majority of Americans, the sensible, well-informed Americans who are dismayed by the rising level of domestic violence and the patent absurdity of thinking and saying it is a good idea for people to be able to own and carry handguns, assault rifles, and other highly dangerous weapons.

Guns are big business. The American gun trade supports and perpetuates domestic and international criminal activity. McConnell and most of his fellow Republican colleagues refuse to acknowledge that the drug wars in Mexico and the rest of Central American have any connection at all to the thriving gun trade on our side of the border. Their solution is to stop the flow of “illegals” crossing from Mexico into the United States. They continue to say that “most” of the illegals crossing the border are criminals who have something to do with the drug trade. They seem not to notice that most of the people picking lettuce and strawberries on American farms, especially in California, are darker skinned people who are not criminals. They see what they want to see and ignore what they don’t want to see. They ignore the plain fact that the majority of guns used in Mexico to commit crimes on their side and on our side of the border are guns that originate in the United States. When Elena Kagan or anyone in the Obama administration says guns are a factor in criminal activity here and abroad, McConnell and his cadre of Republican senators cry foul. They want control and regulation where they want control and regulation. They say it’s not O.K. to regulate the gun trade that accounts for great harm done to citizens of this and other countries, but when the subject is abortion it is O.K. to regulate and limit a woman’s control over her own body. Where is the sense?

McConnell does not speak for me when he says “the American people expect...” As today’s and yesterday’s BLOG indicate, I spend a good deal of time pointing and shooting a camera on the streets of my city. I seriously doubt that very many of the people out there with me on the streets are gun owners. I don’t personally know anyone who owns an assault rifle. I read in the local paper last week that an old guy dubbed the “geezer bank robber” by the press, displayed a handgun at a bank teller’s window and demanded money. He got away. He is the only person in my age category whom I have heard about who actually has a use for a gun. Mitch McConnell may speak for him, but not for me.