A CALL TO ACTION

A call to YOU, a cry for help, an appeal to that which is Right and Good and Beautiful within you and within us all.

    We come together in families, in tribes, in communities, as nations and create governments endowing them with power for one primary reason.  We as a species have come together since the dawn of Mankind for this one fundamental purpose, for OUR SAFETY and SECURITY.

    Above all else we demand that our governments provide us with safe and secure environments.   When our government fails in that responsibility, as it has in the case of rampant gun violence, we must come together and force our government to be responsible.  When you look in your heart, when you feel in your heart, is it not clear that we must take action now?   Will you turn your face away from and harden your heart toward the grieving families of those twenty beautiful, innocent and needlessly dead children?  

    With a heavy heart, a tired soul and now dry eyes I ask you to join me in this struggle for our safety.  I need your help, children all across our nation need your help.  Will you act?  I mean real political action, not just making a donation or writing a letter to the editor but helping to organize like minded people.   Only by organizing like minded people can we mobilize a force strong enough to demand the real change needed to give us the safety that is our right.

 Here is a peek at what we are up against.

  "For gun rights groups, 2012 was the most active election cycle since 2000. They contributed a total of $3 million to candidates.  By contrast, gun control groups contributed less in this election cycle than in any cycle as far back as OpenSecrets has data (1990) -- again, through mid-October. After campaign spending peaked in 2000 with $581,000, politicians only saw $4,000 from gun control groups this year."  From: http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2012/12/gun-control.html

    The above dollars are really only a small fraction of what has and what will be spent by our opposition.  The most public group, our main opposition is the NRA.  They are a formidable force with an impressive record of lobbying victories.  While we on the other hand are currently lacking any group enabled to lobby on our behalf.  A clearer case of David vs Goliath would be hard to find.  We however have a tangible advantage,  we stand on the moral high ground.  Our cause is just, our position advocating for the safety of our children is unassailable.   In this just cause we stand bathed in the light of that which is right and good and beautiful.

    The following gun control measures are the absolute minimum that our government must enact to fulfill the compact that demands our children be protected.

1. All gun purchases must be preceded by a comprehensive background check.  All means all, if Bob wants to sell his neighbor Mary a single shot .410 for Grouse hunting Mary will have to have a background check.
2. All gun owners must be licensed.
3. All guns currently in private ownership must be registered within 1 year.  For those unwilling or unable to become licensed there will be an amnesty for anyone turning in guns within that 1 year period.  The government will provide tax deductions equal to the fair market value of the guns turned in.
4. Anyone convicted of a violent crime shall forfeit their right to own a gun.
5. A two tier licensing system must be established.   With much stricter requirements for semi-automatic guns.  
6. Ammunition clips must hold no more than 6 rounds.   (If the minimum is 10 it would be easy to tape two clips together so that 20 rounds would be immediately available for a mass murdering mad man.)
7. The penalties for illegal gun sales and purchases must be severe enough to provide a real deterrent.  
8. Penalties for those gun owners who are found to be negligent in safely securing their guns must be severe enough for real deterrence.

    When the NRA and other 2nd Amendment gun rights groups see our 8 point plan they will scream about their rights being violated.   I say to them, are you insane?  How can anyone with heart to feel and a mind to think say that your right to own a gun comes before the right if this child to live?
    To drive this point regarding rights home I must point at Habeas Corpus.   Since our Nation put security before our civil rights with the first passage of the Patriot Act the defense of the 2nd Amendment as sacred has been shown to have a foul stench.  Even today we as a Nation have, by default if not consciously, sacrificed our right of Habeas Corpus for real if not imagined security.
 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/19/us/politics/congressional-committee-is-said-to-drop-ban-on-indefinite-detention-of-citizens.html?_r=0

    For our cause to succeed we must harness all the help  we can.  Our greatest allies can and should be religious leaders throughout our Nation.  We must ask them to help us in this just cause.  If we fail to act history shall judge us.  Just as slavery has left a stain upon our Nations soul so too will our collective soul be stained if we good people refuse to stand for what is self evidently morally right. 

For those of you who know me you know that I am a liberal who un-apologetically supports the strictest interpretation of the 2nd Amendment.  The above call to action is what I would be working for if I did not support the 2nd Amendment as I do.  That said I would respect and honor anyone fighting for the just cause as described above.

J. K1  Cash