Catch-22: guns, violence and race in America

The progressives are ignoring two grave risks to Americans; domestic violence and Islamic terror. At the same time they want to make us more vulnerable by taking away our guns.

And who will be there to protect us? The police? Not likely, as President Barack Obama and his political allies in government are busy re-engineering American society, including eviscerating our police forces as was again made tragically evident on Sunday in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

In harm’s way are American citizens kept ignorant by the propagandists in the media who report ad nauseam on a perceived growing violence between police and African Americans, as millions of black people, in permanent poverty and living in the growing ghettos, are becoming enraged.

Americans could face a catch-22 over guns. Catch-22 is a circular contradiction best explained within the bestselling novel of the same name by Joseph Heller:

Yossarian looked at him soberly and tried another approach. ‘Is Orr crazy?’

‘He sure is,’ Doc Daneeka said.

‘Can you ground him?’

‘I sure can. But first he has to ask me to. That’s part of the rule.’

‘Then why doesn’t he ask you to?’

‘Because he’s crazy,’ Doc Daneeka said. ‘He has to be crazy to keep flying combat missions after all the close calls he’s had. Sure, I can ground Orr. But first he has to ask me to.’

‘That’s all he has to do to be grounded?’

‘That’s all. Let him ask me.’

‘And then you can ground him?’ Yossarian asked.

‘No. Then I can’t ground him.’

‘You mean there’s a catch?’

‘Sure there’s a catch,’ Doc Daneeka replied. Catch-22. Anyone who wants to get out of combat duty isn’t really crazy’

Don’t be surprised if there is a catch-22 for gun sales.

Of course the federal government will allow the sales of guns.

In fact it has to. It’s part of the rule.

But you will have to ask to buy a gun.

Asking to buy a gun shows criminal intent.

And guns can’t be sold to criminals.

It may be that you can only buy a gun as long as you don’t ask for one.

Catch-22.

Racism a black and white problem

Obama sees racism as a white face. He sees blacks as victims of white policies, perpetually put in their place as either servants or childlike in need of the nanny state.

It’s been evident since he first took office that Obama sees blacks as victims of white power. I was shocked by Obama’s speech at the memorial for the five slain police officers in Dallas on July 12.

As I first watched him address the grieving audience I was impressed and was thinking this is the best speech Obama has given. Then Obama’s ugly racism became painfully evident. The police officers murdered in Dallas were targeted because of their race. They are dead because they were protecting mainly black protestors, in some cases shielding blacks with their own bodies.

Even after this selfless heroism, Obama just couldn’t shut up about police brutality and spoke of the Alton Sterling and Philando Castile cases which both happened hundreds of miles away and to which the facts are not yet known. But that’s never stopped the president from forming his opinions, which too often reference the New Black Panther Party and Black Lives Matter.

But Obama wasn’t finished with his lecture on race:

We also know that centuries of racial discrimination, of slavery, and subjugation and Jim Crow; they didn’t simply vanish with the law against segregation… we know that bias remains. We know it, whether you are black, or white, or Hispanic, or Asian, or Native American, or of Middle Eastern descent, we have all seen this bigotry in our own lives at some point…

I’ve got news for the president; white people have felt it too. I did when I made a wrong turn while driving through East L.A. and made the mistake of stopping to use a washroom at a gas station. I saw the black stares of hatred and, in my case, I felt the hair on the back of my neck rise.

When I board an airplane I admit I look around and if men of Middle Eastern descent are boarding I have a reaction. Obama would say that makes me a racist. I say it is a part of the survival instinct that all humans have. How can anyone ignore the more than 400 people who have been blown up, shot or run over in Europe and the United States by Islamic Extremists in 2016?

With most prejudice there is always a kernel of truth behind it.

As the chart, based on a 2015 release by Obama’s Justice Department for 2012 through 2013, below shows that black offenders victimize whites 38 percent of the time.

During the same period whites victimized other whites 82 percent of the time and victimized blacks only 3.6 percent of the time. A statistician would say that blacks in general don’t have much to fear from whites. Whites mostly victimize other whites.

Even more interesting are the numbers compiled by The Washington Post for 2015. Using that data, social researcher Heather MacDonald found that 12 percent of white and Hispanic homicide deaths were due to police officers, while only four percent of black homicide deaths were the result of police officers.

Gunning for us

Obama’s other hobbyhorse is his outlandish claims about guns. At the Dallas police memorial Obama claimed that handguns are more readily available to teenagers than computers or books.

Charles C.W. Cooke, the editor of the National Review Online had had harsh words over Obama’s Dallas address:

It wasn’t a rally. It wasn’t a White House press conference. It wasn’t a public statement, hastily arranged on the airport tarmac. It was a funeral. Presumably, those attending had all sorts of political opinions. Presumably, some of the cops were Republicans. Presumably, there was some serious disagreement in that room as to how the country should move forward. Wouldn’t it have been better to wait until the proceedings were over to call for change?

One change that Americans don’t need in this divisive and dangerous world is restrictions on guns. I owned a 10mm Smith and Wesson, but at the time we had three small children. If someone broke into our home I would have had to ask the criminal to come back in five minutes because the gun was in the attic and the clip was beneath a floorboard. I decided my Remington 12 gauge pump shotgun was protection enough. Of course I had no protection when my wife and I went out at night except that I was young and had experience in the boxing ring.

But today I feel vulnerable because of my age and my health. If it were legal, I would buy a more practical handgun that had a good fit for my hand and have a concealed weapons permit. That is no longer an option now that I live in Canada, but I believe that lawful Americans not only have a Constitutional right to own a gun, but in many cases are prudent to purchase one.

But a handgun in itself is no panacea. Like any instrument it needs long hours of practice at the gun range.

I will leave you with this: the central character in Catch-22 is Capt. John Yossarian who was based on an old friend of mine, Frank Yohannan. His locker was next to mine for the 18 years I went to the Spokane Club.

I always wanted to ask Frank if he was somewhat like Heller’s Yossarian. But I wanted to believe if I asked him he would say, “I can tell you but only if you don’t ask.”

Read about my late friend and World War II hero in this 2001 The New York Times article.

Yours in good times and bad,

— John Myers

The post Catch-22: guns, violence and race in America appeared first on Personal Liberty®.