California Free Press

Off the Top of My Head

What If: Trump Had Asked Supporters to Bring Guns to Rally January 6?

by John Lawrence

Trump was a big supporter of the 2nd Amendment. Did we just dodge a bullet so to speak when he didn't encourage his followers to open carry at his January 6 rally? Most, if not all, Trump supporters are gun advocates. Things might have turned out very differently if they had had their guns with them when they invaded the Capitol. Thank God that for whatever reason most of the insurrectionists didn't have their guns with them although even without guns that many people bent on mayhem could have done a lot more damage, especially to human lives, than they actually did. As it ended, American democracy was still intact unlike the situation in Myanmar where they really know how to put on a coup. But let January 6 be a wake up call for Americans that want to preserve our time honored system and the rule of law.

Fast Company reported:

"Days before the chaos, according to The Washington Post, it became clear from discussions on far-right internet forums that mobs would transport guns with them to Washington D.C., which has some of the strictest gun laws in the country. That was correct: during and after the mayhem, arrests were made for weapons possession, and authorities recovered at least five handguns and long guns from the scene. ...

"Gun laws are relatively tight in the nation’s capital. Open carry is forbidden; concealed carry is only allowed with a permit from D.C., and not from any other state. Guns must be registered, and there’s an assault weapons ban in place. The Capitol itself is a gun-free zone. (Which is why, earlier this week, D.C.’s chief of police said he planned to inform Lauren Boebert, an incoming Colorado congresswoman who claimed she would be bringing her Glock to work, that she would face penalties if she did so.)

"Of course, the far-right mobs ignored those laws, and the Capitol’s metal detectors, by smashing the windows and climbing through. But, gun laws still matter, Brady says, certain that the damage would have been a lot worse had laws been looser. In May, disrupters in Michigan, an open-carry state, marched into the State Capitol to protest pandemic lockdowns, armed with semi-automatic rifles, which are typically rigged to fire rapidly. “If we had had that scene yesterday,” she says, “it would have been absolutely lethal.”'

So do we have to thank the fact that Washington DC has strict gun laws and open carry is forbidden, presumably even at Trump's rally, that America is still a democracy? Let that sink in. If American democracy is to fail, which it came so close to doing on January 6, it will probably be because of the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution and how it's been interpreted by the courts.

So the 2nd Amendment in and of itself could be the downfall of American democracy if we get another Trump like actual gun nut elected as President. Trump himself was only a gun nut in rhetoric only. I doubt if he ever killed a deer or a possum or a rabbit being a city kid from New York City. But some of these more rural southern politicians are not gun nuts in name only. They are the type who invaded the Michigan Capitol carrying firearms. If that was the rehearsal for the insurrection in DC, it was a rehearsal that didn't materialize in a better performance thanks to Washington's strict gun laws. Let that be a lesson to all of us.

Switzerland has a stunningly high rate of gun ownership. yet it has very few mass shootings or gun violence. Why? The Swiss have strict rules for who can get a gun, and take firearm training very seriously. Most Swiss men are required to learn how to use a gun. So it isn't like the US where any bird brained or mentally deranged wahoo can exercise his privilege to own a gun. The Swiss require gun owners to be trained and licensed just like we require drivers of automobiles to be in the US. Maybe we should take a page out of their book.

Off the Top of My Head

Maria Butina Wanted to Start a Chapter of the NRA in Russia

by John Lawrence, July 31, 2018

What's wrong with that? Russia is in the process of becoming more like America, and the NRA goes international. Isn't that what Americans want? More countries to emulate us and our institutions. So here's this woman Maria Butina who goes all through the American University in Washington, DC and gets a Master's degree in international studies. Then after all that we decide she's a spy and put her in jail. We should applaud her as being the first in her family to go to college or the first Russian to get a degree from an accredited US university. Where were the watchdogs when she was earning her degree?

A chapter of the NRA in Russia would only mean that more Russians would be killing each other with guns - just like us. She might even have advocated for Russia to amend their Constitution along the lines of our sacred Second Amendment giving every Russian the right to own as many guns of whatever type as they please. Certainly Americans would have applauded that. The media would be saying, "They're becoming just like us." It's well known that Russians want to be just like us. President Trump recognizes that, but he seems to be the only one. A lone voice crying out, not exactly from the wilderness, because his megaphone is much louder than yours or mine.

Anyway, here's this beautiful creature who by dint of hard work got her Master's degree at American University, bent on going home to Russia and working her magic to make the Russians more like us so that Russians could be as gun loving and gun wielding as us Americans. I think putting her in jail sends a bad message to other Russians who want to make the Russian system more like America. They all must be saying, "If this can happen to her, I don't want to earn a degree at an American university where I will be indoctrinated into the American way of life only to wind up in jail. If a get a rich Russian to sponsor me, they will say he was my "handler," taking orders from the Kremlin."

Sadly, the murder by gun count in Russia will not be going up because the NRA did not take Maria Butina's advice and start a chapter in Russia. That leaves the US in the enviable position of being the world's leader when it comes to gun violence, and Maria Butina will get a real taste of what American life is like - in jail!

 

Off the Top of My Head

Flame Haired Russian Spy Forgot to Register with Attorney General

by John Lawrence

Maria Butina has been accused of being a Russian spy. She seemed to fit right in. She was enthusiastic about joining the National Rifle Association. She was a student at and graduated from American University in Washington, DC. She earned a Master's degree in International Relations.She was no communist trying to overthrow the American government. On the contrary she became part of the mainstream of America - a gun toting, college graduating femme fatale. She cozied up to Republican noteworthies like Republican political operative, Paul Erickson, who appeared to be her unwitting dupe. She even had him do her homework and answer exam questions. How American is that!

She was accused of being a spy acting without authorization of the Attorney General. Well, I guess it's OK being a Russian spy as long as you register with the AG. The NRA hasn't commented on Butina since she was arrested. But they love Russia.

According to Rolling Stone:

The NRA contributed $30 million to help elect Donald Trump in 2016. The FBI has been investigating whether some or all of that cash may have been supplied by Russia. Rolling Stone reported in April that the Russian central banker Alexander Torshin, along with Butina, had deeper ties to the NRA than previously known. The NRA even flew a delegation to Moscow in 2015 to meet with Kremlin officials, including one freshly sanctioned by the Obama administration

Maybe it was Russian oligarch money that helped Trump get elected? But the First Amendment (according to the Supreme Court) lets any corporation give as much money to any candidate it wants to. By the same token does it also apply to citizens from another country who also supposedly are free to speak out in the US? If an American posts "Crooked Hillary ate my lunch" on Facebook, that's OK, but if a Russian did it, that's sabotage and espionage. Is that what this is all about?

Maria Butina even had her own group - The Right to Bear Arms - sort of a support group for the NRA, I guess. Her group even paid for Milwaukee Country Sheriff, David Clarke, to fly to Moscow. As they say, the details continue to trickle out. One might ask the question: was Russia trying to subvert the NRA or was the NRA trying to subvert Russia? Of course with the US and Russia involved, someone was obviously trying to subvert someone. It could not have just been a neighborly visit between gun loving Russians and gun loving Americans to talk about all that they had in common. Who knows? Gun diplomacy may have been given a new meaning.

5 REASONS THE NRA IS WRONG

 by Robert Reich

Saturday, April 7, 2018

The next time you hear someone repeating pro-gun NRA propaganda, respond with these five points: 

1. Gun laws save lives. Consider the federal assault weapons ban. After it became law in 1994, gun massacres – defined as instances of gun violence in which six or more people were shot and killed – fell by 37 percent. The number of people dying from mass shootings fell by 43 percent. But when Republicans in Congress let the ban lapse in 2004, gun massacres more than doubled.

2. The Second Amendment was never intended to permit mass slaughter. When the Constitution was written more than 200 years ago, the framers’ goal was permit a “well-regulated militia,” not to enable Americans to terrorize their communities. 

3. More guns have not, and will not, make us safer. More than 30 studies show that guns are linked to an increased risk for violence and homicide. In 1996, Australia initiated a mandatory buyback program to reduce `the number of guns in private ownership. Their firearm homicide rate fell 42 percent in the seven years that followed.

4. The vast majority of Americans want stronger gun safety laws. According to Gallup, 96 percent of Americans support universal background checks, 75 percent support a 30-day waiting period for all gun sales, and 70 percent favor requiring all privately owned guns to be registered with the police. Even the vast majority of gun owners are in favor of common-sense gun safety laws.

5. The National Rifle Association is a special interest group with a stranglehold on the Republican Party. In 2016, the group spent a record $55 million on elections. Their real goal is to protect a few big gun manufacturers who want to enlarge their profits.

America is better than the NRA. America is the young people from Parkland, Florida, who are telling legislators to act like adults. It’s time all of us listen.