{"id":3019,"date":"2016-04-01T21:25:36","date_gmt":"2016-04-02T04:25:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/?p=3019"},"modified":"2016-05-01T17:44:27","modified_gmt":"2016-05-02T00:44:27","slug":"donald-trump-on-guns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/?p=3019","title":{"rendered":"Donald Trump on Guns"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Trump-3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

(A version of this column appears in the May 10 edition of “Firearms News,” formerly “Shotgun News,” on newsstands this week.)<\/em><\/p>\n

I dare say Donald Trump has flaws that may come back to haunt him -\u2013 or us. But there\u2019s no mistaking the appeal of his straight-from-the-hip talk.<\/p>\n

On health care, he says he\u2019s \u201cevolved\u201d and no longer favors single-payer socialized medicine, which has been a disaster in England and Canada (see this)<\/a> and which eventually has to lead to rationing and appalling degeneration on the Soviet model (check here.)<\/a><\/p>\n

Mr. Trump now says he wants something more like a free market in health insurance, without state-by-state monopolies, so companies could bid and sell across state lines. Fine with me, especially if they\u2019d also get rid of a lot of the Politically Correct \u201cmandated coverages\u201d that drive premiums sky-high. (I think most Americans still consider sex change operations \u201celective.\u201d)<\/p>\n

And while I still worry that Trump might turn out to be a protectionist on trade (the Smoot-Hawley Tariff helped create the worldwide Great Depression, after all), you couldn\u2019t get much simpler than his stance on immigration: \u201cA nation without borders is not a nation. There must be a wall across the southern border,\u201d and \u201cA nation without laws is not a nation. Laws passed in accordance with our Constitutional system of government must be enforced.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMexico . . . relies heavily on the billions of dollars in remittances sent from illegal immigrants in the United States back to Mexico ($22 billion in 2013 alone),\u201d Mr. Trump continues, at his official web site. \u201cThe Mexican government has taken the United States to the cleaners. . . . The cost of building a permanent border wall pales mightily in comparison to what American taxpayers spend every single year on dealing with the fallout of illegal immigration on their communities, schools and unemployment offices. Mexico must pay for the wall and, until they do, the United States will, among other things: impound all remittance payments derived from illegal wages.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump favors the mandatory return of all criminal aliens (a good start), complaining \u201cThe Obama Administration has released 76,000 aliens from its custody with criminal convictions since 2013 alone.\u201d Furthermore, \u201cIllegal aliens apprehended crossing the border must be detained until they are sent home, no more catch-and-release.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"pic_ir_invasion5\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Most significantly, Trump wants to end birthright citizenship, a position which the American populace supports, two-to-one. And no, we shouldn\u2019t need a constitutional amendment. The folks who wrote the 14th Amendment wanted birthright citizenship for the children of slaves, not the children of illegal immigrants, who have never properly placed themselves \u201cunder the jurisdiction\u201d of the United States. <\/p>\n

The Same Old War on Drugs<\/strong><\/p>\n

Big problems remain. I doubt Mr. Trump would shrink government overall — a correction so far past due it’s almost too late. He sure doesn’t sound like he wants Washington to stop treating most of the land area of the Western states like one big Petrie dish, a big mold culture in the EPA’s experiment to force humans off the land and into supervised urban rat warrens.<\/p>\n

But my biggest problem with The Donald — not that he\u2019s unique in this — is that he still insists current prison sentences for \u201cdrug dealers\u201d amount to their being \u201cgiven a slap on the wrist and turned loose on the street,\u201d which, he says, \u201cneeds to stop.\u201d
\nReally?<\/p>\n

Yes, I understand the appeal of the \u201cno-nonsense outsider\u201d talking like a tough guy. It\u2019s pretty entertaining to watch the panic of the established political class as all their trained mumblers with their memorized sound-bites stand there with jaws agape, wondering what hit \u2019em.<\/p>\n

But the fact is, we\u2019ve got two million people in prison in this country \u2013 the highest incarceration rate in the world (OK, except for the tiny Seychelle Islands, which locked up 735 people out of a population of 90,000 in 2014.) And at least half those people \u2013 more than a million \u2013 are serving time for drugs. That means a million Americans who\u2019ve never raped or robbed or shot anybody are serving horrendous, barbaric prison sentences of scores or even hundreds of years for nothing more than possessing or growing or transporting plant derivatives that are far less harmful to their users (or to society as a whole) than alcohol \u2013 now advertised on TV in wide-mouth 12-packs.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve got people in prison essentially for life for growing or manufacturing or selling non-addictive plants or chemicals to willing consumers who want to temporarily alter their state of consciousness, something that mankind — including sincere religious teachers — has been doing for tens of thousands of years. That\u2019s nuts.<\/p>\n

American prisons have become a growth industry, and we\u2019re close to becoming a police state, complete with tax-paid spies and snitches. Our cops are now armed and equipped like para-military forces, busting down doors in the middle of the night with impunity, never paying a penny or spending a day in jail even when they pick the wrong house and murder innocent, law-abiding Americans in their beds (or, for that matter, when they murder \u201cguilty\u201d unarmed young Americans kneeling in front of their toilets trying to flush away a pitiful ounce of pot. For this they deserve to die?)<\/p>\n

\"swat\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Why? Our cities have become frightening war zones all because of this fruitless, counterproductive, vastly expensive \u201cwar on drugs.\u201d Cancer victims lie writhing in under-medicated pain because doctors are afraid of having their licenses pulled for prescribing \u201ctoo many\u201d pain relievers, and meanwhile a whole criminal subculture has been created, breaking into our homes and cars and stealing our stuff to feed habits that would only cost pocket change if we went back to the pre-1916 status quo, when all this stuff was perfectly legal.<\/p>\n

And on top of it all, no one can find anywhere in our federal or in any state Constitution where any government in America is delegated the specific power to ban or restrict what plant extracts we choose to use in the privacy of our homes.<\/p>\n

Mr. Trump also joins with the NRA in demanding we \u201cenforce all the gun laws on the books.\u201d Well pardon me, but most of the gun laws \u201cnow on the books\u201d are unconstitutional. Any honest court would throw \u2019em all out.<\/p>\n

But having said all that, listening to Donald Trump on gun control can certainly be refreshing.<\/p>\n

Straight Talk on Guns<\/strong><\/p>\n

At his official web site, https:\/\/www.donaldjtrump.com\/positions\/second-amendment-rights , we\u2019re told: \u201cThe Second Amendment to our Constitution is clear. The right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed upon. Period. . . . The Constitution doesn\u2019t create that right — it ensures that the government can\u2019t take it away. Our Founding Fathers knew, and our Supreme Court has upheld, that the Second Amendment\u2019s purpose is to guarantee our right to defend ourselves and our families. This is about self-defense, plain and simple.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Actually, the Second Amendment speaks of a militia being necessary for \u201cthe security of a free state.\u201d So yes, the Founders certainly did mean the Confederate militias had to remain armed so they could \u201cdefend themselves\u201d against any northern invasion. If you include that kind of \u201cself-defense,\u201d I\u2019m with you. And of course that\u2019s the great irony of a character like Barack Obama — who actually claims to have been a professor of Constitutional Law — arguing that Americans have no right to own \u201cmilitary-style weapons.\u201d)<\/p>\n

\u201cHere\u2019s another important way to fight crime,\u201d The Donald continues: \u201cempower law-abiding gun owners to defend themselves. Law enforcement is great, they do a tremendous job, but they can\u2019t be everywhere all of the time. Our personal protection is ultimately up to us. That\u2019s why I\u2019m a gun owner, that\u2019s why I have a concealed carry permit, and that\u2019s why tens of millions of Americans have concealed carry permits as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

A little hard to imagine Hillary Clinton talking like that, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

Gun and magazine bans? They\u2019re \u201ca total failure,\u201d sayeth Mr. Trump. \u201cThat\u2019s been proven every time it\u2019s been tried. Opponents of gun rights try to come up with scary sounding phrases like \u2018assault weapons\u2019, \u2018military-style weapons\u2019 and \u2018high capacity magazines\u2019 to confuse people. What they\u2019re really talking about are popular semi-automatic rifles and standard magazines that are owned by tens of millions of Americans. Law-abiding people should be allowed to own the firearm of their choice. The government has no business dictating what types of firearms good, honest people are allowed to own.\u201d<\/p>\n

I agree. I only hope he really means it.<\/p>\n

The right to carry? \u201cThe right of self-defense doesn\u2019t stop at the end of your driveway,\u201d sayeth Mr. Trump. \u201cThat\u2019s why I have a concealed carry permit and why tens of millions of Americans do too. That permit should be valid in all 50 states. A driver\u2019s license works in every state, so it\u2019s common sense that a concealed carry permit should work in every state. . . .<\/p>\n

Military bases and recruiting centers? \u201cBanning our military from carrying firearms on bases and at recruiting centers is ridiculous. We train our military how to safely and responsibly use firearms, but our current policies leave them defenseless. To make America great again, we need a strong military. To have a strong military, we need to allow them to defend themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which was the status quo till the Clintons first took office, of course. One of the first priorities of Mrs. President Clinton and the First Gentleman, back in 1993 \u2013 right up there with burning the Branch Davidian women and children — was disarming members of the Armed Forces on our military bases and at our recruiting stations.<\/p>\n

Once upon a time, American elections were about straight talk. Is it possible they could be, again?<\/p>\n

Vin Suprynowicz, author of \u201cSend in the Waco Killers,\u201d was for 20 years an award-winning editorial writer at the daily Las Vegas Review-Journal. His latest novels about the War on Drugs are \u201cThe Testament of James\u201d and \u201cThe Miskatonic Manuscript,\u201d available online.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"th\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(A version of this column appears in the May 10 edition of “Firearms News,” formerly “Shotgun News,” on newsstands this week.) I dare say Donald Trump has flaws that may come back to haunt him -\u2013 or us. But there\u2019s no mistaking the appeal of his straight-from-the-hip talk. On health care, he says he\u2019s \u201cevolved\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[63,8,13,5,15,51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2016-election","category-2nd-amendment","category-drug-war","category-elections","category-immigration","category-self-defense"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pWqFl-MH","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3019"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3019\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3086,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3019\/revisions\/3086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}