Libertarians Should Embrace Responsibility & Accountability

Last week I received a form letter from the leader (actually EVP) of a well known libertarian think tank inviting me to join/subscribe/donate to its cause.  I suspect I received the invite for the following reasons, which are:

1. I am a super voter,
2. Middle-aged, and
3. That I have no party affiliation following my departure from the GOP more than five years ago.

Upon initially reading the invite something bothered me about it, which led me to peruse the invitation and analyze its contents.  I shared my takeaways from my analysis with the leader of this think tank using a lot of his own words in a letter that I sent him last week.  I provide the contents of my letter below.  In this letter I describe my beliefs pertaining to freedom and responsibility, a subject that I said I would write about years ago. I hope you find what I write informative and more importantly, helpful.

Dear EVP:

I received your letter earlier this week asking that I join your think tank (TT). You seek funds for a “more prosperous, free and peaceful future” to achieve the goal of “a better and freer” society. Sounds wonderful, but I believe you fail to:

1. Fully acknowledge, 
2. Accurately disclose, and 
3. Subsequently lead with the most critical element in achieving these goals, individual responsibility and accountability. 

I agree with you when you state that, “our lives would be freer, more prosperous, and more satisfying” when the “exercise of power, not the exercise of freedom…requires justification.” You write “free,” “freer,” and “freedom” approximately 45 times (45x), yet only write “responsibility” three times (3x).  Should it not at least be one-to-one (1:1) and most likely more heavily slanted towards personal responsibility? You even promote your book a third more than “responsibility”, mentioning it four times (4x). Sadly, you do not mention “accountability” of one’s actions once (0x).

As a fellow Vanderbilt University alumnus, I am extremely disappointed in your arguments; you can and should do better if you truly seek to promote liberty. Your lack of appreciation and need for individual responsibility and accountability paints you as hypocrite, which I point out further below. Additionally, your letter preys on our sensibilities and smacks as an opportunistic way to raise funds to pad TT coffers and possibly fund your retirement.

You allude to individual responsibility when you mention the “essence of libertarianism,” but you fail to drive home the importance that all people must act responsibly to protect “the rights and dignity of the individual” those rights being “life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.”  You do not even list responsibility as a  “key concept of libertarianism;” its simply embedded in the “rights…of the individual.”

I think you struggle with the concept of right versus wrong and accountability as you derisively use the word, “moral”, when you state, “moral agenda” and “moral codes.” I think I may know why based on how and what you state and if I am right, I regret you have experienced that pain.  I encourage you to have the strength and fortitude to move past that pain and embrace the concept of a strong moral compass (including “spreading equal rights for women, gay people and minorities”) to act as one’s guide.  As you may know, Marcus Tullius Cicero, a well known Roman statesman and philosopher, created the basis of the word “moral” that we use today when he translated works of the great Greek philosophers to help his fellow Roman understand the difference between right and wrong.  You are in a way a philosopher.  Whether you acknowledge it our not, you seek to change our understanding of what it means to be morally right so people have more freedoms and I respect that.

You attribute the loss of freedoms to both conservatives and liberals “endorsing restrictions,” yet does TT research to find what causes led to this effect?  I argue no because you state that TT, “principally focus[es] on analyzing the domestic and international policies of the federal government” as to whether “those policies extend or limit liberty.”

I contend we have increasingly lost our freedoms to increasingly more restrictions over the past 230 plus years because people failed to act responsibly so our elected officials enacted laws to either enforce that responsibility at the behest of the electorate or opportunistically for their benefit.  Some times they got it right, most times they got it wrong because they are human and they may not fully appreciate what is right and wrong as well. Consequently, I encourage TT to focus more on the causes to ultimately improve the effects of legislation (i.e. extend liberty).

As anecdotal evidence, please allow me to describe a loss of freedom that not only my family experienced, but also many other families with school age children in Florida experienced. I can no longer walk my daughter to her classroom through a gate in the fence surrounding the elementary school she attends.  Instead, we must walk further to pass by a policeman prominently displaying a gun to go through the main building (adding insult to injury, the salaries for the additional security are being funded in part from cuts in Humanities).  Additionally, all the classrooms are locked; we have to knock before entering.  You should:

1. Think to yourself that this harks of prison and
2. Concerned that she, I, and other families have lost freedoms. 

Sadly, our loss in freedom pales in comparison to the loss in lives that led to this loss in freedom, which I hope further upsets you, but more importantly, emboldens you to take action.

We lost our freedoms because our elected officials chose to enact a law requiring heightened security at schools following the loss of 19 lives at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School at the hands of a young mentally disturbed man wielding a firearm he legally obtained in Florida because the State and Federal laws are lax as a result of heavy lobbying by the gun industry as evidenced by its actions of pimping out one sentence of our Constitution to sell more weaponry to increase the industry’s coffers with which to pay executives (a sentence crafted with my favorite author in mind).

I just described many causes and many effects, but what is the root cause? The root cause is a lack of personal responsibility on many peoples’ part, but who are these people?  The people that acted irresponsibly are the:

1. Executives within the gun industry 
• (Promoting gun ownership with nary a word on safety and 
• Seeking to influence our government for their benefit and to our collective demise),
2. People purchasing the guns 
• (Failing to either respect the inherent dangers of owning a gun and or 
• Ensuring other gun owners have that same respect), and
3. Elected representatives 
• (That enacted laws and or 
• Did not enact laws that ultimately benefited their donors and themselves). 

Yet, did the school age children and their parents acted irresponsibly? No! Therefore, who should be held accountable for the loss in lives and freedoms, the

• People that acted irresponsibly or 
• The group of people who experienced losses in lives and freedoms?

The people that acted irresponsibly should be held accountable, yet you do not seem to believe that nor do our elected officials (& some gun owners).

You seem to believe the killing of school age children, my loss of freedom, those of my child, and all the other school age families is acceptable based on what you write.  You, who touts individual rights and personal freedoms, believe that, “politicians and political majorities shouldn’t be arbiters of what can be sold,” which implies that it is okay to promote more guns without requiring responsibility from either the seller or buyer.  Please keep in mind I swore an oath to protect our Constitution when I served our nation as a Naval Submarine Officer. As such, I view you as hypocrite and an imposter, which I attribute to failing to:

1. Understand human behavior (at our root we are greedy, impatient, and lazy),
2. Acknowledge that individuals must have a strong moral compass (that includes “spreading equal rights for women, gay people and minorities”), and
3. Hold people and ourselves accountable for their and our own actions.

Maybe the gun industry is a big donor of TT and you have been corrupted, too. Please tell me it is not so.  Please tell me that I misunderstood your words and took them out of context.  Please tell me that you and TT will:

1. Study and understand human behavior (to better understand the causes leading to bad legislation), 
2. Promote the need for all of us to have a strong moral compass so we can guide ourselves to ensure life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness for not only ourselves, but for all others with minimal interference from our government, and
3. Promote accountability.  

I am passionate about freedom – yours, everybody’s, and mine.

Demonstrate to me that you know how to influence behavior to increase personal freedoms and I will donate to TT so you can help create a “political movement that will [positively] change the century.”

An Unstable Mind Became A Killing Mind

The killer (& gun owner) of two fellow gamers participating in a competition in Jacksonville, FL this past Sunday had mental health issues.  That is shocking, is it not?  Despairingly no, but hopefully it is to those who can affect the needed changes.

Most of the recent killers (& gun owners as well) initiating and orchestrating mass shootings have had documented mental health issues, which should not be a surprise.  Hopefully, this killing of fellow humans will shock our elected officials out of their irrational nonsense for allowing this irresponsible behavior to occur.

I should not single out all elected officials, only the ones responsible. The blood is figuratively on the hands of the Republicans who literally used their hands to signal their vote on legislation that allowed people with documented mental health issues to legally obtain weapons of death and destruction.

If you believe deaths such as those this:

1. Past weekend in Jacksonville, 
2. Earlier this year in Parkland, FL and 
3. Almost six years ago in Newtown, CT 

Are unwarranted and destructive to America then I encourage you to act.

You can:

1. Call your representatives, 
2. Engage those Republicans that represent others, 
3. Vote for 3rd party candidates or Democrats in upcoming elections as most Republicans seem unfit and unwilling to lead and 
4. Reach out to gun owners (as most are responsible) to encourage them to put pressure on their community to encourage the appropriate legislation to promote responsible gun ownership.  

If it helps, I have done all the above.  If I did it, so can you.  More specific to action item #3, today in Florida's primary election, I only voted for those candidates that had no party affiliation or were Democrats.

Close To Home The Bullets Fly

Today, at least three people are dead from a mass shooting at the Jacksonville Landing in downtown Jacksonville FL.  My family and I live less than 3 miles southeast from the Landing.

My daughter and I were 3 blocks directly north of the Landing near the time of the shooting.  We went to Chamblin's Uptown to purchase two books. Upon exiting the store I suggested we go for a walk thinking it was such a beautiful day, but for some unknown reason I changed my mind and we headed north to get in our car to return home.  If I drove directly south we would have been at the Landing shortly after shooting. However, we went east then south to go over the St. Johns River, which the Landing sits near.  As we approached the bridge a fire and rescue vehicle without its siren nor lights on nearly ran a red light.  At the time I thought of the irony that I may have collided with the vehicle and possibly been hurt.  It was only when I got home that I learned of the news, which obviously explained the driver's behavior.

Sadly, this is another bad day for America as we once again confront gun violence.  Unless something changed, the gun lobby believes more gun owners with more guns is the answer. IT IS NOT!

My last post shows there is a direct correlation of gun owners to gun deaths.  In short, more gun owners = more gun related deaths and I blame the gun industry and our elected officials.  More specifically, I blame:

1. Executives within the gun industry for:
• Promoting gun ownership with nary a word on gun safety and 
• Seeking to influence our government for their benefit and to our collective demise,
2. Elected representatives for: 
• Enacting laws and or 
• Not enacting laws to protect our freedoms, but instead ultimately benefit their donors and themselves, and
3. Gun owners for either:
• Failing to advocate fellow gun owners and the gun industry promote gun safety to demonstrate respect for their fellow being/American (even though they themselves may be responsible as 99% seem) or
• Failing to demonstrate responsible gun ownership (the remaining 1% when including all gun related violence).

I think it is more than reasonable to expect one day that the gun manufacturers could become subject to class action lawsuits for its irresponsible behavior – promoting gun ownership while arguably influencing our elected officials to relax legislation that would promote and enforce responsible gun ownership to ensure and to protect our freedoms of life, liberty and pursuit happiness.

Who Are These People That Kill People?

Gun advocates tout that homicides rates from the use of a firearm have decreased even while the number of guns outstanding increased; one such example can be found at www.thetruthaboutguns.com, in the article entitled, Guns and Violence in the United States, By the Numbers.  The author concludes “that the object [i.e. a gun] is not the problem[,] but instead it’s the behavior that needs to be changed.” The author may not realize it, but he just advocated for responsible gun ownership with which I could not agree more.

This commonly held belief among gun advocates that the "gun is not the problem" is encapsulated in the NRA slogan, “guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” I find it snarky and disingenuous. David Kyle Johnson Ph.D., a professor of philosophy at King’s College (PA), in www.psychologytoday.com shares his analysis of the statement to explain why it is annoying to some. He contends that the statement mixes the different degrees of causation, which causes confusion and frustration.  He concludes that “people are the ultimate cause and guns are merely proximate causes,” which is in-line with the argument above. With that in mind, let’s turn our focus on those “people,” those that own a gun (or two, or three, or…).

While we do not have accurate data due to gun advocates via the NRA blocking data collection, arguably, it is common knowledge that the number of guns owned in the US has increased whereas the rate of gun ownership has decreased. Irrefutably, occurring at the same time, total US population has increased.  Therefore, using data collected from reputable sources, I conclude that rates of homicides-from-a-firearm per 100,000 of gun owners has increased 26% from 1970 to 2015 as shown in the table below (please note I list my data sources, unlike the first article mentioned above). I attribute the increase to "proximate causes" coupled with "ultimate cause"; essentially, gun owners became less responsible for a myriad of reasons for which we have no discernible answer because....well maybe the gun industry does not want to be held accountable for its bad behavior so why not block research.

Some gun advocates may argue that the 2015 gun ownership rate is too, low.  First, they should stop carping. Secondly, if they want more accurate data then they should start tracking it so they can make a sound argument.  However, to appease these folks I calculate the implied gun ownership rate so homicides rates remain flat, which is shown in the chart below; essentially, 2 our 5 people would need to own a gun, a figure I do not think is reasonable to expect.

At the end of the day, guns equate to death; there is a ratio as shown above. The ratio may change depending upon the society, but the ratio exists.  Therefore, to have less gun related deaths then either there needs to be fewer gun owners (as an increasing number of them have demonstrated that they are a scourge to our society and a threat to our freedoms) or society must dictate policies and procedures that all gun owners must follow so our freedoms are protected. To use a gun advocate's own words,  “the [gun owner's] behavior … needs to be changed.”  I encourage gun advocates to start embracing legislation that promotes responsible gun ownership among their ranks so they can have access to guns and we can all enjoy more freedom, not less.

Schools Have Become A Prison Courtesy Of The NRA

Freedom.  Arguably, the use of that word has increased recently, at least in certain contexts, but what does the word, freedom, mean? Essentially, freedom means, the ability to do what one wants when they want¹. However, we cannot do all we want when we want, can we?  No we can’t because of rules, regulations, etc.and our own moral compass.

"Rules" and "regulations" (aka laws) are instituted for a myriad of reasons, one being that people's moral compass failed or they failed to act responsibly so society (via their government) had to enact laws to right that compass and or enforce that responsibility. These laws impact all peoples' freedoms.

Just this week, my daughter and I along with million others in Florida experienced the loss of a freedom or two.  For the past five years I have been blessed with the pleasure of walking my daughter into school.  Last year and the four prior years, we walked through a side gate because it was convenient.  We no longer can do that due to a lock on the gate (i.e. we lost a freedom).  In addition to the locked gate(s), doors to classrooms are locked and there is a police officer standing guard.  This loss in freedoms is in response to the killing of students attending MSD High School in Parkland, FL and all the other senseless killings at schools over the past 20 years.

Some of you may say this armed protection and lock down on a daily basis is great.  Is it?  Did you attend an elementary school with armed guards and the doors locked? I did not and as such, it harks of a prison.  Is this "making America great again?" In this particular instance, no; we regress. Essentially, our elected officials put restrictions on children, but not the group of people whose moral compass failed and acted irresponsibly.

I contend that it happened because the NRA has repeatedly acted irresponsibly. It touts "Firearms For Freedom" nary a mention of responsible gun ownership so now my family and other families with school age children now have less freedoms due to firearms. The NRA blocks government funding to determine the causes of mass shootings and other needless killings by the use of a gun because they fear it may impact their freedom to use a gun as they desire, yet the NRA finds it extremely acceptable to use government funding (my and your dollars) to sell more guns to create a prison type environment for our children.  Adding salt to the wound of less freedoms, our school district reduced courses in the humanities² because it has limited dollars and the newly hired security officers must be paid.  Humanities help make our world a better place, subjects that are deemed non-important by the NRA and others with a gun obsession as seen by their actions and the effects from those actions.

I would like members of the NRA and the NRA organization to demonstrate to our nation that they truly care more about life than guns in “cold, dead hands.” I encourage them to embrace life not cold, dead hands.


1. Please refer to the definitions from three credible sources below if you disagree. 
A. Per dictionary.com freedom is defined as:

• The state of being free or at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint:
• Exemption from external control, interference, regulation, etc.
• The power to determine action without restraint.

B. Per oxforddictionaries.com freedom is defined as:

• The power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants.
• The state of not being imprisoned or enslaved.

C. Per Merriam-Webster freedom is defined as:

• The absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action
• Liberation from slavery or restraint or from the power of another 
• The quality or state of being exempt or released usually from something onerous
• Unrestricted use 

2. Per Stanford University, humanities are defined as “the study of how people process and document the human experience[; it is the use of] philosophy, literature, religion, art, music, history and language to understand and record our world.”