The Gun Industry Trades In Fear; Acts As A Bully

I show below my third in a series of speeches I have made to the DCPS Board at its monthly meeting, which occurs the first Tuesday of the month. The subject remains the same: loss of our children's liberty due to fear associated with unchecked irresponsible gun ownership/use.

Good evening Board Chair, School Board Members & Dr. Greene.

I truly understand your frustration as it pertains to the lack of resources to properly maintain aging school infrastructure.

It must frustrate you even more - that with limited funds - DCPS must build higher fences and employee qualified security personnel to roam the hallways with guns - creating an environment that fosters fear, FEAR that has been proven to be psychologically damaging, especially so for developing young minds.

It frustrates me.

Your silence frustrates me. I suspect I may know why you are silent.

You may hope that the Federal Government and state governments will solve the problem so you do not have to.  Your hope is misplaced. These institutions ARE part of the problem.

Just last week our former sheriff, John Rutherford, voted against Universal Background checks.  He is more interested in protecting gun dealers (some of which allow guns to fall into the wrong hands) than protecting our unalienable rights. While the bill passed in the House it will most likely die in the Senate.

Polls show that 90% of Americans, which includes the majority of gun owners, want Universal Background Checks, yet we will not receive them.

Why?  Money.  The industry pimps out  hustles the Second Amendment (2A) for profits.  Career minded politicians are their coconspirators.

Collectively, their behavior is irresponsible and a threat to not only the second amendment, but also America’s founding core values of life liberty and pursuit of happiness.

However, I believe your silence stems more from your fear of the gun industry.  It is understandable. The gun industry acts like a bully.  It trades in fear –

1.      Fear of retribution if you challenge it and
2.      Fear of loss of life, how else does one achieve defense with a gun

This fear spreads like cancer and has now reached our schools, visibly sickening our children as exemplified by the recent active shooter training at Lake Brantley High School that left some students vomiting.

Our children want this to stop. We must show how to lead if we want them to be leaders. We must stop the bullying.

We must take the fight to the industry. Sue to recover funds re-directed from curriculum and buildings to fund costs incurred to counter the use of the industries products. Other school districts will surely join us because as I have previously mentioned, legal precedent has been established.

To quote Admiral Horatio Nelson, “The measure may be thought BOLD, but I am of the opinion the boldest are the safest.”

Only then we might receive legislation that ensures responsible gun ownership that will enable us to stand down from this threat to our unalienable rights.

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Attack the Problem, Not the Symptom

Tonight I spoke at Duval County Public Schools (DCPS) monthly school board meeting, the second in a series.  You could say this presentation is a follow-up to my presentation this past September entitled, Sue the Gun Manufacturers.  My speech is as follows:

Good evening Board Chair, Fellow Board members, Superintendent Greene, Guests and fellow attendees.

Is not the purpose of an education to gain the cognitive thinking skills with which to solve problems?  Reading, writing, arithmetic are just means to that end are they not?  Many educational institutions based on perusing their websites do not share this goal; instead I mostly found oblique objectives.

I contend this lack of focus and direction is not new or our country would not be encountering problems that should have never arisen. We have allowed our own laws to infringe upon and even annihilate for some the unalienable rights endowed by our creator.  We respond to these outcomes with the very same activity that leads us there- passing new laws that further rub out these rights.

When in a hole, stop digging.  Some may even say the hole in which we find ourselves is analogous to hell given that lives were snuffed out in Parkland, FL and Duval county schools now look like the pea farm (James I. Montgomery Correctional Center).

As I understand it, some of you want more guns on campus. We do not need more guns. I am not alone in this thought as evidenced by the Gifford Law Center (GLC) lawsuit.  However, I think GLC is misguided as well.  It tackles the symptom not the disease that has led to this rot and stench and in doing so forces DCPS to consume precious resources that should be used to educate our children. 

When I stood before you back in September I advocated that you sue the Federal government.

In 2005 Congress passed the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act.  Arguably it is unconstitutional as it gives gun manufactures protections that neither you nor I have and it hinders your ability to protect my children’s unalienable rights; worse, it has led you to infringe on their rights. Meaningful change will not occur until it and other misguided laws are altered or abolished.

We do not need gun laws, as guns do not kill people; people kill people.  Since people are well, human, we need laws to ensure people are:

1. Capable of handling an instrument of death and
2. Will respect other’s unalienable rights.

I call these laws, Responsibility Laws.  

Madam Chairwoman, School Board Members, and Doctor Green I encourage you to set aside your differences with GLC and seek to overturn those laws that force you to infringe upon my children’s unalienable rights. After I leave this meeting I will share these thought of mine with GLC representatives.

I encourage both DCPS and GLC to join forces to fight for our unalienable rights because "whenever any law becomes destructive of these [rights], it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new [laws] to [a]ffect their Safety and Happiness."

Most of the words in that last sentence were written ~ 250 years ago. I just nipped and tucked in a few places.

Let’s fight the good fight.  Let’s fight for our children’s well being.

Sue The Gun Manufacturers

Tonight I attended Duval County Public Schools' monthly Board meeting to give a speech, a first in a series, which I show below.

Good evening Duval County Public Schools Board Members. Thank you for taking my comments.

Fear lays like a shroud upon our schools. At first blush our schools are not much different than prisons – 6ft or higher fences, gates & doors locked, access via a single door and security guards with a weapon prominently displayed.

Even worse, this loss in liberty was preceded by a loss of many lives in Parkland FL.

We have “unalienable Rights” of “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of happiness” and “whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it?”

I want to exercise that right to alter our government; however, I cannot do it alone.

I seek to help everybody in this room and those watching on TV that we most act in a brave and bold manner to protect our children and our nation.

The MSD Act:

1. Does more to infringe on our children’s’ unalienable rights than protect them;
2. It fails to hold accountable those people that have directly and indirectly infringed upon our rights; and
3. It redirects dollars that could be invested in more accretive activities

This is not the first time a government entity has incurred costs from the use of unsafe manufactured products by its citizens. A large group of US government entities successively sued manufacturers 2 decades ago. This renowned lawsuit is known as the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement (MSA).

Should not our district sue the gun manufacturers?

Regrettably, we will most likely have to sue our state and federal government as the majority of the elected officials have arguably allowed themselves to be corrupted by the gun industry for example:

1. MSD act funnels money to the gun industry – more guns, ammo most be bought and 
2. Congress passed H.J.Res. 40 less than 2 years ago that it made easier for someone with documented mental health issues to purchase a gun.

In reference to the latter, in 2008 the US Supreme Court in the renowned DC vs. Heller opinion, which affirms that a gun may be owned for self-defense, the court states the Second Amendment right is NOT UNLIMITED.

For example, the majority writes, those with mental illness should NOT be allowed to have a gun. In short, our nation’s highest court says there must be people restrictions.

Regrettably, the burden falls on us. As I see it,  school districts are the only avenue to affect meaningful and lasting change.  I encourage DCPS to sue the gun manufacturers. I am confident others districts will join. We have case law at our back.  I believe and hopefully you do to that we must act to protect our unalienable rights, of life liberty & pursuit of happiness so we can remove the shroud of fear from our schools.