On a quick side note, I would like to give a special thank you to Sheriff Stan Lenic, an Albany police officer who is a credit to his profession for, not only doing his job correctly, but standing up to other authority figures who were clearly not doing theirs. A video has gone viral showing Lenic refusing to follow the illegal orders by Albany Airport's PR director Doug Myers in having two activists arrested for handing out flyers warning people about the danger of body scanners.
"Obviously this is your constitutional right, OK? As far as you're concerned, you're not breaking any laws. That's what we want to get across to you guys," Lenic told the two. When Myers demanded they identify themselves, while winking at Lenic, he responded, "If I was to ask for his identification he does not have to give it to me because he’s not doing anything wrong."
The station, airport and his Facebook page have been inundated with positive feedback, stunning the area. His is now being considered receiving a special commendation and is even being urged to run for Mayor. The world could use a lot more people like Stan Lenic seen below.
The odd part is I have had dealings in the past with Albany police officers and, the ones I met, were some of the worst police officers I have ever encountered. Their idiocy caused a riot outside a Grateful Dead concert and almost got a lot of people killed when hundreds of us were moments away from being crushed to death in a mob after the cops unwisely shut the doors to the arena, while people still pushed forward. As we were on a walkway several stories above the ground, it could have gotten ugly.
The whole thing started with cops acting like dicks outside the venue. After the concert all hell broke loose as some lone cop attempted to arrest a drug dealer, he yelled NARC! and people came from everywhere and beat the snot of the cop. Neo-hippies are not all peace and love and that day showed it. The police responded with riot gear and it looked like Tahir square for a little while. We got the hell out quick and watched the chaos on the news that night.
But I digress. Back to guns, in the above example, if the cops knew everyone had a gun, would they be arresting people for minor infractions or small amounts of drugs being sold? Hell no. This is exactly why I support the idea we need more guns, not less. Studies show that an armed society is a polite one. Crime skyrockets in places were guns are harder to get as Scotland and Australia crime rates demonstrate. After they passed severe new gun restrictions, violent crime rose as much as 600%. On the other hand, violent crimes are next to non existent in places like Israel and Switzerland where everyone owns an AK-47.
We have a whacked out police force, hiring more and more ex-soldiers which is a terrible idea. Unless the soldier was working as an MP or is part of the SWAT team, they have no business being beat cops. They are TERRIBLE at it, for the most part. I am sure some don't suck hard but ones I have met or have talked with those I know and trust in law enforcement say the same thing. These are two different mind sets. Soldiers kill. Police protect. The two are not mutually the same and recent stats show it.
What we keep hearing from the gun lobby crown is that we are getting more and more random shootings from people whose sanity is not in question: They don't have any. In the last two months have been two attempts to copycat the Aurora, CO shootings in movie theaters. The most recent was an attempt to shoot up a theater packed with tweens watching the latest Twilight movie. Some of you are asking shouldn't we ban guns to protect ourselves from nutbags like this? NO! What we need to do is protect ourselves from these nutbags, not guns. Even is we ban guns, one of these idiots will just make a bomb and kill even more people. Insanity cannot be regulated but it can be controlled.
First, we need a national date base listing EVERY SINGLE PERSON diagnosed with any serious metal illness, particularly schizophrenics and borderline personalities. Second, every single one of these people has to see a mental health professional once a month where they will be drug tested, not for illegal drugs, but for the medication they will be MANDATED to take. Failure to take said meds will result in immediate incarceration until they are deemed safe to go back into society.
We have gutted all safety nets when it comes to mental health and we need to find a way to start paying for it again. Means testing could help pay for it where if you have enough money you pay accordingly and under a certain income level, it's free. Taking medication that keeps you from killing people is a small hit on your personal freedoms when it's the rest of us paying for it. Had something like this been in place, almost all of the random shooting nutbags over the past decade would have been off the street and not able to get a gun in the first place, as that database would also prevent guns from getting into the wrong hands. We need to start getting people off the street that are dangerous, lifting gun bans on people who will use them correctly and protecting ourselves against a government that still shows no signs of backing off from personal freedoms.
A quick word about Obama: there is no sign anywhere on the horizon that he is angling to take all of our guns away as the words CIVIL WAR spring to mind at that point. Sure, we will lose as the government has far better equipment that most but if we make those losses painful they will certainly consider alternative angles. They will never get rid of guns anyway, but merely drive it underground and make the black market even more money and power. It would be a terrible idea and not likely to happen any time soon as the democrats have ALL the power right now. The GOP insanely doesn't see it that way and are building up to a self destruct sequence that may be inevitable. They are STILL not willing to negotiate on higher taxes for rich people even though a majority of people want them to. When this country goes over the cliff come January, it will be the Republicans going over first. Keep it up guys. You are officially going to be extinct soon. Congrats.