Yesterday’s massacre at the Washington Navy Yard has naturally caused heated exchanges on gun control, both sides of the issue fervently stirring up their forces in attempts to reinforce their positions on the issues involved.
My perception of gun control itself, comes down to fundamental arithmetic.
Without a shred of doubt, this event, as well as the mass shooting at Fort Hood, are extremely tragic indeed. At the same time, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the population is currently 311.6 million people. Within that group, according to the New York Times, “the gun ownership rate has fallen from an average of 50 percent in the 1970s to 49 percent in the 1980s, 43 percent in the 1990s and 35 percent in the 2000s.” If my math is correct that means 109,060,000 still presently own guns, bringing the probability of shootings like the two in question to .00000002 percent.
Consequently, while still greatly appreciating the depth of the tragedies that took place, I’ve got to believe there’s a better way to deal with those kinds of problems than depriving an innocent third of the population of the ability to arm themselves if they choose.
On the other hand, the incumbent took the tragedy as an opportunity to lead into other points. Instead of waiting for a more appropriate time, after briefly addressing the event itself, he quickly moved on to deliver a pre-planned daily political droning, in this one bashing Republicans for a whole list of reasons. The public, though, is not only not buying his bullying as often, surveys show less and less are even listening any more.
According to foxnews.com/politics, “The public is not convinced that the economy is on the mend. Only one-third say the economic system is more secure now than in 2008, and 52 percent say they disapprove of Obama's handling of the economy, according to a Pew Research Center poll.”
Furthermore, “Despite job growth, the unemployment rate remains high at 7.3 percent. Though the rate has fallen, one of the reasons is because some people have dropped out of the labor force and no longer are counted as job seekers. The share of unemployed workers who have been unemployed for more than six months is more than double what it was in 2007 before the recession began. And the income gap between the very rich and the rest of the population is the biggest since 1928.”
As the incumbent went on to bash “Mitt Romney’s ineffective opposition to Obama’s 2010 health law. All the networks, including MSNBC, eventually abandoned coverage of the president’s remarks and returned to breaking news from the scene.” So, even his closet media allies are getting bored.
Apparently, viewers of the speech concurred, whereas, “As measured by Bing Pulse, Republican, independent and Democratic viewers of “Special Report with Bret Baier” agreed with National Public Radio’s Mara Liasson that President Obama’s speech Monday was poorly timed. Fox News Senior Political Analyst Brit Hume’s comments that the remarks were “so small and so petty and so beneath the office of the president” drew 18,500 votes in one minute.”
And there may be far more dissatisfaction among the public than that, especially regarding the new health care tax.
A Fox News poll released this morning, indicates that “Sixty-eight percent of those surveyed were “concerned” about their health care under ObamaCare, with 43 percent saying they are “very concerned.” Fifty-four percent of respondents want to take the health care system back to 2009.
Fifty-eight percent of voters disapproved of how the incumbent’s handling health care, including 33 percent of Democrats, 65 percent of independents, and 83 percent of Republicans.
So, while the incumbent's drumbeat continues and his constituents keep getting buried deeper in words of success, statistics and facts keep indicating something else. But, I think the public’s far better off when the incumbent is spending all his time speaking, because it’s when he’s actually doing something that he’s a real threat to their health, well-being and livelihoods.
That’s it for today folks.
Adios
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