My commentary on a variety of issues that interest me including gun rights, individual liberty, illegal immigration, politics, religion, taxes, aviation, judicial activism, journalistic bias and laziness, environmental activism, education, family, health, gardening, history, Scouting, genealogy, etc.
I am a retired international airline captain. In real life, I strike fear into the US Department of Homeland Security as a right-wing extremist (in other words, I believe in God, go to church regularly, own a gun or two, oppose Al Gore and the environmentalist fraud, expect the government to aggressively enforce immigration laws, believe English should be established as the nation's official language, believe the US Constitution says what it says, seek a return to the limited federal government described in the US Constitution, and as a military veteran have sworn to support and defend the Constitution). To quote one of my heroes, Captain Moroni: "I seek not for power, but to pull it down. I seek not for honor of the world, but for the glory of my God, and the freedom and welfare of my country." (Book of Mormon, Alma 60:36) In my spare time, I serve on the local Boy Scout District Training Committee. I coach a 4-H Shooting Sports club (see 4-H link below). I also teach the Utah Hunter Education Course, the Utah Concealed Firearm Course, and various other gun safety classes including most NRA courses (see Firearm Training link below).
The National Popular Vote (NPV) movement would guarantee the Presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The movement began with Al Gore's loss to George W. Bush in the 2000 presidential election. Gore won the popular vote while Bush won the Electoral College vote. This situation was repeated in Hillary Clinton's loss to Donald Trump in 2016. The NPV movement then picked up steam -- and fury.
In 2016, Clinton won 13 States. Trump won the majority in 37 States. The Electoral College protected over 70% of the States from 13 big-population, high-welfare States deciding for 37 other states who the president would be. Not to mention California has 18.5 million registered voters. That's more than all the other west coast states plus Hawaii and Alaska, combined.
Do the math, then thank God our founding fathers had the genius and inspiration to create the Electoral College.
A look at the way we voted in 2016 (the map is very similar for all recent presidential elections) shows that only the counties with big cities and high-welfare enrollment voted Blue (Democrat). Virtually every other county voted Red (Republican). I see no reason why we should let the big cities of California and New York pick the president for the rest of us. The Electoral College is the only protection we have from such a disaster.
NPV would force my own State of Utah to go along with the national popular vote even if the majority of Utah voted against that candidate. That would mean 80% of Utah could vote for candidate A, but if candidate B got the national popular vote, then 20% of Utah would decide for the other 80% who we vote for. Is that a fair outcome? Promoters of the NPV process to circumvent (yes, that is the correct term) the Constitution base their argument on democracy (government by majority vote). I must remind them that the US is NOT a democracy and never was. It is a republic (government by elected representatives) as are each of the 50 States. The Electoral College is a republican (representative) feature of the Constitution. Hence the opposition from those who want majority (ie mob) rule.
The authors and ratifiers of the Constitution clearly wanted the states to have a say in the operation of the central government in order to keep it under control. Two tools they put in it to protect the rights and responsibilities of the individual States to keep the central government under control were: 1 - State appointment of US senators and 2 - The Electoral College.
Unfortunately, "progressive" statists (the only things that progress under "progressivism" are government power and cost) were successful in eliminating state appointment of US Senators through the 17th Amendment in 1913. That, combined with the power to destroy that came through the 16th Amendment, has resulted in exponentially rising federal power, corruption, and cost.
Today's statists want to further neuter the States by circumventing the Electoral College. Thanks to the 17th Amendment, the States are little more than functionaries of the central government. NPV would be the final nail in the coffin for states' rights and responsibilities. At that point, we might as well eliminate state boundaries and state governments altogether.
The tone of the effort to circumvent the Electoral College seems rather desperate. That alone is a good reason to reject it. The obvious fact that the effort is a direct response to Democrat losses is further reason for rejection.
If NPV is such a great idea, why don't its advocates simply work to have the Constitution amended to replace the Electoral College with popular vote? Instead of subterfuge, show us some courage and integrity for a change!
The Democrats seem to believe that the popular vote could never go Republican (or any other party). Advocates of this scheme need to ask themselves, "What could possibly go wrong?"
Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) wants to criminalize every firearm transfer that isn't conducted in association with a federally-licensed gun dealer? That means:
1 - I can't gift a firearm to any of my relatives, whose background I already know, unless I pay a dealer to do the transfer.
2 - As a firearm instructor, I can't loan a firearm to a student for his/her training unless I pay a dealer to do the transfer.
3 - As a firearm instructor, I can't take possession of a student's firearm to help him/her clear a malfunction unless I pay a dealer to do the transfer.
4 - As a hunter, I can't pass my firearm to a fellow hunter while I cross a fence or other obstacle and he/she can't pass it back unless I pay a dealer to do the transfer.
According to the Supreme Court (Haynes v. United States), prohibited persons need not comply with laws that force them to violate their Fifth Amendment right to not testify against themselves (which is what the transfer document would do). Therefore, prohibited persons are exempt from Murphy's legislation.
As usual, advocates for "reasonable" gun control show that they have no capacity to reason.
We often hear cries for gun confiscation. Somehow, it is is beloved, all the world's crime problems will thereby be resolved.
I say, do it!
However, surely rational being is aware that, to be effective, confiscation must include thorough, simultaneous, and repeated inspection (including metal detector and ground-penetrating radar sweeps) of every bank deposit box, barn, basement, bed, bedroom, bookcase, business, chair, closet, crawlspace, desert, doghouse, dwelling, file cabinet, fish bowl, flower bed, forest, garage, garden, heating/cooling duct, kitchen, lake, machine shop, museum, outhouse, person, pond, public building, river, safe, shed, sofa, stable, storage unit, stream, toilet tank, tree house, vehicle, and yard on Earth.
Not only must all firearms and ammunition be confiscated, but also all creativity, knowledge, materials, and tooling that can conceivably be used to fabricate firearms and ammunition.
This would require the perpetual deployment of several million armed government agents from the very same government that is known to let at least a quarter of prohibited items get through airport security screening.
Are you gun prohibitionists prepared to accept such inspection of your property?
(In reality, I doubt the prohibitionists really want total confiscation. They only want firearms confiscated from responsible Americans with political views that are different from their own. They could care less about the existence of Leftist- or criminal-owned guns.)
Yesterday's Texas-church shooter was previously convicted of a crime that made him a "prohibited person" -- one who may not possess firearms or ammunition. Nevertheless, he passed the much-vaunted background check to buy a firearm. In other words, the government agents YOU rely on to do their jobs (background checks) to keep YOU safe failed to do their jobs.
Yesterday, he exploited government-agent ineptitude to commit at least 3 dozen more violent crimes in that house of worship.
As usual, the Left's response it to blame the people who didn't do it (NRA and Republicans) and to overrule ever more rights inherent to innocent, responsible Americans.
BTW, churches in Texas, by state statute, are gun free zones. How's THAT law working out? "Reasonable" gun control put 26 congregants in the unacceptable position of waiting the rest of their lives for someone with a gun to save them because they were arbitrarily prohibited from having an effective means to protect themselves.
BTW, the shooter was finally stopped by a responsibly armed citizen -- something the Left would ban. Unfortunately, the armed intervention was too late for the 26 dead and 20 injured.
We need smarter voters -- voters who are smart enough to understand that ever more laws and ever more reliance on government to fix everything is NOT the answer.
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