Gun Rights And The Second Amendment, The Reality Behind The Arguments Ignore - by Rev. J.T. Smith

Am I the only one who finds it outrageous that any member of the American military and police forces must be fully trained in how to use and store any weapon before they're ever issued that weapon, yet a civilian can just buy any weapon they want without ever being trained or demonstrating that they've been trained first?  Am I the only one who thinks that everyone in America who even wants to purchase or even use a gun must be fully trained in how to properly use and store that weapon first? 

First things first, the Second Amendment of the American Constitution:

It would help to no end if Americans, especially those members of the NRA and their sycophantic followers, would actually learn the most important and opening words of the 2nd Amendment: "A well regulated militia".  Having enough money to pay for the gun and requisite ammunition as well as the patience to wait out any waiting period does NOT make a person a part of "a well regulated militia".

A bit of history which used to be taught in high school and probably still is but gets ignored or glossed over:

The United States began as the loose coalition of states, originally the 13 British colonies, that were brought together under the Constitution thus forming a central government that gave both unity and some cohesion to those states.  While there was a standing army (in this context, this term is simpler to use than "armed forces"), the Continental Army, that was controlled by the federal government, it was still necessary in time of war to augment it with militias that were formed, controlled, and maintained at the state level.  Militias were then what the National Guard is now.

This was the most expedient solution as those militias already existed and were the armed forces used to defeat the British army during the Revolutionary War.  What's more, it was believed that every able-bodied man (in this, yes, they were sexist) in a given age range as determined by the individual states would eventually serve in their local militia, and that they would maintain their own small arms equipment as needed.  Equipment that they would actually be trained thoroughly in how to properly use and maintain prior to being allowed to ever have such weapons.  Larger weapons, such as cannons and requisite ammunition, were stowed in the armoury when not in use.

It was specifically those very militias that are referenced in the Second Amendment.

[Related:

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2022/06/06/its-time-democrats-stop-agreeing-second-amendment-protects-individuals-right-bear]

Next, guns themselves:
The sole purpose of a gun is to maim and/or kill at a distance quickly and efficiently.  Any argument of what physically does the killing demonstrates a distinct mental disconnect (not to mention a severe case of cranial-rectal inversion).

What's more, all a drawn gun demonstrates is two things:

First, whether it's drawn or holstered, empty or loaded, a gun simply demonstrates fear.  The fear felt by the person who's carrying and holding the gun.  This includes the American police and military.  Other nations (e.g. Great Britain) have police forces that are not constantly armed with a firearm and are further trained to do something Americans find unthinkable: they actually talk down the criminal with the gun and disarm them without firing a single shot or brandishing their own weapon.  They're not completely defenseless as they do have collapsible batons and tasers, but those are not their first used option.  Instead, they use a far more dangerous weapon: their BRAIN.

The second thing a drawn gun demonstrates is that you are immediately the prime target of anyone else with a loaded gun.  This obviously includes the police, who actually are properly trained in the proper use and storage of their weapons before they are ever issued their weapons.

I have an idea: Everyone in the NRA hierarchy and everyone who panders to them (including every politician who accepts any money from the NRA) should be shot, preferably embarrassingly and unexpectedly.  Note I said shot and not killed.  This way, they might learn from the experience.  Especially if it's done in such a way that even if they're armed themselves it wouldn't actually help them in the slightest.  Though I think the exercise would need to be repeated several times for each gun worshiper before they wake up to the outrageous danger their lust for guns puts everyone in.

Another suggestion would be to start heavily taxing ammunition.  People will definitely stop and think before firing a bullet that costs $1000 and can never be reused.

It is long past time that the carnage made so readily enacted by guns comes to an end.

by Rev. J.T. Smith 

Another Trip. At Least I Didn't Lose My Head by Rev. JT. Smith

 While, unlike my trip to Mars this past July, I haven't been wanting to make this trip for decades, It's one that's interested me as a potential destination for a while.  Considering that it's nearly Halloween, it's appropriate that I wore my Halloween costume.

Due to its relative proximity to my domicile, this was merely a day trip.  And this time I had a couple friends with me for the ride.  Welcome to Sleepy Hollow, made famous by Washington Irving's short story The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow.

 

Go figure, the trip didn't go completely smoothly.  That my transit route took us through the Holland Tunnel (from my numerous trips to Long Island over the years) was an active choice on my part as I'm already with the traffic patterns there and, based on the map, looked to be relatively straight forward.  What I hadn't realized was just how much of Manhattan I was still contending with.  I also didn't realize that I was going to be going through Yonkers.  At least I didn't get lost.

One glitch actually worked out as a blessing in disguise.  For various reasons that are neither germane nor to be taken as an opinion, I don't generally carry much change on me.  Especially change for parking meters as I can typically avoid them.  Of course, that wasn't the case for Sleepy Hollow in late October and my ignorance of both the real layout of the town (maps only tell you so much) was on full display.  Thanks to an unintended later start than intended (just because my alarms are set and go off doesn't mean I necessarily immediately power up to them) and a need to answer nature's call, finding quick parking became something of a priority.

Thankfully, one spot proved immediately available.  As already noted, I didn't have any change for a parking meter.  It turned out that neither did either of my passengers.  Thankfully, a nice couple who were walking their dog had some quarters and gave them to us.  They'd already left before I discovered that the parking meter didn't work.

Of course, about an hour later we stumbled across the municipal car park.  And it was full.  No surprise on that last.

It's also no surprise that Sleepy Hollow fully played up on their ties to Washington Irving's story.  The  image of the headless horseman is emblazoned on all the street signs, etc.  It's even on the fire trucks from both fire departments.

Between one of my friends having difficulty with walking longer distances and hills, and the later than intended start, I didn't get to explore as much as I would have liked.  That didn't stop me from finding a location in town that is described by Washington Irving in the story, and serves as visual proof I was there.

I still haven't figured out what so caught the attention of the chap behind me.

The transit back took longer than the transit out.  Yet another glitch.  Because I know that trying to take the George Washington Bridge cannot be accurately described without "cluster" being attached to one of the words, and my familiarity with the Holland Tunnel, I tried setting my satnav to take me via that route.  The result was that I ended up in Brooklyn and no where near the tunnel.

Ultimately, we were able to re-traverse the tunnel and I was able to get everyone home safely.

I think I'll try again next year.  Only either alone or with different passengers, and maybe a little earlier in the month.  Although I have no doubt that Sleepy Hollow is like Mars in that it'd be a nice place to visit any time of the year, I also suspect that October is the best month considering the obvious tie-in between The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow and Halloween.

by Rev. J.T. Smith

Something I've Been Wanting To Do For A Long Time by Rev. J.T. Smith

From July 7 - 9, 2022, I finally made a trip that, at least part of, I've been wanting to do for over 30 years.  Granted, there are parts that that were really just lucky bonuses that I'm simply glad happened.

 

 

July 7, 2022: Greetings from the Hard Rock Cafe in Pittsburgh. I took that after getting my hotel room.  This is one of the bonuses, frankly.  In 1989, I was able to visit the Hard Rock Cafe in London.  That's where I originally got the cap I'm wearing in the picture.  (Unfortunately, even if I could relocate the t-shirt I got from the Hard Rock Cafe in New York City, I sincerely doubt that it would fit me anymore after all the weight I've put on since the stroke I survived in 2013.)  On June 20 of this year, I finally made it to the Hard Rock Cafe in Philadelphia, which is where I got the t-shirt I'm wearing in this picture.  While I finally started laying the ground work for this trip shortly before I went to the Hard Rock in Philadelphia, it wasn't until I went there that I decided to go to the one in Pittsburgh.  Other than cost of heating there, they're really fun to go to.

Greetings from Pittsburgh from just outside the Hard Rock Cafe there.  You'd never know from this picture that it was gone 9 PM at night when I took it nor that it was much darker out at the time. 

 

Taken within moments of the first, just east along the river.

 

Pittsburgh skyline outside of the Hard Rock Cafe (which was behind me and to my right).

 

July 8, 2022: Greetings from Mars.  I've been wanting to go there ever since 1990 when The Morning Call had a sweepstakes tying to the original Total Recall where the winner would get an all expensed paid trip to Mars [Pennsylvania].  I couldn't go then for numerous reasons.  Now I can finally say I've been to Mars.  It's a tiny little town, but I knew that before making the 350+ mile trip out there.  Since I had no particular expectations, I couldn't be disappointed. 😎

 

These were taken in a small community museum at the old train station in Mars.  They're only open 4 hours on Fridays and run by local volunteers.  Which means I got lucky as I scheduled this trip around my work schedule and other than generally looking around just to say I'd been there I hadn't thought about museums, etc.  The one on the right is is a closeup of the book. It was the tag is that grabbed my attention. 😁  

 

This was in a small room on the side of what to be an active auto repair garage that focused on antique vehicles and is adjacent to the museum.  Go figure they have a Mars fixation in their movie posters. 

 

Since I still had plenty of time on Friday, I went to the Evans City Cemetery where the opening of the original Night Of The Living Dead was filmed.  While I hadn't found the exact spot yet, at least I've seen that Rape has died.

 

Still trying to find the original location used in The Night Of The Living Dead.

 

I was trying to do this from memory as, while I've only seen the movie once a few years ago (thanks to Svengoolie on MeTV) I'm clearly an idiot.  I finally resorted to using the live view function in Google Maps to try to locate actual site.  What initially confused me was that when using that function they'll give you a still picture of your destination to compare it to, only the headstone in that comparison still was a completely different style.  When I later looked for stills from the movie, the headstone matches this.

 

I located this in Evans City.  Definitely a misnomer as it's really a small town.  A larger small town, but a small town nevertheless. 😎  To be fair, Night Of The Living Dead is far from my favourite movie.  I just think it's cool to have been able to go here and see where parts of the movie were filmed.

 

 

 

 

 

Basically, this is also the movie that put Evans City on the map.

 

I found the fountain of youth. (Now if it just weren't contaminated.)  This is the link that led me to it and explains its background.

 

 

This is just some things I picked up so that I can demonstrate, beyond my photos, that I've been to Mars. 😁

 

 

July 9, 2022: This is the actual location and angle where the couple at the beginning of Night Of The Living Dead was shot.  I took this on my final day of my trip before returning to my domicile, which I affectionately refer to as Area51, on the opposite side of the state.

 

Since I wasn't looking at a deadline in terms of getting back I, unlike on my trip out resulting in my primarily sticking to Interstate highways, I instead took the scenic and shorter route.  As a result, one of my pit stops was Lincoln Caverns & Whispering Rocks (which actually consists of 2 separate caverns in relatively close proximity to each other though they were formed about 4 million years apart).  I'd frankly forgotten just how treacherous the stairways in them could be.  That didn't stop me from doing it though.  Slowed me down, but didn't stop me. 😎

 

This was taken from the lowest point in Lincoln Caverns, the lower of the two. 120 feet below the surface.  Impossible is for the lazy.

 

While somewhat closer to the surface, don't let the lighting fool you. These were taken deep in the cave.  I admit, I probably should have tried night mode on my mobile phone's camera.

 

 

This entrance to Whisper Rocks is literally the highest point I reached here.  And yes, I went in there, too.  (I just didn't think to take any pictures inside.)

 

This is the top of the stairs you have to climb just to get to/from Lincoln Caverns.  Whisper Rocks is higher still up the hill and is reached via a well maintained path.  I definitely got my exercise in here. 😁😎

 

Part of the reason I went here as a pit stop was because I saw the signs for Lincoln Caverns and couldn't actually remember if I'd ever been there before.  When I was little, we used to go to the various caves/caverns across much of PA as well as the Shenandoah Valley, etc.  Even once I arrived here, I still wasn't certain.  The tour group consisted of the tour guide, myself, and a family of 4 who were traveling to near Hershey from Erie.  So I wasn't alone in that regard.  I simply had no passengers aboard Darkwind (people name their boats, I name my cars/trucks,etc.).  Once we reached the original entrance to Lincoln Caverns, that's when it all felt familiar to me.  Granted, the last time I was there I was around 9 or so.  I've been wanting to something like this since the stroke, but usually I figured on going to Lost River Caverns as it's relatively small and very local to where I live.  Lincoln Caverns is literally along Rte 22 (or is it old Rte 22?) and was not in the slightest out of my way.  Not remembering it (unlike Lost River Caverns, which I've been to numerous times over the years) just made it both more interesting and compelling.  It also allowed me to prove to myself that, even though I'm no longer able to move as quickly as I used to, I'm still able to enjoy going to public caves again.  It may not seem like much, but one more barrier created by my stroke has fallen.

 

I returned to Area51 from my trip late that night.   While I haven't figured it all yet, I'm hoping for more road trips in my future.

 

by Rev. J.T. Smith