Bandannalmanac

The Battle of the Gun Bills

Will our 2nd Amendment rights prevail?

On January 6 of this year two separate gun bills were introduced in the House: One by Democratic Representative Rush from Chicago (anti-gun) and the other by Republican Rep Bartlett (pro 2nd Amendment) from Maryland.

Rush’s ‘Blair Holt’s Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009’ bill calls for strict FEDERAL regulations of the gun industry and licensing to be run by the Attorney General. Rules that make it more difficult and cumbersome for law abiding citizens to buy and own guns. The law is named after a teenager who was killed on a Chicago schoolbus by another youth who did not have a legal gun! Yet Rep. Rush wants to make it more difficult for those of us in America who want to purchase guns according to rights afforded us by the 2nd Amendment:

“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

While the death of Blair Holt and any people who are murdered is sad and a great loss, it is not the gun that kills, it is the person that kills. Creating federally imposed gun regulation is in direct violation of our 2nd Amendment rights. States already have their own laws imposed and all states are different. At the state level that is acceptable because the people can vote on the issues. The people don’t get to vote when the constitution is being changed.

Bartlett’s ‘Citizens’ Self-Defense Act of 2009’ bill calls for the enforcement and protection of our 2nd Amendment right to bear arms. Specifically:

“To protect the right to obtain firearms for security, and to use firearms in defense of self, family, or home, and to provide for the enforcement of such right.”

It sounds like a modernized version of the 2nd Amendment. We don’t need a modernized version - there should never BE a challenge to our right to bear arms and protect ourselves and our families. When will the liberals and anti-gun groups get it through their thick skulls that the people who are committing murder with guns are not buying guns legally! They are not the law abiding citizens that our Constitution and Bill of Rights protects. They are not the people who follow the laws of their state and act as responsible gun owners. They are criminals. They need to be amended not the 2nd Amendment.

Even if someone purchases a gun legally and commits a murder with it. It is the person committing the crime, not the weapon. Will liberals enforce new laws against butcher knives as well? Baseball bats, ropes, automobiles, pillows… these all can be used to commit murders. It is the perpetrator of the crime that is to blame not the tool used in the crime. Rush cites in his bill that the majority of murders are caused by guns, in reality there are over 16,000 murders in the United States each year. Of that number a little over 9,000 are caused by gunfire. That is not a majority. He of course leaves out the statistics on the number of legal gun-owning law abiding citizens that commit murders with guns. He should look to solving the high crime issue in Chicago due to it being a poorly run city rather than trying to take gun rights away from all Americans.

The federal government has made minimal changes to our 2nd Amendment rights in history: regulating the sale of fully automatic fireams, requiring gun sellers to be licensed, prohibiting the sale of guns to those who committed violent felonies, the last change occuring in 1994 requiring gun sellers to run a background check on everyone who tries to purchase a gun. Most of these I can completely understand but the problem is not the people who legally purchase guns. The problem is the people who illegally attain guns and then use them in crimes. If they take OUR guns away the only people left with them are criminals and police. Again.. PEOPLE are the problem...not guns.

With Obama in office and a very liberal controlling Congress, we cannot allow our 2nd Amendment rights to be infringed upon. They are our rights as American citizens. We cannot allow the likes of Pelosi, Reid, Obama and Rush to change those rights. Bartlett’s bill shows that there will be a battle but it is one that we have to make our own also. We cannot allow the liberal majority to win this battle. Whether you are a gun owner or not, it is your right and one that should not be taken away or more difficult to attain. I think the great Charleton Heston said it the best when this same issue arose in 2000 and these words ring true to this day just replace Gore with Obama:

“As we set out this year to defeat the divisive forces that would take freedom away, I want to say those words again for everyone within the sound of my voice to hear and to heed, and especially for you, Mr. Gore: 'From my cold, dead hands!'”

http://www.nra.com/
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h45/text
http://www.constitution.org/billofr_.htm

Congress Must Act Swiftly to Pass the Stimulus Package or Else......

....five hundred million jobs will be lost according to the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. An embarrassing gaffe perhaps, but it’s quite evident that the fear mongering from the Obama Administration and Democrats in Congress is now out of control.

Americans should be fearful as the current recession is not mild. Unemployment has soared to a 16-year high at 7.6 percent. However, the fear should not be concentrated on whether or not Congress passes a Christmas tree full of goodies for far-left constituencies, ineffective tax cuts and spending provisions that will not have an immediate impact on the economy; but rather on the long-term effect this kind of spending will have on our nation’s status.

Let’s focus on two key issues that are currently being ignored by our always reliable mainstream media:

America’s budget deficit will exceed $1 trillion this year.

That’s only the deficit folks. This means we are spending $1 trillion more than revenue inflow. Our current debt is closing in on $11 trillion, which means that the deficit is now approximately 10 percent of our overall debt. People thought billion-dollar deficits were out of control a decade ago. Billions are now pocket change in our current fiscally reckless environment.

Worldwide investment in America’s Treasury Bonds is very likely to slow down.

America is not the only country feeling the recession, as economic downturns are global. Soon the days will be gone where America can rely on China, Japan the United Kingdom and Russia to buy our debt. In the past, America was able to entice other countries into buying treasury bonds to finance reckless spending. However, the severity of this recession is making U.S. debt unattractive.

President Obama has told Americans that they need to get used to the prospect of trillion-dollar deficits for years to come. The question that has gone unanswered is how is he going to raise the funds if our two biggest foreign investors, China and Japan (1) will no longer buy our bonds? The global recession has caused these countries financial woes of their own. A lack of tax revenue and the need to enact their own economic stimulus packages has left these countries without an appetite for our debt.

One option that has been recently discussed is the Federal Reserve issuing its own debt. This new angle poses many problems:

1) The Fed’s bonds would be competing with U.S. Treasury Bills which has a major potential to drive up interest rates in the future.

2) The flood of cash on the market would pose significant inflationary problems in the future. This type of cash influx would make it extremely difficult to restrict money supply when the market stabilizes.

3) The Fed already has abusive power, and giving it the ability to issue debt would allow policies to create more artificial bubbles and have the downfall be more severe than what we have already seen.

The only way America can reach prosperous times again is to do something it hasn’t tried before during difficult economic times: shrink the size of government, end the reckless spending and foster growth in the private sector. However, it seems we are going down the same road of politics as usual with pork-filled spending bills to appease lobbyists and calling it “stimulus” – the very premise Obama said would end if he were elected. In just over two weeks’ time, we have seen some very questionable leadership from our President – from questionable appointments to national security decisions. America’s love hangover is beginning to surface....

(1) http://www.treas.gov/tic/mfh.txt

Can a Recession be a Good Thing?

All economists agree America is currently in a recession. Whether this turns out to be the second coming of the Great Depression remains to be seen, but America is in a serious recession nonetheless. Barack Obama has said, “Failure to act on an economic recovery package could plunge the nation into a long-lasting recession that might prove irreversible.” (1) Our government and the Federal Reserve Bank (Fed) work endlessly to prevent recessions from happening. In most cases, they work too hard to try to prevent them. Few people truly understand what a recession is and what the effects are in the long term. Can our government and the Fed prevent recessions from ever happening? If we do find our country in a recession, what can be done to get us out of it? Do recessions really mean the end of prosperity? The truth is recessions do provide a lot of opportunities, and our government can do very little to prevent them.

What is a recession? A recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) decline. When GDP begins to contract, that means the economy is beginning to shrink instead of grow. Businesses and consumers become fearful and hold onto their money. Many may choose to pay down debt instead of expanding their business or purchasing unnecessary goods and services. Businesses holding the line on expenses will tend to cut back on purchasing supplies and even cut back on employees if demand for their product is down. Unemployment goes up as consumer demand falls. Some companies will go out of business and salaries drop as people who are unemployed scramble to find new jobs.

How can recessions be good for anyone? Well for starters, recessions are a time for lagging and mismanaged companies to decline or in some cases, go out of business. While this is hard on the employees who used to work there, it does provide opportunities for the companies who survive as well as opportunities for new companies to start up. Less competition in the market means companies who do not go out of business will start to see some additional revenue with existing customers spread out among fewer firms. A company going out of business in a recession can actually save the other companies in the industry. In some cases, the remaining firms will hire some of the people who lost their jobs to keep up with demand. Some companies are counter cyclical, which means they tend to do more business during recessions than during thriving economies. Some examples of counter cyclical companies are private education companies, service and repair businesses, firms that deal with the bond market, some law firms and mortgage companies. When the government tries to prevent a recession, the government is really telling counter cyclical companies they aren’t allowed to prosper. Doing so could put industries like these in jeopardy and can actually make the effects of a recession more severe.

When a recession begins to loom, the Fed reacts by lowering interest rates and increasing the money supply. The Fed is hoping people and businesses will take advantage of the low rates. Many people use these attractive rates to consolidate debt or refinance their home. Prices tend to come down because demand for goods and services drop. Oil prices have fallen considerably since last summer’s peak of $140 a barrel because of lower demand. For the investor, stocks drop in price and allow the opportunity to buy more stocks at or below what they are really worth. Many investors say recessions are the best time to buy stocks or invest in stock related funds. Those who wish to protect short-term investments will find bond and currency markets may improve as investors look for safe places to put their investments.

A recession is really a normal part of a cycle and unfortunately cannot be stopped. This cycle is known as a business cycle, and these cycles happen regardless of what our government does. Although recessions can be painful for many, they are necessary for any market in the long run. Even the best managed companies in the world do not have record profits every quarter. A recession is the market’s natural ability to keep prices in line when price levels get too high. For example, back during the dot com boom during the late90’s, demand for dot com and tech stocks went through the roof due to Y2K. Dot com and tech stocks were sky high and continued to grow even though most of them had never showed a profit. After the year 2000, the market began to lose patience in the technology industry, which was beginning to slow after Y2K. The market dropped and worsened after the 9/11 attacks. Prices for dot com stocks were too high during the boom so the market shifted and began to sell off their interest. Many dot com companies went under and, as a result, the economy began to slip into a recession. This is an example of the tech stock market correcting itself, and a short recession kicked in after years of prosperity. Demand for Information Technology services slowed after the private sector spent billions on Y2K prevention. After the dot com fallout, the economy eventually recovered and prospered for many years after. This is a perfect example of an economic boom followed by a bust which eventually recovered.

What can our government do? Well in most cases our government can only prolong, speed up the arrival, or make a recession worse. Look no further than FDR for a great example of how big government policies caused the depression to linger (See my previous article titled “FDR’s New Deal Made the Depression Worse”). Our government can only cut taxes and try to create a business environment that is friendly for entrepreneurship and investing. The rest is up to the private sector to recognize and take advantage of that environment. If the market is due for a correction, the market will correct itself and a recession will ensue. Nobody is above the market and markets cannot be controlled by any politician. If an economy enters a recession, eventually market prices will get low enough to where it will be worth the risk to invest again. Once this starts to happen, the market will begin a recovery on its own. Government trying to stop business cycles is just as ridiculous as trying to stop waves in an ocean. The more they try to intervene, the worse the economy will become. That being said how many politicians would say this: “I’m not going to do anything about the economy. I am going to stay out of it because I don’t understand the private sector and I do not want to make it worse. Instead I would like to wait for the economy to correct itself.” I will show you a politician who will lose their election or get forced out of office.

Obama and Pelosi’s stimulus package will be no different than FDR’s New Deal and will make the current recession worse. This stimulus bill, along with most stimulus bills, will do nothing to encourage investment by the private sector. No government program can force the private sector to invest in any economy. Investment has to happen naturally when the investor decides the rewards for a profit outweigh the risks involved. Instead of creating complicated tax incentives and expanding government at the expense of tax payers, it would be nice if all politicians took some time to study the free market and how well it can work with limited government intervention. Our government does not understand that a recession is as much a part of a healthy free market as an economic boom. Trying to bottle up and prevent a recession can actually be harmful to the long term economy. An economy due for a correction is natural and will always correct itself whether our government likes it or not.