Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Another brick in the wall...

Nana listened to the President's "ground breaking" speech on gun control and his efforts to end violence in America. He is prepared to use the force of the government against the law-abiding to prevent the criminals and crazy people from hurting children. Nana joined the NRA half-way through this speech. Here's the 23 things he is going to do and about which he signed executive orders today. Of course he also brought some kids up on stage to show he liked kids.

1. Issue a presidential memorandum to require federal agencies to make relevant data available to the federal background check system. The implication is that they do not do so at this time. What data would that be? Arrests? Investigations? Mention in an investigation? Somebody who was body cavity searched by the TSA?

2. Address unnecessary legal barriers, particularly relating to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, that may prevent states from making information available to the background check system. Like those prohibiting doctors from asking if you own a firearm.

3. Improve incentives for states to share information with the background check system. Funding the infrastructure changes to allow the computers to share data?

4. Direct the attorney general to review categories of individuals prohibited from having a gun to make sure dangerous people are not slipping through the cracks. Such as adding to or expanding the definitions of prohibited persons? Would this be like adding soldiers, still serving, who have been treated for PTSD?

5. Propose rule-making to give law enforcement the ability to run a full background check on an individual before returning a seized gun.This would presumably be the same background NICS check done according to the law on transfers.

6. Publish a letter from ATF to federally licensed gun dealers providing guidance on how to run background checks for private sellers.You know, just in case Congress can be blackmailed into passing legislation requiring such checks for private sales.

7. Launch a national safe and responsible gun ownership campaign. Like the Eddy Eagle campaign?

8. Review safety standards for gun locks and gun safes (Consumer Product Safety Commission). Better locks? Preparing for a requirement that owners must have gun safes (as opposed to security containers even)?

9. Issue a presidential memorandum to require federal law enforcement to trace guns recovered in criminal investigations.The implication is that they aren't doing that now, but they are in an attempt to return that property to their rightful owners. I have such a gun, seized and returned to the person from whom it was stolen.

10. Release a Department of Justice report analyzing information on lost and stolen guns and make it widely available to law enforcement. Do they not release these reports now? Are they secret?

11. Nominate a new director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Did he FINALLY find somebody who was qualified and not a crook?

12. Provide law enforcement, first-responders, and school officials with proper training for active shooter situations. They sure do need that. As it is now, schools put too much faith in door locks and cinderblock walls.

13. Maximize enforcement efforts to prevent gun violence and prosecute gun crime. Oh, you mean such as actually prosecuting those who are denied by NICS when they try to buy a gun? Actually prosecuting felons caught in possession of firearms? Funny, but none of these shooters was a felon.

14. Issue a presidential memorandum directing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to research the causes and prevention of gun violence. How about a look into the effects of these psychotropic drugs. Almost every one of these "mass" killers has been on one or another (or several).

15. Direct the attorney general to issue a report on the availability and most effective use of new gun-safety technologies and challenge the private sector to develop innovative technologies. Technology from companies bankrupted by Obamacare and tax increases...

16. Clarify that the Affordable Care Act does not prohibit doctors from asking their patients about guns in their homes. In other words, change the law.

17. Release a letter to health care providers clarifying that no federal law prohibits them from reporting threats of violence to law enforcement authorities. And presumably that the law won't prohibit them lying about it or misrepresenting the risk due to a personal dislike for an individual. You do know that the psychiatrists were a big help to the Soviets in dealing with their political opposition, aka dissidents, don't you?

18. Provide incentives for schools to hire school-resource officers. That means money.

19. Develop model emergency response plans for schools, houses of worship and institutions of higher education. Necessary to do before offering the training mentioned earlier.

20. Release a letter to state health officials clarifying the scope of mental health services that Medicaid plans must cover. Will that include institutionalization, you know, to remove the nuts from society?

21. Finalize regulations clarifying essential health benefits and parity requirements within ACA exchanges. Didn't they just say this?

22. Commit to finalizing mental-health parity regulations. What, again with health care? Isn't this really just one item rather than 4?

23. Launch a national dialogue led by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Education Secretary Arne Duncan on mental health. I've got your "dialog". Stay the hell out of my private business and quit trying to find excuses to control everything I do, think, or say.

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