Now is the Time for All Good Men to come the aid of their Country.

This title used to be used to begin teaching typing, (I know I'm dating myself), and is as appropriate now as it ever was then.

Mayors Against Illegal Guns, (M.A.I.G.) is an organiztion of mayors from accross The United States of America whose sole purpose is to regulate the personal ownership of firearms into oblivion. I am all for the First Amendment rights to Free Speech, and Peaceable Assembly, and I support their rights to do this as citizens of this great land. However, to do this as mayors, (duly elected though they may have been), is an abuse of office of which we are now seeing throughout this Country in all levels of government.
Now taken separately, the following events seem innocuous enough, howeven when interrelated and viewed as mass movement, a whole new picture unfolds.
Congress attempting to pass legislation that raises health insurance premiums on law-abiding gun owners. The president's own "Regulatory Czar" going about ensuring the destruction of one of our nations' resources, namely wolf hunting in the Western States, in the name of "animal equal rights."  Now this well organized, Michael Bloomburg funded, anti-gun owner association comes seemingly from out of nowhere to attempt to overregulate gunshows into oblivion.

First, the Congressional Legislation, whether it's tied into my "no more healthcare" bill or otherwise. Congress does not have the Constitutional Authority to raise my leagally purchased health insurance premiums, my insurance company does this enough (thank you very much). If they want to raise insurance premiums, raise them on the bad guys who want to take my hard earned stuff, (wait didn't they just give themselves a raise to more of my money ?).

Next, the sovereignty of those states that have the natural resources to include "big game hunting" in their tourism industry. Where does the current administration get the gall to conclude that since they are at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, that mandates them to dictate how The States shall conduct their lawful business ? Caribou and other big game is a huge industry in the less densely populated Western States. An industry which employs tens of thousands and brings in hundreds of millions in revenues and wages. Now that the wolf population is expanding by 20 percent per year, the Obama Administration wants to keep the overpopulated wolves on the endagered species list, an act that will seriously deplete the caribou and other deer herds, as well as sheep and cattle, two mainstays for the tens of thousands of family farmers of the region. Once again more loss of jobs, income and revenue.

"Mayors across the country have helped defeat legislation in the U.S. Senate that would have interfered with the right of states to control their own public safety laws. The Thune Amendment would have forced law enforcement to recognize concealed carry permits issued by every other state, including states with the weakest rules. Mayors Against Illegal Guns does not take a position on the general issue of concealed carry.  Instead, the coalition believes each state should have the right to use its own judgment in deciding how to grant concealed carry permits," appears on the website or Mayors Against Illegal Guns, sounds good, but begs the question, "if I have a legally permitted handgun and can legally carry that concealed, and The Second Amendment to the Constitution of The United States of America states that said right shall not be infringed, what gives you the authority to superimpose your will on that ?" More than two million, ( yes that's right 2,000,000) crimes are prevented each year by "gun clutching" law-abiding citizens, (that's something you don't hear everyday, because they don't want you to know). Now I don't know what kind of statistics our overburdened, underpaid and underappreciated police forces actually prevent, but isn't that stat comforting. Right beside you on the Mass Transit if there is need, there could be someone to help. But since this isn't the old west, and CCW laws vary from state to state, you'll probably never know. Nor should you, because the bad guys don't wear ID, neither do CCW licensees.

"In just three years, the bipartisan coalition of Mayors Against Illegal Guns has grown from 15 founding mayors to over 450 mayors committed to finding common sense policies to fight illegal guns. The members represent more than 56 million," it continues, but is that a misleading stat? Independent research shows that as time goes on, more and more are dropping off the roles. Why do you think that is ? Well, I'm just a guy in flyover country somewhere between New York and Chicago, and I just pay attention to what people say, then watch what they do, and I think that it might have something to do with those pesky constituencies. Yes, that's right, the actual people that put them in their offices. In my city in Ohio, I have written to the Mayor's office twice regarding his membership and suprisingly got no response, you should check out your mayor at http://www.mayorsagainstillegalguns.org to see if he/she is in or not. I didn't even know our Mayor was because he never even said a word, on TV, Internet, Print, Radio ect.

"June 2009 - The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report indicating that individuals on the terrorist watch list succeeded in purchasing guns and explosives from licensed dealers 865 times between 2004 and 2009," now I'm not a big fan of the BATFE (for those who don't speak Government Talk, that's the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, - 4 of my favorite things, alright who's brought the chips ?), but, lets see in 5 years, that's 173 times per year, divided by 50 states, that's less than 4 times per state. Take that divided by 350,000,000, no wait we're not all on the terror watch list, right? Okay, try this, say 16,000,000 (just a number of say of all convicted felons, either on parole or having done their time and are "rehabilitated," their language, not mine), plus 20 no 18,000,000 "undocumented resident aliens" (people without rights), okay that's 34,000,000 just for argument's sake divided by 50 states, that's 680,000 per state, and they caught 4 per state. Now I am not saying that all convicts are repeat offenders, nor am I saying that all illegal immigrants are either, and I'm not even saying that the BATFE doesn't serve a good purpose, but what I am saying is that there are alot of other more productive things that our government could be doing with our tax dollars. Could these be the begining of Liberty's Death Knell ? I don't know, but I do know that We the People could all do a little bit more to ensure our children's future oportunities. Educate yourselves, talk to like-minded people, talk to other-minded people, open up chanels for discourse, that's how the free flow of ideas and civil debate are insured and assured.