What Is It About Anyway?

This is a plaque located at the Confederate cemetery in Pennsville, New Jersey.  The cemetery was used to bury prisoners who died at Fort Delaware, located on Pea Patch Island in the middle of the Delaware River.  Conditions at the camp were so bad it came to be known as the Andersonville of the North.

Last Wednesday, a 21 year old youth, Dylann Roof decided it would be a good idea to go to the oldest African Methodist Episcipal church in the country and kill nine parishioners.  We know he recently got a gun given to him by his father on his 21st birthday.  He also was a loner who had few friends in high school, took a lot of drugs, did not work, and lived at home with his parents.  He also surfed racist websites especially the one run by the Council of Conservative Citizens, which is a reconstituted white citizens council like those that existed across ACmerica in the 1950s and 1960s.  He also had his own Facebook page where he posted a manifesto as well as pictures of him burning American flags and waving Confederate flags.

I think he might be a racist.  No duh!  Think he might have a little mental problem.  Probably.  Were his parents living with their heads stuck in the sand, not noticing anything  was wrong in their son's life.  Most certainly.  Why else would you buy someone in his state a mind a gun.

Perhaps the whole situation could have been prevented if someone stepped in and got him the help he needed.  Intervention doesn't always work with the mentally ill, but we do know that if you do nothing, the outcome can't be good.

So let's say for now that these murders were the work of a disaffected youth and that this was all about what happens when someone feels powerless and sees no alternative but violence to get their point across.  Maybe he was mentally ill.  Perhaps he was just as normal as any revolutionary, but he didn't have the organizational skills to put an army together and realized there was no way that the establishment would allow people with his viewpoint to have legitimate access to the political process.  More about this latter,

What the problem is not about is the Confederate flag.  Also, it is not about the lack of strict gun control.

The liberal establishment, as epitomized  by the mainstream media, are not interested in solving the problems of violence or of racism.  Instead, they grasp at straws and try to use acts of violence that shock the public conscience as a means to advance their agenda.  On Thursday morning CNN was already reporting about "public outrage" and why we should sharply restrict gun ownership as they did in England or Australia.  In a couple days they saw this wasn't catching on so they latched onto the NAACP's wagon and pounded  us constantly about some so-called national movement to get rid of the Confederate flag on the state capitol grounds in Columbia, SC.

When they showed the "crowds" protesting the flag, it was clear they were made up only of a handful of people, probably no more than 100.  The network's announcers and guests spoke about how the flag is a symbol of "hate" and doesn't belong on public display in 21st century America anywhere, much less at the state capitol.

What they neglect to mention is where on the capital grounds the flag is located, which is at the Confederate civil war monument which was erected in honor of the veterans who fought for South Carolina.  They also don't mention how the flag got where it is today.  It used to fly from the statehouse dome, but the NAACP, as they are doing again now, argued that the flag doesn't belong on a government building.  After a boycott against tourism to the state among other NAACP actions, the state legislature in 1990 voted to move the flag to a more fitting spot, which is the memorial.  There it represents the past and honors the veterans who fought for it.  It no longer is an endorsement by the state for present-day support for slavery or other ideas supported by the Confederacy.

Civil War memorials are a common-sense place to display the Confederate flag.  The Sons of Confederate Veterans, which is made up of the descendants of Confederate soldiers supports this use.  You will even find Confederate flags flying in New Jersey at the Finns Point National Cemetaey located near Pennsville in Salem County.

But the opportunistic bullies behind the attack on the Confederate flag don't care about what was agreed on the South Carolina state house flag in 2000.  They don't even care that the flag didn't have anything to do with the deaths in Charleston.  They want to get rid of all Confederate flags everywhere and will use whatever tactics necessary to do so.   Yesterday, Sears, Walmart, Ebay and Etsy all announced that they will no longer sell the flag either in stores or on their websites.  Of course they didn't do this out of the kindness of their hearts.  They probably were threatened with a boycott by the NAACP or whoever is orchestrating this crap.  They want the controversy to end so they can get back to selling what they sell.  Getting rid of the flag is the easiest way to get there.

And its not just flags.  The State of Virginia is taking steps to get rid of SCV-endorsed vanity license plates that contain the SCV emblem, which is based on the Confederate flag.  I guess this is another attack on the descendants of Civil War vets.  After all, we're not talking about a KKK plate or anything like that.  This is a veteran's organization similar to the Daughters of the American Revolution.

What's next in this silly wave of attacks?  I bet if we give in, the monuments will be gone, the street names will be gone and all vestiges of the Old South will be erased .  Already an attempt was made in Congress to have the statues of Confederate heroes removed from the Capitol in Washington.  At least that idea is on ice for now.

If we really want to stop the few nuts that do what Dylann Roof did, why not pass a national right to carry law.  Here's how it works.  Anyone who can pass the standard federal background test will be able to buy a handgun.  States and localities would be unable to have their own more restrictive laws.  Everyone who can pass the background test can get a federal concealed carry permit, which will work pretty much anywhere except for maybe airports and post offices.  Again, states won't be able to interfere.  Then there will be a lot more people packing heat just about everywhere.  Since we have had no success keeping guns out of the hands of criminals and nuts, we can cut down on crime by arming more people.  Then the criminals and nuts would be less likely to pull their guns on innocent people because there will be a high likelihood that they will get shot by the people they are trying to kill.

It may sound crazy, but the gun crime is lower in places that allow the right to carry than it is in places with strict gun control.  That's because only normal honest people obey laws.  The criminals don't care and will carry guns anyway.  The nuts also seem to get guns regardless of what the laws are.  Allow people to be adults and defend themselves.   Also, please leave the Confederate flag out of this.

Here's a picture of Dylann Roof doing what he does best.  Now this's what I call a real patriotic American.