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Name: Tony Guinta
Location: Eagan, MN
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NYC Government Hates Children and is Burning their Feet!

Posted by Tony Guinta on Monday, July 21, 2008 2:46:40 PM
Parents in NYC are complaining to the Parks Department that children are burning their feet on playground equipment.

Has it really come down to this? Is there nothing we can do for ourselves anymore? Must government solve every little problem in our lives?

Come on, folks -- it's the middle of the summer! Use some common sense and either put some shoes on your kids, or keep them off the playground! Kids are pretty smart anyway -- they'll burn their feet once on the playground and then decide that it's best to just keep their shoes on. This is a lesson in personal responsibility.

Or, maybe we should change the old cliché to: "If you can't stand the heat, demand that the government provide cooler kitchens!"

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What's so bad about government control?

Posted by Tony Guinta on Friday, July 11, 2008 4:34:42 PM
Wouldn't it be easier to just let government take care of everything? Everything would be great -- no responsibility, no effort, no worries. Government could provide all -- food, shelter, healthcare, public safety, free high-speed internet -- everything!

To those who haven't studied history, this seems like a great idea. Why wouldn't this work? Everybody just put all their money into the pot and Big G will divide it up fair and square. What they don't realize is that this has been tried over and over again and has failed. It's called socialism.

The ideals of socialism appear sound in theory, but history has shown that power corrupts. Unless people understand the reasons why socialism doesn't work, they'll keep resorting back to it. Thomas Jefferson warned "The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground".

The problem is that in order to have government provide all, government must have power to control all. And this is where history has shown that the powerful soon become greedy and always cut a larger slice of the pie for themselves. After all, they deserve it, since they're providing all to the peasants.
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Guns Are Dangerous

Posted by Tony Guinta on Friday, July 11, 2008 11:48:30 AM
Yes, guns are dangerous. That's why with freedom comes lots of personal responsibility.

There are some gun-control advocates who seem to equate the right right to keep and bear arms with the right to shoot whomever you want. They paint pictures of the "Wild West" and seem to believe that if it's legal to own a firearm, then it must be legal to shoot whomever you want.

Just because I have a right to own a gun does not absolve me of accountability if I should shoot someone either accidentally or for no just cause (i.e., to stop a deadly threat).

There are many things that are dangerous and there are a good number of people who do stupid things in this world. Fortunately, the majority of us are responsible human beings who are willing to be held accountable for our actions.

You know what else is dangerous besides guns? Cars, poisons, and swimming pools. According to CDC statistics, in 2005 the incidences of death included:

Homicide Firearm: 12,352
Unintentional MV Traffic: 43,667
Unintentional Poisoning: 23,618
Unintentional Drowning: 3,582

Should we ban all things dangerous or should we keep our freedom and be willing to pay the price for when we do something stupid?

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Are People Good?

Posted by Tony Guinta on Thursday, July 10, 2008 6:51:42 PM
Are most people by nature good or bad? Your answer here tells a lot about you.

In order to believe in the values on which this country was founded, one must believe that people, in general, are good-natured. A free society would not be possible if most people were evil.

I will admit that there are some days where I question this myself, but then I remind myself of how bad things really would be if we had to assume that most people were bad. Our perception becomes distorted by the media since acts of malice are reported more than acts of kindness.

Whenever I think about this topic, I remember in grade school, there was always one kid in the class who was the "trouble-maker". He (sorry, yes, it was always a "he") was set-off from the rest of the class at his own desk, away from the rest of the class. Sure, many of us also got into trouble, but most of us learned the concept of action/consequence. Thus, we learned that when we didn't obey the rules, there was a consequence -- either we had to sit out at playtime, or write "I will not speak without raising my hand first" one-hundred times. Sure, the bad kid was the exception, but that's why he was just that -- an exception.

I also like to believe that the converse is true as well. Meaning, that most of us learn that rewards are returned for doing good deeds. We may do it unconsciously, but inside, we know that if we do someone a favor, they're more likely to do one for us in return.

With liberty comes responsibility. What does this mean? Sure, you can legally say anything you wish, but if you say the wrong thing to someone there will likely be a consequence. The consequence may be that you don't get a job for which you were interviewing, or it may be as simple as getting words you don't like thrown back at you.

Most people are good and that's why a free society works -- good will always triumph over evil as long as there are more good than evil. If you don't believe that people in general are good, then you're likely to believe that more government control is necessary to keep the people in line. However, if you believe in the good of humanity, you are more capable of accepting a free society.
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Reasons why the Second Amendment is Challenged

Posted by Tony Guinta on Wednesday, July 02, 2008 5:00:00 PM
I have spent a lot of time pondering the reasons why there are questions about the second amendment. Often the argument turns to debates over the word "militia" and whether or not the founders intended for the second amendment to apply to the people or to the states right to form the National Guard.

This argument appears to be easy to clear up by reviewing the federal legal definition of militia in Title 10 Section 311 of the US Code:
Sec. 311. Militia: composition and classes
(a) The militia of the United States consists of all able-bodied males at least 17 years of age and, except as provided in section 313 of title 32, under 45 years of age who are, or who have made a declaration of intention to become, citizens of the United States and of female citizens of the United States who are members of the National Guard.
(b) The classes of the militia are -
(1) the organized militia, which consists of the National Guard and the Naval Militia; and (2) the unorganized militia, which consists of the members of the militia who are not members of the National Guard or the Naval Militia.
I read this as all able-bodied males between 17 and 45 are members of the militia. Also, females who are members of the National Guard are considered part of the militia. So, even if the second amendment only applies to "the militia", that includes every able-bodied man who's between 17 & 45.

I believe the real reason for the debate regarding gun rights is that there are many who feel the second amendment is obsolete and they're looking for any excuse to get rid of it. I see several reasons why some would like to do away with the second amendment:
  1. There is a general, irrational fear of guns
  2. We are continually outsourcing more and more aspects of our lives; and ...
  3. ... the concept of personal responsibility is eroding, so we rely upon the police and military to defend ourselves and our families
  4. US History is not studied anymore, thus the reasons behind the second amendment are misunderstood
  5. Gun control advocates believe that people in general are stupid, irresponsible, dangerous, and cannot be trusted to possess deadly weapons
What follows are my in depth thoughts on these points...

Irrational Fear of Guns - Guns Kill
We all agree that guns are dangerous tools, but they are still just tools. Cars are also very dangerous but we allow teenagers as young as 16 years old to drive cars. A car can be as dangerous as a gun, in that someone can drive it to a crowded area and mow down tens of people. In fact, in Santa Monica, CA in 2003, an elderly man lost control of his car and plowed through a farmer's market killing 9 people and injuring 45. Imagine how many could be killed if someone intentionally set out to mow down a crowd.

There are many other tools that are as, or nearly as, dangerous as guns, but guns are generally feared more than any other tool. There seems to be this perception among many that possession of a gun will turn a perfectly normal, law-abiding citizen into a psycho killer. It almost seems as if some people think that guns will just randomly fire on their own, killing innocent children for no apparent reason.

Foreign Concept of Personal Responsibility
Every day there are more examples of how the concept of personal responsibility is eroding. Someone else is to blame for anything that goes wrong, and we are all victims:
One of the results of this is that many people are less apt to take the initiative in a situation -- they wait and expect someone else (preferably from the government) to take action. On June 2nd, an elderly man was hit by a car while crossing the street in Brooklyn, NY. It was a hit-and-run incident and other cars continued to swerve around the man who was lying in the street and kept going. There were people standing on the sidewalk just looking at the person in the middle of the street, but none tries to help the man. Truly pathetic.

We have a growing society of people who aren't taking care of their own families, let alone helping their neighbors, or participating in their own communities. With freedom comes responsibility. Every time we give up some of our responsibilities, the government compensates by assuming more power which results in us giving up another piece of our liberty.

With this mentality, rather than holding people accountable for their actions, we have numerous prevention laws, examples being seatbelt and helmet laws. When it comes to gun laws, you'll often hear the soundbite "if this law saves just one life...". Some of the articles I reference here have comments attached, and you'll see that many people simply call for more laws and regulations rather than simply holding the true offender accountable for their actions. In their opinion, it's clear that the government is not doing enough.
 
Outsourcing - It's the job of the police and military to protect us
As our lives are becoming more complicated and busy, we're outsourcing more and more of the basic tasks that we used to do for ourselves:
  • Get a flat tire, call AAA and wait for them to change it
  • Hire a handyman to change a doorknob
  • It's the fire department's job to protect our homes and businesses from fire
  • It's the President's job to protect us from natural disasters 
  • It's the police department's job to protect us from violent criminals
  • It's the military's job to protect us from foreign threats
  • It's the government's job to provide us with health care and retirement funds
  • The list goes on and on
This is related to the lack of personal responsibility, but compounded by the fact that we're all becoming more busy and focused on our jobs and less focused on other essential aspects of our lives. The point is, many people don't believe that it's their responsibility to defend themselves -- they erroneously believe that this is the job of the police. However, there is very little that the police can do in terms of prevention -- usually, their action begins only after a crime has been committed.

US History - Our nation's forefathers didn't know what they were doing
When I was in school, I didn't care much for history -- I never understood what the point of it was and it seemed to be a boring subject of memorizing names and dates. I didn't have a history teacher who explained the importance of the subject (i.e., "Those who fail to study history are doomed to repeat it"). Unfortunately, I don't think my story is unique -- many of my fellow Gen-X'ers and the Gen-Y'ers seem to have this attitude. Fortunately, in my recent years I've come to appreciate the value of learning history.

The founders of this nation certainly did study their history and knew that every repressive government had a great fear of an armed populace. In creating a free society, it was a given that the right to bear arms would be the final check against the government to insure against a dictatorship.

"What country before ever existed a century & half without a rebellion? & what country can preserve it’s liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon & pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants. It is its natural manure." 
- Thomas Jefferson in a letter to William Stephens Smith

It's important to note that the right to keep and bear arms was not granted in the Bill of Rights -- it already existed. That's why it's stated as it "shall not be infringed". This right existed not only so that we could maintain "a well regulated militia", but also so that we could protect ourselves, our property, and maintain a threat against possible tyranny. The founders believed in the concept of natural rights, and encapsulated within the natural right to life is the right of self defense.

People cannot be trusted -- they're stupid and evil
This too is directly tied to the concept of personal responsibility. This is why we have government programs piled on top of programs to compensate for the lack of personal responsibility of others. Examples being seat belt and motorcycle helmet laws. The point here is that gun control advocates tend to believe that people cannot be trusted with guns, their fear being that people will start shooting each other over every little confrontation, such as fights over parking spaces or because your fries weren't served hot.

In order to maintain a free society, we must believe that people in general are good. Freedom allows people to make their own choices in life, whether good or bad, so long as those choices do not infringe upon the rights of someone else. When kept this simply, it is easy to hold individuals accountable for their actions -- it only becomes muddied as soon as we attempt to legislate through prevention (i.e., nanny-state laws).

Bottom Line
Loss of faith in humanity has led to many people looking to government to provide answers to all of our problems. Thus, in their minds we don't need a militia anymore -- we have the police and the military.

It's important to note the circular affect of this thinking:
As we lose faith in ourselves, we give up responsibility and the government compensates by taking on more power. As government assumes more responsibility, we trade in a piece of our liberty. As we become accustomed to government taking care of everything for us, we continue to lose trust in our own abilities, so we give up more responsibility. And so the cycle continues.

Many people scoff at the fear of government control. In fact, many are demanding more government control. This is a huge disconnect from the beliefs of our forefathers who had a healthy distrust for a strong central government. My fear is that we may be caught in a downward spiral and will have to hit bottom before we realize how far we've drifted from the values on which this great nation was built.

What can we do?
Here is a list my own personal endeavors in the interest of preserving liberty and promoting personal responsibility:
  • Take care of myself, my family, and my community
  • Rise to the occasion and take the initiative when no one else steps forward
  • Gently educate others and remind them of the importance of personal responsibility
  • Continue to study history in order to learn from the wisdom gained through others' experiences
  • Respect the liberty of others as long as their liberty does not infringe upon that of someone else -- that means even when their choices are in conflict with my own beliefs and values
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