Sunday, May 26, 2019

No universal background checks on guns

Here is the letter I wrote the Cookeville Herald-Citizen, published on May 14, 2019:

The Thursday letter questioning Rep. Rose indicates that the writer either doesn’t know all the facts, or he is purposefully misleading readers. 
Here’s how the mentioned background checks would create issues for lawful gun owners. These universal check laws seek to require a check each time a firearm changes hands. For example, the law passed in Washington state does not allow for handing a friend or relative a firearm at a shooting range, without first going through a check. Then, when the firearm is handed back, the original owner would also undergo a check. Never mind that he may have lawfully owned the gun for fifty years. Yet, background checks have not been shown to reduce crime, the purported objective. 
The writer uses the phrase ‘we all know’ several times. In one instance, he states, “We all know most people approve of background checks.”  The fact is, background checks have not been shown to keep guns from prohibited persons. With half a billion guns in circulation in the United States, that's just a pipe dream.
The writer states,  “...their (NRA) members send them millions each year because they scare people into believing their right to bear arms will be taken away.”  But when Kamala Harris says, “We need a … renewal of the assault weapon ban,” that sounds like taking away the right to bear arms, doesn’t it? When Julian Castro supports “gun buybacks", of guns the government never owned, what does that sound like? When Bernie Sanders says we need to, “ban the sale and distribution of assault weapons”, uh, is this starting to have a familiar ring?
History has shown that universal background checks (registration) have no good upside, yet plenty of bad downside. 
Liston Matthews
Cookeville
The letter I was referring to was published here:


Thursday, May 2, 2019

Three hundred fifty thousand

Today, this blog surpassed 350,000 page views.

A big thanks to all who have taken some of your valuable time and spent it here.


Tuesday, April 30, 2019

What now, NRA?

Rob Pincus and Joshua Prince
prepare to address the NRA at the NRAAM
Do you remember Union Carbide?
Montgomery Ward?
Sears, Roebuck, and Company?
ITT Technical Institute?

What do these have in common?

Two of them have ceased to exist, one is on the ropes, and what was left of Union Carbide after the Bhopal gas leak was purchased by Dow Chemical in 2001.

Each of them was at one time a thriving business. Sears was a major mail-order powerhouse. Ward's was a big retailer. ITT Technical Institute helped many through technical career education.

Today, people are still ordering items mail-order, only online and not from Sears. Many are still getting technical educations, but not at ITT anymore. Chemicals are in use everywhere, but not produced by Union Carbide. People still shop at local department stores, but not Ward's.

The point of this narrative is to point out that any entity is subject to eventual demise, perhaps through a catastrophic industrial accident as happened to Union Carbide. Perhaps simply through poor business practices or failure to meet customer needs.

Saturday, April 20, 2019

The most important questions

Did Jesus really rise from the grave on Easter?

Was he really born of a virgin?

Eternity hangs on the answers to those questions. If the answers to those questions are true, then he is worth listening to.

He claimed to be the Son of God, which is a huge claim. He was cruelly executed for making that claim.

Did He lie?

Was He crazy?

Is He truly Lord of all?

What do you think?

Are His claims at least worth exploring as much of the world celebrates Easter tomorrow?

Does your eternal future depend on the answers to these questions?






Friday, April 19, 2019

Patriots' Day - April 19, 2019

On April 19th, we honor the anniversary of Patriots' Day and the legacy of Liberty launched that day, which is our inspiration to this day. In doing so, we mark the opening salvo of the first American Revolution in 1775, and the first step toward the establishment of an eternal declaration of the unalienable Rights of Man -- the rights of all people, subordinating the rule of men to our Creator-inspired Rule of Law, the basis for our Republic's Constitution


Read the rest of this article by Mark Alexander at 


Thursday, April 4, 2019

Unplanned

Last Sunday afternoon we went and saw Unplanned. This movie will break your heart if you have a soul. It is the story of a young woman who was a clinic director for Planned Parenthood.

One day, her eyes were opened! She realized what she was doing and left the organization.




This movie may make you sick to your stomach as it did me. Yet you need to see it. This movie all too clearly exposes the multi-generational infanticide we have tolerated in our country.

The unborn (and now immediate postpartum in some states) child is killed at the hand of a stranger . . . dismembered and discarded. There is no due process. No guardian ad litem. Just the ice cold instruments of Doctor Death.

But God provides forgiveness for all sins, to those who repent of their sin, and turn to Jesus. Including those who have participated in this taking of innocent life.