Common sense is absent in gun-rights debate

I’ve written much of this column before. I am a gun owner. I think hunting and sport rifles, shotguns and yes, even some handguns, ought to be allowed in a free society in which we live.

Should everyone be allowed to have a gun or to purchase a gun?

Therein, with me, of late, lies the rub.

And I have already expressed my opinion that shotguns, rifles, and even handguns – should be limited to a very small, finite number of rounds.

No 100-shot rifles. No 32shot magazines on a pistol.

I would like to see nothing like that in the hands of ordinary citizens.

If a sportsman can’t hit a deer with five shots, he or she needs more target practice before wounding an animal.

If the person carrying a pistol for their protection can’t hit their target in five shots? Well, they too need to re-evaluate their premise on needing personal protection.

But let’s get back to the most recent epic fail of the United States Senate – that most exclusive of elected men and women in our nation.

Even this small number, 100, they could not agree on possibly, I mean, possibly, passing legislation to prohibit the purchase of a gun to a selected, almost targeted class of people – not all of whom are U.S. citizens.

I know I need to be extra careful here — lots of social critics are out there in our nation.

The vote or lack of passage of four measures last week in the U.S. Senate leaves me almost breathless in frustration where gun violence of late has occurred.

None of the four measures, two from each side, overcame filibusters to advance the debate on any of the measures.

The first vote, coming from an amendment from Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, fell short of 60 votes needed, with 52 Republicans and one Democrat voting to end the filibuster. Grassley’s bill would provide more money to improve the background check system, but he would not end the so-called gun-show loophole on background checks, which a competing Democratic measure would do.

A stronger background

For the past nine years the Bella Vista Patriots have hosted the 4th of July Patriot Parade in the Sugar Creek Shopping Center. We do it to celebrate Independence Day and we do that by honoring our past and present military personnel. This year’s parade will begin at 9:30 a.m. with pre-parade entertainment and the parade march will kickoff at 10.

Each year we select a World War II veteran to be our grand marshal. The check bill by Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy, only mustered 44 votes to end filibuster. One Republican joined 41 Democrats and two independents in the losing vote. Two Democrats went with the Republicans.

On the bill to consider banning gun sales to people on the terrorist watch list, a Republican bill which would delay purchases for 72 hours, while Democrats would go even farther to prohibit the sales.

The GOP bill was the first to fail the filibuster test, getting 53 votes to end filibuster, with two Democrats joining 51 Republicans. Only three Republicans plus independents opposed filibuster.

And finally it was Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s stronger no-fly/no-buy bill. She got 47 votes to end filibuster — 43 Democrats, two Republicans and the two independents.

Arkansas’ Senators Tom Cotton and John Boozman, both Republicans, did not break from party-line voting.

I know the “No Fly” list is a list.

It can be wrong. But it also can be, and is, more times right, than wrong.

People who cannot fly in a commercial airplane, due to valid suspicions of illegal activity, links to terrorists, or just people who are not safe, really don’t need to be buying guns.

I also think that instant gun show background checks that reveal problems with violence, anger or unstable mental illnesses should be reason enough to stop the purchasing of a weapon.

Were any or all of these bills a cure-all for the spate of mass shootings, lone wolf gunmen, or other horrific scenes of carnage we have seen in this country? No. Still, gun violence in this country is out of control.

It won’t take a re-write of the Constitution to fix it either. •• • reason is obvious — that our time is running out to have this opportunity to thank them for literally stepping up to the plate and saving all of us from tyranny. We interview each grand marshal. That write-up is converted to a DVD which is given to the grandchildren so they will know who their grandpa was. It also winds up in the WW II archives in Washington, D.C., so it is available to anyone.

This year’s grand marshal is Maj. George Brannon. In my interviewing

Hats off to the mayor

Hooray! Yesterday (Monday, June 20), they resurfaced Deddington Drive!

Today I left my house and drove all the way to Trafalgar Road without weaving in and out between potholes, and I did not spill a single drop of my coffee.

A letter to the editor was written concerning the condition of the street. Apparently the mayor considered our request to have the street resurfaced, decided the request had merit and took action. Hats off to the mayor and the Bella Vista Street Department.

That is how government is supposed to work.

Larry Blech Bella Vista

Three decades ago I began to write about fatherless families. The AWOL men caused me to ask, “Where have all the fathers gone?” A decade or so ago, we studied and began to teach about women in the ministry. We saw prejudice in the churches, so we researched biblical roles. Women on the Team was the result (now being updated).

Women are excluded from leading in Christian communities for the wrong reasons, on purpose, by well-educated, sincere, Bible-loving elders… who are all men.

That’s my introduction. Now I’m adding alarming news, a breath-taking, undeniable, across-theboard, huge, observable pause that has taken hold in the churches of America. The pause I’m pointing out is in the reproductive cycle. It has ceased to function. It is like we all had a hysterectomy or had our tubes tied. With few exceptions, the church of Jesus Christ in America has quit giving birth by the Spirit. It seems to me that the modern church has entered menopause.

In some churches, there are new members being added, if you count the increase from transfers. That happens when people move into your area for work, or perhaps when believers are unhappy and change churches to join yours. Another kind of growth occurs due to demographics. The members are at their parenting stage,

Maj. Brannon, he said he was 18 years old when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Upon graduation from Tipton, (Okla.) High School, George said, like other young men his age, he was anxious to strike back. He had always wanted to fly, so he volunteered for the U.S. Army Air Corp Flight School. Upon graduation from flight school he wanted to be a combat fighter pilot.

Sometimes, people not familiar with the military don’t realize that for every 10 military personnel it takes nine individuals to train, supply and support the one that is in actual combat. The assignment you get is strictly a roll of the dice. Everyone who has ever donned a military uniform recognizes that by putting on the uniform it

is an unofficial agreement that you may one day have to sacrifice your life for the cause of freedom. So it was with Maj. Brannon. He spent his years training others how to fly single-engine fighter planes. The war ended and George’s wishes to be an active combat fighter pilot did not materialize during WWII, but he can take comfort in knowing that his instructions to others probably led to their success in air battles and may have saved many of their lives.

After WWII, George stayed in the military. As a pilot of multi-engine aircrafts, he was stationed in Guam. In the Vietnam War he flew supply missions in and out of Vietnam. He said that many times after a mission their planes were riddled with bullet holes.

It is important that we leave these chronicles for the grandchildren and future generations, but in the case of Maj. George Brannon and others of his

Greatest Generation, we try to find the common thread of what made that generation so great. Can we ever capture that again?

I don’t know about the individuals of the Greatest Generation coming from the East Coast or the West Coast because we haven’t interviewed many of them, but, for those who grew up in the Midwest, there are some common childhood traits.

George Brannon, like so many children growing up in the Midwest was a member of an intact farm family. His father, mother, two sisters and three brothers all had their responsibilities to make the farm survive. This contributed to their adherence to a good work ethic. Today, so much of that has gone out the window.

At school, if any of the children got a paddling, the swats taken at school were not of great concern. The real hope was that their father never found out about it. That was a paddling to worry about. Today, when