Another one bites the dust. Damnit.

     Lou Reed has died.  He founded the group the Velvet Underground but is probably best known for this song.  The problem with growing older is that you have to watch everything from your younger days die become unrecognizable.  This is why you can never go home again; once you leave, it becomes something else.  You can't return to a memory.  The best you can do is just learn to keep and cherish the memories you have, and learn to accept (or blow up, if you have the know-how) whatever is their place now.

I knew women had it rough sometimes, but damn...

     First, let me say that I usually find sitting through a tampon (or any other 'feminine product') commercial is only slightly less discomfiting than having your prostate examined by a doctor with a hangnail and Parkinson's.  This time that was not the case.

     Secondly, I never knew how dangerous having two X chromosomes could be.  Damn, women have it rough. 

     And, in light of that, I would lastly like to thank God for the Y chromosome.

At last, a jihad I can support.

     Apparently, there is a new jihadist movement around the Mediterranean that has all the boys running to the yard.  That's because it's called the Topless Jihad, and is comprised of groups of women running around various nation's capitols without their shirts on.  These women say they are seeking a 'Women's Spring' and typically write slogans across the relevant portions of their bodies for their protests.  I think this is a great idea.  And it's very green--there are no placards or signs that have to be thrown after they are used.

     (The temptation to insert a boatload of United Press pics here was almost too strong for me to resist, but I did--mostly because I don't know how.  Maybe this will serve as motivation for me to learn.  Google 'topless jihad' and you will get the idea.  There are some pretty interesting videos out there, too.)

     Funny business aside, many of these women are part of FEMEN, a feminist organization that started in the Ukraine.  They protest what they see are violations of women's rights across the world--things like sexual tourism or what is going on in Tunisia.  Young Tunisian women (many of whom are underage) being taken to Syria and forced or tricked into what is known as 'jihad al nikah' or sexual jihad.  These girls are passed around between anywhere from 20 to 100 Al-Qaeda soldiers and then sent home pregnant.  This is happening on such a scale that the Syrian government has begun turning Tunisians (not just but mostly women) away at their borders.

     Anyhow, if this interests you in any way, search for news about Amina Tyler or Pussy Riot or the topics I mentioned above to get a feel (couldn't resist that one) for what these ladies are about.  The message is pretty simple: women are women--human beings--not merchandise, or some kind of heavenly door prize, or the property of violent idiots with extremely misguided ideas about honor and morality.

     With or without the nudity, I can stand behind that.

I have a little hope for this investigation, but not much.

     Most people don't know that when Seal team 6 was founded, that gave the good ole USA a total of two Seal teams.  We used to be kind of smart like that.  Now we seam to be stupid about all our security issues.  We obviously have a terrible screening process for the people we entrust with our secrets.  Every time you turn around there's another jackass on TV spilling sensitive information, to the detriment of our country.  At last Seal Team 6 will finally get an investigation into their deaths.  This article from the Washington Times is a little heavy on the rhetoric, but shows just how concerned the Seals were, and how they tried to minimize the damage and protect themselves and their families from the criminal exposition that ultimately led to their deaths.  They (and their families) were essentially made into targets.  And, no surprise, what usually happens to targets did.  At least their will finally be an investigation into their deaths.

     I'm just wondering if it will actually get anything resolved.  There are a lot of strange things about Team 6's deaths.  I'm pretty certain We, The People, will never get the answers to all the questions we have.  Hopefully, at the very least, the families of those men will get some measure of justice.  Whether or not that will mitigate any of the pain they have suffered at their loss of their loved ones will remain to be seen, however.

I want one!

     Okay, y'all who know me are thinking a ton of things just from the title, I know: could it be that compensated AR-15 he's been saving for, or that timbersheppard pup he's been wanting, or just a vintage set of those tasteful nudes Martha Stewart did in college?  Well, yer all wrong.  I want one of these so if anyone finds a young one, grab it for me! 

     I figure it ought to do okay with the wolves.

I reckon I know this man.

     His name is Edgar Govan.   I went to school with Edgar at Manteo Elementary, Junior High, and High School.  We played football on the same team.  He is accused of killing a man named Steven Stewart, Jr., whom I do not think I ever knew.

     Back then Manteo was a quiet, little town--the kind (like Wanchese, its' closest neighbor, where I spent a good portion of my youth) where everyone knew everyone else.  Which is the long was of saying that I reckon if I had to say anything about him, it would be this: if he is anything like the boy I knew, the man he killed was shot in the back.

I hope this wasn't some kind of wannabe "Fight Club."

     The first thing you learn about knife fighting is that knife fights end up one of three ways:

     1. You kill the other person.
     2. the other person kills you.
     3. You both kill each other.

     The last one is apparently what happened at North Topsail Beach this week.  Maybe if these guys had known the rules, they would still be here.

And you thought video games were bad.

     I have seen trouble caused by soccer before, but this takes the cake!  Please, everyone, if you know someone who is playing soccer, or thinking about playing it, or if you see one of those soccer moms with the magnetic sticker shaped like the ball on the back of her minivan, intervene now and help stamp out this imported menace before it can infect any more of our people.  Keep your children indoors, as any kind of physical activity can be a gateway to soccer.   Ideally you should have your whole family seated in front of a game console 24 hours a day--playing Call of Duty or one of the Skyrims...or even...yes, if you must...even Dance Dance Revolution--whatever games it will take to keep your loved ones inside and thus safely away from the perils of athletic activity.  Otherwise, they might end up drawn and quartered, too.

A little more in regard to my last post.

     Last post I talked about the deliberate betrayal of our nation's security and those that defend it.   I would like to put exactly what those that defend our nation are sworn to do.  This is the oath that all active duty and reserve U. S. military personnel willingly swear in order to serve and defend our nation:

     I, (NAME), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.

     Anyone reading this blog should know that once you make this vow, you are never released from it.  Please think about that a bit.  (The vow differs slightly for military officers and the National Guard--if you are interested, the specifics are here.)  Once a citizen has served in the military, they can never be a civilian again; they are forever after a veteran, and, as such, still obligated to keep the vow they made.

     In the interests of fairness and pointing out stupidity everywhere I can find it, I would like to show another betrayal.  This editorial in the Washington Times does it quite succinctly.  I recommend everyone read it to see exactly what the White House did to Seal Team 6 by making the covert action team that took down Osama bin Laden international celebrities (and thus easily acquirable targets).  It doesn't matter if it was done with good intentions, some kind of overabundance of enthusiasm, stupidity, or malice aforethought.  Just like Edward Snowden and Bradley Manning, the current administration has betrayed We, The People (and royally screwed Team 6--I feel for those guys and their families, bigtime). 

     I personally think that their intrusions into my privacy by recording all of my (and everyone else's on the planet) communications, whether they be by phone/email/text/instant message/whatever, to be a little overkill, but if it catches terrorists or prevents even one more attack on our soil, I guess some good will have come of it.  I can see that it will remain a permanent part of our intelligence gathering assets, whether We, The People, like it or not--it is too cool in that "new toy" way that guarantees it will never be discarded.  And, because it is managed by mere mortals, it will be abused.  Your privacy shrinks day by day.  Everywhere you go you end up in front of some kind of camera.  This often helps solve crimes, which is good, but wouldn't you all rather live in a society that didn't need all this self-surveillance in the first place?  You would think it would be enough to make even the most avid voyeur lose their taste for it.  They (and by this I mean our and every other government on this planet) never will, though.   We spy on everyone else while every other nation does the same.  Why this ridiculous 'round robin' game is necessary is obvious--once the players get in the game they are all afraid to quit.

     And yes, I will state the obvious.  Just like you, I can't help but wonder: where will it escalate to from here?

This one's about the latest leak in our intelligence sieve. Sort of.

     Okay, the NSA is all over the news because they have been listening to people's phone calls.  Actually, they have been doing alot more than that, ever since the agency was founded (in 1952, if memory serves).  The NSA is tasked with providing security for the United States by listening to every piece of communications there is on the planet.  They are not chartered to operate domestically, which is what a good part of the media panic is all about...but the handshake deal they have with all of the major communications providers has been going on for a long time.  Most of them cuddled up to the NSA as soon as they were asked--decades ago--without any kind of court order.  Please note that the NSA does not have a fleet of silent black helicopters or a highly trained cadre of assassins at their beck and call.  They are eavesdroppers taken to the highest degree.  Typically they just have a bank of supercomputers monitoring all the chatter, looking for certain buzzwords like jihad or bomb.  Some of these get brought to human eyes for further examination.  Most get discarded.  A rare few save lives.

     Now, I don't like the idea of any of my phone calls or texts or emails being read by anyone but the person or persons I intended them for any more than the next person.  The harsh truth of the matter is that, unless your browsing with Tor and using Hushmail with the settings tooled all the way up, your communications are not private.  Your phone company keeps this data, as does your email provider.  They data mine every scrap of information they can get and sell it for a huge profit.

     (* I'm pinning this asterisk here because privacy is something I would like to devote an entire post to later.)

     To my readers, please not that I have not written this post in order to condemn or condone the NSA, any other intelligence gathering agency or tool, the White House, the current or any past administration, or the government in general.  I would just like to point out a few things.

     First, if you are reading this, it is very unlikely that anyone in a position like Edward Snowden (the source of the recent leak of what I heretofore thought was common knowledge regarding the NSA) is going to be listening to any of your phone calls or reading your texts unless you are some kind of terrorist.  Second, the United Staes is not the only government that does this--every government on the planet does, or tries to--ours is just one of the best at it.  Third, Mr. Snowden has taken refuge in China.  I would dearly love to know what he is telling the Chinese in exchange for that amnesty, and what his bank balances are--though to be perfectly honest most of the traitors in the espionage history of our nation committed their crimes through some kind of misplaced idealism, rather than for money--though they usually took money as well.  What Mr. Snowden did was no different that what PFC Bradley Manning did.  They both broke oaths that they took to defend you and me and our friends and families--and our Constitution--from our enemies, and then helped those same enemies with their actions.

     Reasons, moralization, or civic outrage notwithstanding, these men are criminals.

     To be more specific: traitors.

I hope they have cheese in prison.

     After hearing what this cheese loving lady did I just had to make a short post about it.  I mean, I like cheese, but I'm not willing to kill for it.  She apparently is, although I'm not sure her choice of poisons would have proved lethal to her family members.  I also don't think her new cellmate will be any more willing to share their cheese, either.

     I just want to add that I am going to the Blade Show next week.  It is the world's largest knife show, held annually in Atlanta.  I just learned how to properly insert a link with this post.  I will make the effort to learn how to post pictures for the one about Blade.  Also, we have a holiday coming up.  I might do a Memorial Day post.  I might not.

     I expect that it will be determined by how much Jack Danial's I have had (or not had) to drink that day.

This one is about Caylee's Law.

     I read in the news this morning that "Caylee's Law" is headed to our Governor's desk.  I am certain that Mr. McCrory will approve it.  It passed with a unanimous vote in the state house yesterday (Tuesday, 7MAY2013).  I'd like to talk for a second about the law.

     "Caylee's Law" is named for the slain daughter of an Orlando, Florida resident named Casey Anthony.  If none of my readers are familiar with this topic, go Google it real quick, I will wait right here.  Up to speed now?   Great, back to the law.  It makes not reporting your child missing after they have been gone 24 hours a crime.  It also makes not reporting a child in danger a crime, though that is only a misdemeanor offense (and not a felony) apparently.  The law increases the penalty for people who knowingly make false reports about such crimes, too.  Lastly, it makes it illegal to not report the death of a child.

     No wonder it passed unanimously, right?

     I'm sure everyone who is reading this, particularly those who were media-bombed daily (regarding this tragedy and Casey Anthony's train wreck of a life) during her trial, are glad to hear these tidings.  In  fact, I'm sure just about everyone is thrilled that this law was finally passed.  It says we are a just nation with our hearts and minds focused on our children.  Our politicians can rest well tonight knowing that they did a great job, creating some much-needed legislation.  At least, everyone I have spoken to thinks that.

     Well, I don't.

     I think what it really says about us as a nation isn't fit to be spoken out loud, much less written down.  What kind of nation have we become, what does it say about us as a people, when we have to make laws that twist our own arms in order to get crimes against our children--particularly abductions and murders--reported?

     This is not the America of my youth.  I know and accept that.  Everything changes over time.  This change, however, I do most emphatically not accept.  It is so terrible and tragic a failure that I will not deride it with my usual sarcasm or ranting.  Instead, I will just put it into words today's desensitized and media-addicted internet culture can understand:

     Epic fail.

     On all of us.

So, why wolves?

     I'm going to give a kind of rambling answer because I get asked this question a lot.  It usually happens like this: someone meets my canines, is impressed by them and compliments me on my great dogs, and then I let whoever it is know that they aren't really dogs.  Of course, they aren't really wolves, either, since they aren't full-blooded.  That would make them members of an endangered species and while getting an endangered species handling permit is a pain in the ass it is nothing compared to the monumental act of douche baggery that keeping something that should be left in the wild to be free truly is.

     For anyone reading for the first time, I have two wolf mixes.  You don't call them wolf hybrids because wolves and dogs are both canines and thus are from the same species.  It is a common mistake, especially on the Internet.  To clarify things by way of an example, if you crossed a jellyfish (an cnidarian) with a bird (an avian), the resulting creation would be a hybrid.  (Okay, am I the only one who suddenly wants a flying attack jellybirdfish pet?  Holy crap, those would be cool!)  Anyway, I have a male Black Siberian husky who is a quarter timber wolf (also known as grey wolves and Canis lupus) and a female red wolf (also known as Canis rufus) that is about ten percent red Siberian husky.  The female is called Winter and the male is called Cort (which, as it turns out, is Gaelic for 'braver than he is smart').  Fun fact: all wolves and dogs in existence today are offshoots of these two wolf breeds.

     I have a bunch of reasons, which I will now post in no particular order.  One thing I really hate is how 'dog breeds' have come to represent appallingly inbred animals with the minds of puppies and bodies that are so wracked with defects that they can barely function as living organisms.  Mutts are way better, but still end up grown animals with the minds of puppies, because that is the number one trait that has been selected for since we partnered up with canines at least thirty-five thousand years ago.  The canine was the first animal domesticated by man, and I reckon we have done a pretty good job of adapting to each other

     Wolves and wolf-mixes, on the other hand, actually grow up.  They don't want to spend every second of the day cringing at your feet or fawning over you or begging to be petted.  It's more of a "Hey, scratch my butt," thing.  Then they go lay down or get on with whatever other furry business they have.  They also make excellent defenders while not being aggressive--as long as you socialize them right.  Get them around as many other dogs and people before they are six months old as you can, or they begin to think that anything that isn't 'pack' is 'food'.  Wolves also have a sense of humor, can hold grudges, and like all other canines, are excellent tool-users.  The tool that all canines prefer the most, of course, is us--human beings.  If you don't believe me, ask yourself why you are getting up the next time your dog is scratching at the door or nosing around an empty food bowl.  Or why you keep throwing the ball every time they bring it to you.

     There are a lot of reasons, I reckon--not all of which I could properly explain.  I suppose the one that matters most to me is the look on a dipstick's face as they try to break into your house and a hundred pounds of something that looks like it just came out of "Call of the Wild" pops up on the other side of the window--that is always hella funny.

This one's about the America of my youth.

     I got the inspiration for this article from my friend who writes the blog, "Random Acts of Patriotism."  This is a list of things you used to be able to do in Old America, back when we were free-range children.

     You could drink a beer at 18.
     You could ride a bike without any safety equipment at all (and we all survived).
     You could ride in the back of a pickup truck--and even sit on the sides of the bed as it moved.
     You could also do this on the hood of a car in parades or your driveway or wherever.
     You could eat your Halloween candy without checking it.
     You could also go trick-or-treating without any adult supervision at all and without fear.
     You could get thrown out of the house all day by your folks and have no problem with it.
     You could smoke cigarettes in school (mine had two areas--one outside and another inside for when it rained).
     You could see a gun rack--with guns in it--in lots of trucks every day in your school parking lot.
     You could go to school and not get shot--even though we had loaded guns right there in the parking lot.
     You could live within your means--because nobody knew how not to like nowadays.
     You could actually get music on the radio in the mornings--instead of idiots that talk endlessly.
     You could find cartoons on TV every Saturday morning--and they were worth watching, too.
     You could drink the water--they only sold it in bottles in Europe and third world countries.
     You could live like a king for a day as a kid on just a dollar.
     You could drink sodas that came in large glass bottles.
     You could hunt down a bunch of those glass bottles and return them to any store for money if you needed some easy cash--like when you'd been thrown out of the house all day.

     There's a lot more, but I have to get off my butt and be responsible for awhile.  If anyone else has anything they would like to add, please feel free to reply to this post or message me through email or Facebook and who knows, I might do another one of these.

     Have a nice trip down Nostalgia Lane.

Ladies, take heed.

     So a prank with a mannequin or two from some store in Sweden seems to have caused a ruckus online, just because they depict a more realistic body image for women.  (You can check it out at http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/she-the-people/wp/2013/03/16/what-a-swedish-mannequin-hoax-reveals-about-body-image/ to see what the fuss is all about.)  Why is it a surprise that men don't actually want a woman who looks like a twelve year old boy in sack dress?  We like curves!  Hips and tits!  Oh, and when the hell did 'plus sized' come to mean a woman with a normal figure?  And what jackass made it out to be a negative thing?  Because I did not authorize that.

     Personally, I think I'm hella lucky.  I am currently living in sin with a white girl that has a black girl's booty.  It doesn't get any better than that.  Also, I have a theory about this whole thing: any guy who looks at an anorexic hermaphrodite on the cover of Cosmo or Elle or whatever rag is currently telling you to upchuck your lunch for the sake of a size 0 dress is probably a bone stabber anyway, so forget 'em.  But it isn't the pedophiles writing that crap--and it isn't men, either.  It's you women who are doing this to yourselves.  And because of that, I have been charged by all of the males of our species to make a public service announcement about this practice.  Here it is:
   
     STOP IT ALREADY DAMNIT!

     If you need that in a different format, I can do it with math:

     Kirstie Alley > Calista Flockhart

     Y'all got the picture?  Please eat a steak, some potatoes, and whatever dessert you want.  Hell, have two-with ice cream.  I wont tell.  And you can still work out if you want, and get into whatever physical shape you feel is the best for your health.  No one will try to stop you.  Just stop trying to look like prepubescent boys, it's freaking creepy and all the folks with Y chromosomes are more than a little concerned for your health.  Except for the douche bags, but they don't count anyway because they are probably pedophiles (as explained above).  Lastly, if you happen to be one of those unfortunate women who are undersized naturally, I have some good news.  I have asked around and some women who have been especially blessed in the curve department are willing to share a little of their genetic good fortune in order to allow for a groundbreaking new surgery I have developed--a reverse of the liposuction procedure, if you will.  Ladies, I give you lipoinduction!  Now let's make size 12 or 14 the new zero, okay?

     There goes my phone.  I bet it's the Nobel Institute, finally getting around to recognizing my genius.

     Laters.

    
    

This one is about the FDIC

     I checked my online banking account today and discovered that I had been charged for something they called "excessive activity fees."  The bank (Wells Fargo) explained it to me as an FDIC regulation.  According to this regulation if you have a savings account you can be charged $15.00 for every online transaction you make after six.  I happened to make eight, so I was charged $30.00 to my savings account.  Sort of a bounced check fee, only I had the money--they just took that money from me because I had the temerity to try using what was mine in the first place.

     I can't exactly explain why I am so offended at this.  After all, the government and our banks do things every day that are stupid and criminal.  I reckon this time, I have just had enough.  I feel they fucked with me one too many times and it is now my duty to fuck back.  I am trying to get that Change.org site to make a petition for me, but can't use it because I signed someone else's petition and when you do that they create an account for you but don't tell you what the password is--so I don't know how to log into the account and their website instructions on how to change your password are entirely fictitious.

     If anyone else has any ideas, let me know.  Apparently the 'creative revenge' center of my brain is on vacation or broken right now. 

    I was going to make a post about the recent panic-buying of guns and ammunition, because it's really pissing me off--you can't find ammo anywhere and prices for both guns and ammunition have gone through the roof.  Then I decided that was a lost cause, at least for the foreseeable future.  What's pissing me off next after that is our lack of a real winter.

     This is the second year in a row we have had temps over 70 degrees (F) in January.  What the hell is up with that?  Where is my snow, damnit?

     I think we can avoid the fact of global climate change any more.  Don't panic, though--I have a cure!  We just nuke a few countries, like Iran and North Korea (before either nation gets ahold of a bomb that can reach us) and maybe a few others (just to keep the riffraff silent), and the resulting nuclear winter will even everything out.

     I have just saved the world.  Now wheres my Nobel peace prize, damnit?

This one is for the dreamers.

     I want to say Happy Birthday to Dr. King.  Martin Luther King was a man of great character and still serves as a good example and I believe that everyone could profit if they took some time to learn a little about him.  The Reverend fought for equality among men and envisioned a world where the petty little differences that set us apart--things like skin color--would no longer matter.  He died fighting for this ideal twenty-one days before my first birthday on 4APR1968.  I can vaguely remember him being on television from that time.  I have slightly better memories of Richard Nixon running for President.  Those (along with even better ones of the first moon landing by the crew of the Apollo 11 mission a little over a year later) are my oldest memories.

     If you all expect this to be the part where I get all predictable like most writer--positing maudlin "what-if's" about the great men in our history taken from us by the hate-filled and fearful, and then going on to drop names like JFK, John Lennon, and Jesus--before trying to make some vague philosophical point about how great a people we would be if we could only stop rolling around in our own shit--prepare for disappointment.  We are born shit-rollers--violent and petty and spiteful--and because of this the dreamers in our midst will always do so at their own peril.  It wouldn't (couldn't) work any other way.

     It's what makes being a dreamer worthwhile.

This post was made under duress.

     She Who Must Be Obeyed has commanded me to use my soapbox here to air one of her grievances.  The issue that is keeping her awake at night is that she can't she find eggnog after Christmas Day in any store in our town, or any of the little ones nearby.  I don't drink eggnog so I don't understand what the fuss is about.  I sweat a little while she tries not to shake the gun she's holding against my head as I write this.  If anyone knows why this is, or has a secret stash of eggnog saved up from before Jesus' womb Bastille Day, please be so kind as to share.

     It's not that I'm afraid of dying, you understand.  I just don't want to be permanently crippled or maimed because she couldn't get a clean kill with the DT's .

    

This ones about gun control.

     There has been a lot of talk in the media about gun control lately.  The sad fact of the matter is that every time a tragedy strikes, someone will try to use if for political gain.  I am usually reluctant to pull things from the headlines because I don't want to be a part of the typical media storms that significant events inspire.  However, I will do so after enough people try to give me their misinformed or fear-inspired views.

     A lot of people think that politicians talking about gun control means that they are trying to pass laws that will allow the government to send an armored SWAT  team into their homes to take away the firearms they already own.  This will not happen.  What the politicians are trying to do mainly is look like they are actively addressing an important social issue.  What they are really doing is being the corrupt, lazy, and inefficient bureaucrats that they are.  Hotheaded activists on both sides of the issue will make things more muddy by spouting off tirades designed to antagonize their opposition.  Ultimately, the best the politicians or activists will ever be able to manage is adding a few more ineffectual laws to an already ludicrously large pile of similar legislation. 

     The truth about gun violence is that every child murdered in a school, every family killed in a movie theater, every innocent person slaughtered in a public massacre by some homicidal jackass with a gun were all abiding by our laws.  They didn't have guns on them because they were somewhere guns weren't allowed, or they had chosen not to own a gun.  The criminal with the gun doing all the killing is the one breaking the law, and that jackass honestly couldn't give a damn how many gun laws they have broken when they are on a killing spree.  No matter how much you or anyone else might not like it, guns are out there in the world--and no amount of legislation or wishful thinking will ever make them cease to exist.

     This is the ultimate truth about all our gun laws: they cannot keep guns out of the hands of criminals who want to obtain them.  The best thing more gun laws can do is create a larger selection of targets for criminals.  Making magazines smaller just means the bad guys will carry more of them.  And being shot with a .45 pistol round or a 5.56 rifle round really will not make any difference to the person with a hole in their head.

     Here is another harsh fact about gun violence: your typical mass murderer, the one that walks into a school or mall or ambushes first responders, usually eats a bullet as soon as any resistance is offered.  Or they give up.  Either way, the killing spree comes to an abrupt halt.

     This is the last hard truth about guns and violence I am going to give to you all: if those schoolteachers or everyone in those malls or movie theaters had been armed, if even just one of them been armed in each attack, the outcomes of them would have been wildly different.  The body counts of these incidents would have been zero or in single digits.  Because the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.