Obamacare and gun control. It's all about the control....

While eating lunch with a good friend today, we were discussing the terrible current condition that our beloved country has decayed into the past 40 years. During this conversation, the topics of Obamacare and gun control came up.

As I was offering my two cents on these hot topics I said something that I thought was particularly poignant, profound and...well...just damned well phrased. As I was speaking the thought, I thought to myself, "That is brilliant! I should be writing this down!"

So...tonight...I am!

What were these amazing words of wisdom? Just these; that I could not think of a couple of more fraudulent and evil schemes couched in such misleading and "feels good" packaging than Obamacare and gun control.

Why do I say this? Because neither issue is truly about addressing the very problems they purport to solve.

For example; Obamacare has never - let me reiterate that, never - really been about providing healthcare to the "uninsured." Firstly, according to Gallup* in 2012 82% of America were pretty happy with our availability of healthcare. So the real beef - according to the rhetoric from the left - was that poor 18% who wasn't.

Secondly, ignoring for the moment any component of that 18% that was willingly uninsured (e.g., as in might've had it offered but declined to pay for it) AND that the 18% still had access to heatlhcare thru emergency rooms, free clinics and flatout walk-ins to clinics who had to provide care thanks to a mid-1970s SCOTUS decision that prohibits any healthcare providers from denying treatment to those without ability to pay (meaning such costs are passed onto those of us who do pay), if the whole beef was merely about providing free health insurance to those not covered, hell; Obama could've provided such coverage out've the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 and still had money left over.

Instead he and his ilk opted to go for a complete takeover of the entire US healthcare system - that's a hostile takeover (remember, there was no vote of the people on this issue) by the US government of 1/6 of the US economy. And, after this debacle was forced upon us, they're saying 30 million people will still lack health care insurance.** But, thanks to the aforementioned SCOTUS decision, they'll still have the same old access to heatlhcare they always did. So, in fact, the government takeover of the heatlhcare industry didn't solve the problem at all.

And then there's the issue of gun control. Another "fix" that doesn't fix anything. Unless you count the subdued liberties of the masses and the increased power of the government over the people. In that light, it's a raging success!

The cops don't even think gun control is worth a damn at reducing violent crime. "Among the findings of a survey by the industry website PoliceOne, which tallied responses from 15,000 verified active and retired law enforcement professionals, police overwhelmingly favor an armed citizenry and are skeptical of any greater restrictions placed on gun purchase, ownership or accessibility, editor Doug Wyllie said.

"The survey found that 91.5 percent of respondents believe a federal ban on the manufacture or sale of semi-automatic weapons would have no effect or a negative effect on the reduction of violent crime. Though a national assault weapons ban is dead in the water, numerous states — including Maryland, Connecticut and New York — have adopted or enhanced their own bans.

"The vast majority of officers also believe legally armed citizens are important in the reduction of crime rates."*** 

Not only that, but in US urban areas with the strictist gun control laws, incidents of violent crime are often the highest. For example, "the city of Chicago has some of the strictest gun laws in the United States.  So has this reduced crime?  Of course not.  As I wrote about recently, the murder rate in Chicago was about 17 percent higher in 2012 than it was in 2011, and Chicago is now considered to be “the deadliest global city“.  If you can believe it, there were about as many murders in Chicago during 2012 as there was in the entire nation of Japan."****

Before Chicago took the lead as the most deadly city in the nation, our nation's capital Washington, DC - a workfree drug zone if there ever was one - held the title. And, like Chicago today, it was illegal in DC until 2012 to own "handguns, automatic firearms, or high-capacity semi-automatic firearms, as well as prohibited possession of unregistered firearms."***** And in the 1990s, DC averaged 1.3 homicides a day.****** 

Further, "The United States is #1 in the world in gun ownership, and yet it is only 28th in the world in gun murders per 100,000 people...." "....The violent crime rate in the United States actually fell from 757.7 per 100,000 in 1992 to 386.3 per 100,000 in 2011.  During that same time period, the murder rate fell from 9.3 per 100,000 to 4.7 per 100,000."****

All of this to say that - despite the liberal rhetoric, blatherings and bloviations to the contrary, neither Obamacare nor gun control is about anything other than getting more and more control away from you, me and any other law-abiding, productive citizen of the land and putting us more and more under the thumb and control and at the mercy of the federal government and its centralized control system. Just like it was in the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany and every other tyranny and dictatorship in world history.

So, that's it, Mr. and Mrs. America. If you've ever wondered what a power grab looked like, all ya gots to do is look around. You're living in one - several, as a matter of fact.

Just sayin'....
 

*Mendes, E. (21 December, 2012) Gallup, Americans satisfaction with health coverage slips slightly; But most still rate coverage and quality of their care highly, Retrieved 12 November, 2014 from http://www.gallup.com/poll/159455/americans-satisfaction-health-coverage-slips-slightly.aspx
**Kliff, S. (7 June, 2013) Washington Post, Obamacare leaves millions uninsured; here's who they are. Retrieved 12 November, 2014 from http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/06/07/obamacare-leaves-millions-uninsured-heres-who-they-are/
***Noble, A., (9 April, 2013) The Washignton Times, Law enforcement says gun restrictions are ineffective: survey, Retrieved 12 November, 2014 from http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/apr/9/survey-law-enforcement-professionals-say-gun-restr/#ixzz3Iupg456n
****Snyder, M. (12 August, 2013) End of the American Dream, 18 Little-known facts that prove guns make us safer, Retrieved 12 November, 2014 from http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/18-little-known-gun-facts-that-prove-that-guns-make-us-safer
*****Wikipedia (3 December, 2013) Firearms Control Regulations Act of 1975, Retrieved 12 November, 2013 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firearms_Control_Regulations_Act_of_1975
******Wikipedia (21 September, 2014) Crime in Washington, DC, Retrieved 12 November, 2014 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_Washington,_D.C.