In the last week we've had another round of mass shootings, something that should exasperate us all. I'm a gun rights advocate and it exasperates me to no end. Because I defend the right to keep and bear arms people take opportunities like these to chastise me, wondering how I can still support that right.
Well, here's the reason: none of the guns that I own have killed anybody, and none of them are likely to. None of the people I know have killed anybody, and none of them are likely to. From a purely statistical point of view, we live in an era of peace unparalleled in my lifetime, and even with these terrible incidents the likelihood that anybody will ever be shot and/or killed is so small as to be irrelevant. That's why.
Nevertheless, these incidents need to stop. Massacres serve to belie the idea that we live in a civilized society. That we live in a civilized society may be a lie we tell ourselves, given the never-ending stream of police abuse, the mass incarceration of African Americans, the continued use of the death penalty, and the vast number of people we charge with crimes that ought not be crimes for the purpose of raising funds at their expense, but it's a goal we should strive for.
So, how do we reduce gun violence? Well, there are some simple steps we ought to take. For starters, we need to make every exchange of firearms not involving family members subject to a background check. Naturally we'll never be able to ensure that every exchange undergoes a check because we don't have a registry. So we should have a registry. Right now I can see other gun rights advocates turning red with fury and sputtering all sorts of inane things because I had the temerity to suggest that there ought to be one. Well, we do have the right to keep and bear arms (with limits), but a registry does not offend that right. There have to be certain protections involved in its creation, but the absurd paranoia about the government coming to get our guns must cease.
We also need to link the National Instant Check System to a national mental health database. When filling out a BATFE Form 4473 the purchaser must attest to the fact that they have never been adjudicated "mentally defective" or committed to a mental institution. That doesn't include seeing a counselor or any number of problems, it only applies to people who have been judged that way by a court or other government agency. Since lying on the form doesn't stop the purchase from happening without some way to confirm it, it's useless to ask. So, we need to amend HIPAA so that it can be checked. When a rejection comes back the seller never knows why, so it's a very small invasion of privacy that would pay dividends with every rejection.
These are two small things we can do. They will never happen. The reasons are simple: gun rights advocates have been worked into a frenzy over the possibility of losing their rights, and the gun control advocates have gone a long way to confirming their fears. After Sandy Hook we had a golden opportunity to get some things passed. Instead, the very next day, Dianne Feinstein whips out the gold standard for gun control advocates, a reimplementation of the expired Assault Weapons Ban, with add-ons to boot. The AWB will never again be law, but still, there it was. There was a groundswell of support for new measures, well over 50% of the people wanted them, but instead the spectre of the past got in the way because someone saw a golden opportunity to shoot for the stars. Instead it turned into what amounted to sabotage. Furthermore, while everybody wants to keep guns out of the hands of crazy people there is a significant opposition to actually taking the required steps because it stigmatizes people with mental issues. There has to be some give on that, too.
Gun control people need to understand that bans are dead on arrival. Gun rights people need to understand that nobody is coming for their guns. And somewhere in the middle they should be able to meet. If we are going to get a handle on this we need to think differently. Alas, the well is poisoned. So we wait until the next time, we rehash the same arguments, and absolutely no consideration is given to the next victims. We like to think that we have the best country in the world. Let's prove it for once. Get it done.
Sunday, June 21, 2015
Wednesday, April 8, 2015
It's Time To Stop Executing People
The guilty verdict in the Boston Marathon bombing case today brought out a lot of the usual reactions. The most common one was "I hope they fry that guy". A few years ago I might have agreed with that sentiment, but I don't any longer.
Let me first say that I don't have any real objection to the death penalty. The Constitution specifically provides for it in the 5th Amendment, to wit:
Like I said, pretty straightforward reasoning. I don't really care about the usual appeals to emotion, it doesn't matter to me that people like to argue that we're like North Korea or other extremist hellholes. I also find it amusing that the death penalty is seen as a conservative position, especially since a lot of the people that oppose capital punishment are in favor of abortion. Criminals at least earned their fate. But that's neither here nor there. I object purely on the basis of economics and human fallibility.
In the words of Gary Gilmore, let's do it. Let's stop executing people. The proponents will still get their pound of flesh, the opponents will sleep better at night, and in the end the criminals will still pay the ultimate price, but we won't pay as much to extract it from them.
Let me first say that I don't have any real objection to the death penalty. The Constitution specifically provides for it in the 5th Amendment, to wit:
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.Nevertheless, it is time to cease executions. My reasoning is fairly straightforward. First, we make mistakes. Once someone is executed it can not be remedied, and in recent years we have had too many people freed for mistaken identity, prosecutorial misconduct, or outright fraud on behalf of the state. 30 years of freedom lost, while horrific in the abstract, pales before the killing of an innocent man. Second, it costs too much. For what it takes to slog through the endless appeals process we could keep the condemned in prison for decades. Last, if retribution is the goal, why not keep the guy on ice for 23 hours a day in a concrete cell, sleeping on a thinly-padded concrete bed, looking at concrete walls? Is it not more satisfactory to the vengeance crowd to make this Tsarnaev guy live for 60 years in a box, hopelessly and irredeemably alone? You can only kill him once, but you can make him wish he was dead every day.
Like I said, pretty straightforward reasoning. I don't really care about the usual appeals to emotion, it doesn't matter to me that people like to argue that we're like North Korea or other extremist hellholes. I also find it amusing that the death penalty is seen as a conservative position, especially since a lot of the people that oppose capital punishment are in favor of abortion. Criminals at least earned their fate. But that's neither here nor there. I object purely on the basis of economics and human fallibility.
In the words of Gary Gilmore, let's do it. Let's stop executing people. The proponents will still get their pound of flesh, the opponents will sleep better at night, and in the end the criminals will still pay the ultimate price, but we won't pay as much to extract it from them.
Thursday, March 5, 2015
Taxes
Recently Tom Wolf was inaugurated as the Governor of my home state of Pennsylvania. He ran on a fairly typical Democratic platform, one that I considered a welcome change from the four years of Tom Corbett's mismanagement. In those four years he managed to cut spending on everything from schools to infrastructure and used a large number of one-time revenue sources to fund the budget, all the while not raising taxes.
Now Wolf comes into office, declares that the emperor is naked, and as usual the anti-tax crowd is doing their level-best to kill him. Here's the thing: taxes simply have to go up. It's easy for me to say, as mine are minimal, befitting my status as one of the working poor, but that doesn't change the essential reality. Within 10 miles of me exist two bridges that are structurally deficient to the point that they have been closed permanently, no longer safe even to walk over. Schools are screaming for money, teachers are spending money out of their own pockets to supplement their classroom supplies. And all the while, the economy is heating up, real estate values are increasing, the stock market is consistently gaining, the price of gasoline is down... people have more money in their pockets. This is a good thing.
That said, when you cut to the bone in order to cover bills during a crisis, you have to eventually restore funding to that which you have cut. An analogy: you have a great job, everything is going well, your house is in good order. Then, through no fault of your own, you are told that you have to take a monster pay cut. You get rid of cable, you change your cell phone plan to the cheapest one you can find, you sell your car and get a cheaper used one, you stop buying steak and eat more chicken, you do everything you can to pay, even dipping into your savings. Then your roof springs a leak, but you don't have the money to fix it so you defer maintenance on it. It continues to deteriorate until the price of repair doubles.
Then it gets better. Everything starts going your way. After a few years you are no longer in the hamburger class, you're back to steak. But the roof still leaks. And now, having put it off for so long, you have to pay for it. Would you, under those circumstances, continue to defer repairs, or would you fix it? Now it costs a lot more, but it is clearly a wise investment.
Of course you would fix it. And that, friends, is what we have here. Nobody likes to pay taxes, least of all me. They consume a disproportionate amount of my income relative to my boss, my uncle, my mother... hell, pretty much anybody. Nevertheless, they are a necessary evil. You like roads? They cost money. You want your kids to do well in school and become educated so that they can grow up to make a good living themselves? Money. As they say in economics, there ain't no such thing as a free lunch.
Yet that's what some people want. They want low taxes in perpetuity under the misguided assumption that an increase isn't necessary. Of course, those same people want raises and cost of living adjustments, the income equivalent of raising taxes, but never would they contemplate any increase in their personal outlays to pay for things that, in the long term, benefit them. They yell and scream, they use things like the Calfornia Proposition system (e.g., Proposition 13) to ensure that the nefarious forces of the state dares not take even one cent more than they feel they deserve, and then they sit contented while the world falls down around them.
Tom Wolf may very well be the first person ever elected to office by telling the truth. Because of his willingness to do the things that need to be done, he may end up being a one-term Governor. Good on him. At some point we need to recognize that everything has a cost and we all have to chip in to pay for it.
His plans have already met resistance, of course. The Republicans will pass a tax increase over their dead bodies. They have other plans, mostly based in the Reagan-era idea of "starving the beast". They refuse out of political principle to initiate a healthcare exchange, instead dropping millions on "Healthy PA", which is the same thing as Obamacare only without the federal contribution because God forbid they subscribe to anything that President Obama had a hand in creating. Wolf will fix that, maybe, but again, money. Everything has to be paid for.
Everybody hates taxes. In a sense they amount to legalized theft. But everybody should recognize that they are a necessary evil, and in the end we are all in this together. If we want something we have to be able to pay for it, and we live this every day. It's time our government did the same.
Now Wolf comes into office, declares that the emperor is naked, and as usual the anti-tax crowd is doing their level-best to kill him. Here's the thing: taxes simply have to go up. It's easy for me to say, as mine are minimal, befitting my status as one of the working poor, but that doesn't change the essential reality. Within 10 miles of me exist two bridges that are structurally deficient to the point that they have been closed permanently, no longer safe even to walk over. Schools are screaming for money, teachers are spending money out of their own pockets to supplement their classroom supplies. And all the while, the economy is heating up, real estate values are increasing, the stock market is consistently gaining, the price of gasoline is down... people have more money in their pockets. This is a good thing.
That said, when you cut to the bone in order to cover bills during a crisis, you have to eventually restore funding to that which you have cut. An analogy: you have a great job, everything is going well, your house is in good order. Then, through no fault of your own, you are told that you have to take a monster pay cut. You get rid of cable, you change your cell phone plan to the cheapest one you can find, you sell your car and get a cheaper used one, you stop buying steak and eat more chicken, you do everything you can to pay, even dipping into your savings. Then your roof springs a leak, but you don't have the money to fix it so you defer maintenance on it. It continues to deteriorate until the price of repair doubles.
Then it gets better. Everything starts going your way. After a few years you are no longer in the hamburger class, you're back to steak. But the roof still leaks. And now, having put it off for so long, you have to pay for it. Would you, under those circumstances, continue to defer repairs, or would you fix it? Now it costs a lot more, but it is clearly a wise investment.
Of course you would fix it. And that, friends, is what we have here. Nobody likes to pay taxes, least of all me. They consume a disproportionate amount of my income relative to my boss, my uncle, my mother... hell, pretty much anybody. Nevertheless, they are a necessary evil. You like roads? They cost money. You want your kids to do well in school and become educated so that they can grow up to make a good living themselves? Money. As they say in economics, there ain't no such thing as a free lunch.
Yet that's what some people want. They want low taxes in perpetuity under the misguided assumption that an increase isn't necessary. Of course, those same people want raises and cost of living adjustments, the income equivalent of raising taxes, but never would they contemplate any increase in their personal outlays to pay for things that, in the long term, benefit them. They yell and scream, they use things like the Calfornia Proposition system (e.g., Proposition 13) to ensure that the nefarious forces of the state dares not take even one cent more than they feel they deserve, and then they sit contented while the world falls down around them.
Tom Wolf may very well be the first person ever elected to office by telling the truth. Because of his willingness to do the things that need to be done, he may end up being a one-term Governor. Good on him. At some point we need to recognize that everything has a cost and we all have to chip in to pay for it.
His plans have already met resistance, of course. The Republicans will pass a tax increase over their dead bodies. They have other plans, mostly based in the Reagan-era idea of "starving the beast". They refuse out of political principle to initiate a healthcare exchange, instead dropping millions on "Healthy PA", which is the same thing as Obamacare only without the federal contribution because God forbid they subscribe to anything that President Obama had a hand in creating. Wolf will fix that, maybe, but again, money. Everything has to be paid for.
Everybody hates taxes. In a sense they amount to legalized theft. But everybody should recognize that they are a necessary evil, and in the end we are all in this together. If we want something we have to be able to pay for it, and we live this every day. It's time our government did the same.
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