The Gun Debate

The gun debate seems to me to have been unrelenting
during my lifetime. We do have a nation to look to
for an example of even more gun keeping households
than the United States. That nation is Switzerland.

The Swiss are a neutral nation. Still they maintain a
military and require universal military service of all
their male youth. Roughly 66% of their young men
are deemed suitable for military service, the remainder
are required to participate in other national programs
that benefit the country as a whole.

When men have completed their mandatory service,
they are reqired to take home and maintain the equipment
they were issued. That equipment, in the case of  military
personnel, includes a firearm. So some 66% of all male
Swiss citizens have, in their posession, a military grade
firearm, for the rest of their lives.

Still, the crime rates in Switzerland are significantly
lower than some of their neighbors. Ergo, it is not the
availability of firearms alone that leads to crimes. If
we learn to manage the other factors, the presence or
absence of firearms in the home will no longer have
any impact on crime rates.

We have to bear in mind that criminals will always be
criminals, and we're only talking here about the
general population, mostly law abiding citizens, the
ones who some elements of Congress are wanting to
further regulate in their ownership of firearms.

The unspoken problem with gun control is that the
crazies, with guns unavailable, would revert, as they
have in the past, to bomb making. Can you imagine
the additional carnage had the Newtown mas murderer
built a sizable bomb? And if you remain unconvinced,
please take the time to read about the Rwandan Genocide
where in 100 days somewhere between 500,000 and 
1,000,000 people were killed by machete.There is no
question that a disarmed population is vulnerable to 
the most primitive threats.
 
Please note that your humble correspondent here publicly
advocates neither for nor against "guns," but merely
publishes "the rest of the story" that seems to be going
unnoticed and undiscussed in all the hype that is flying
around these days.

Bill Vajk

Greetings!

Unfortunately the dearth of activity by this publication was
unavoidable, necessitated by health difficulties that were
surgically corrected early in December of last year. Recovery
has not been without complications but hopefully your
publisher is finally on the mend.

Picking up where we left off, the first order of business will be
to publish and award two kinds of certificates for the calendar
year 2012. Those will be "Meritorious Service Awards" and
"Lump of Coal Awards" issued to several appropriate groups
and individuals. I plan to have them prepared and delivered
before the end of January, instant.

Along with that the usual fare will occupy us in the immediate
future along with a new initiative designed to improve the
economic conditions in this region. One of the difficulties
encountered over the years has been the drive by private interests
to feather their own nests with nobody looking at the overall
picture, thereby failing to present a proposal that can gather all
the present day private interests under one umbrella while allowing
for future growth by embracing and incorporating such future
growth as develops over time.

Also, considering the long term failure of the regional economics,
we, along with the general public and the state, need to study the
regional political structures with an eye to modernizing the
arrangements of all subdivisions of the state in this region, most
especially those that have proved themselves incapable of
following the laws of Michigan where it comes to acting on
behalf of the state, and the citizens, in local matters.

This is a very tough duty, but such a review must be undertaken
in order to save the region for the ongoing degradation of
public services that has become the standard in this region. Indeed,
I have trouble comprehending that this region is part and parcel
of the United States of America. The pledge of allegiance that is
recited by local political bodies at the beginning of every meeting
has lost all meaning and is nothing more than a recitation as a
matter of form More than one local political body has refused to
look at what it is doing with a view to the legitimacy and legality
of its acts. I must add that in one limited circumstance, the
administration of Iron County has corrected an inadvertent
illegal act when it was called to their attention, but several others
remain unfixed.

Such practices must end promptly. Since they has been ongoing
for a number of years, with the undersigned pointing out illegalities
to those involved, the time has come to take the problem to
authorities capable of making permanent corrections. 

Bill Vajk