This page is intended for me to vent my frustrations with the world
in general. I will try and have a different topic each month (if I am
lucky) It is a general forum for me to express my opinions about
certain things that bother me from month to month. It is not supposed
to be used as fact. I am also not trying to force my
opinions onto the readers of this document. You may think I'm crazy, but it's just a way for me to laugh at the world.
I finally wrote a new topic. Happy?!?! you vultures.
A new feature here: the Random Quip. Enjoy
Crime in America is high. No one will doubt that. Every day we are assailed with news stories of school kids being shot, convenience store owners being shot, and disgruntled workers killing their fellow employees. For what reason have we for killing our own kind so cruelly?
Fingerprinting has been an accepted police investigative tool for over a century. With technology today, why can’t we fingerprint bullets and shell casings from all new firearms produced?
But guns don’t have fingers. Correct, but the firing pin of a gun and the spiral patterns on the inside of the barrel both leave distinct markings unique to that gun. If law enforcement agencies have a tool (like a national fingerprint archive) in order to identify the user of a gun during a commission of a crime, the chances of locating that individual quickly increase.
What is rifling? Rifling is the series of striated lines inside the barrel of a gun. These lines are transferred to the bullet as it progresses down the barrel of the gun. Each manufacturer has unique patters and each gun is also unique in itself.
The firing pin also leaves markings on the shell itself. Each firing pin pattern is also unique to a gun. The shell, as it is ejected from the breech can also have marks left on it that are unique to that particular gun.
Why do we need a national system of identification for bullets and shell casings? If a crime is committed with a gun registered in a nationwide identification system it can be traced quicker. This system can track the owner and location of the weapon. In identifying a gun quickly, a suspect can be found, arrested and another gun taken off the street.
How would this be accomplished? In the age of technology we currently live in, scanning the surface of the bullet and shell casings to create a 3-D rendered image would not be difficult. Each bullet will have reference points stored with this image. These points will be compared with unknown bullets or shells recovered from crime scenes. All guns manufactured (or imported) after the passing of this law would be subject to identification. All guns prior to this law would be exempt but would be bought back by the government and destroyed. All information linked to the bullet and shells (owners, sellers, serial number, make and model) would be stored in this system with the image of the bullet.
I know that there are ways around this. But, along with this law for identification, would be provisions criminalizing certain things that can be done to “defeat the system.” It would be illegal to modify a firearm (re-drill the rifle pattern in the barrel, change the firing pin, etc) in order to change the appearance of the bullet and shell after it has been fired. Any registered gun sold illegally (private individuals selling their gun to another private individual without a license) would also be criminalized. Any purchase of a gun not registered after the passing of this law would be criminalized. Anyone questioned about the purchase of their unregistered gun and cannot provide proof that it was purchased before the law was passed, is subject to seizure of his/her weapon without compensation.
If this sounds good to you, you can contact the U.S. Senate or the U.S. House of Representatives
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks he's a fool, and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.
Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks he's a fool, and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.
Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others less fortunate are cold and starving.
CBS, NBC and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.
America is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?
Kermit, the Frog, appears on Oprah with the grasshopper, and everybody cries when they sing "It's Not Easy Being Green."
Jesse Jackson stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house, where the news stations film the group singing "We Shall Overcome."
Al Gore exclaims in an interview with Peter Jennings that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and calls for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his "fair share."
Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity and Anti-Grasshopper Act, retroactive to the beginning of the summer.
The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government.
Hillary Clinton gets her old law firm to represent the grasshopper in a defamation suit against the ant, and the case is tried before a panel of federal judges that Bill Clinton appointed from a list of single-parent welfare recipients.
The ant loses the case.
The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ant's food while the government house he is in, which just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around him because he doesn't maintain it.
The ant has disappeared in the snow. The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the once peaceful neighborhood.
If you wish to e-mail me with suggestions about what to talk about,
click here. Comments and criticisms are also welcome.
Get Bitten
For a short Bio of myself and some favorite links, click here.
For the Amazing, Mystical "Ask Joe" click here.
For the Salad Shooter click here.
For the Freedom of Silence click here.
For The Greedy Empire: Florida State University, click here.
For the poems "Leaving the Station" and "The Mirror," click here.
For the Bill of No Rights, click here.
For Lazy Boys (or Girls), click here.
View my Guestbook
