As anyone who has read my postings (blogs) will surely understand, I am a God fearing, Constitution loving, family loving man who served my country for many years. I love our country and want it to last forever. However, that possibility is being reduced by leaps and bounds as the “Progressives” work tirelessly to destroy the USA.

A number of people who are very close and dear to me are, unfortunately, very fond of Bernie Sanders. There is a lot wrong with Sanders and I will note some of his more egregious flaws at the end of this posting, but first, as a gun-guy, I would like to address his take on gun control. One of those dear to me has sent Bernie’s official position so that I would be able to understand just how reasonable Bernie’s position really is. Therefore, I will not guess what his position is, I will be able to read it off his position paper and offer my comments. Actually, I find his official published position/s to be much more reasonable than many (most) of his rival Democrats.

For those of you who don’t know me well, let me offer some of my bone fides. I started teaching firearm safety and marksmanship over 30 years ago. I formed my company Falcon Personal Security in 2007 and it has had an explosive growth and we are now up to an employee count of – – one. If I have an employee dispute, I simply look in the mirror and get it straightened out. All kidding aside, I have certified for almost every certification from the NRA that they offer.

Now, back to Bernie. Let’s look at what he says. He claims to be “middle ground.” He has voted on the nationwide ban on military-style assault weapons. The Progressive definition of “Assault Weapon” is anything that is black in color, has a pistol grip, is classified as a semi-automatic, and a detachable magazine; in other words, scary looking guns. What Progressives don’t understand is that this definition can be applied to guns that date back to the Spanish-American war. The bottom line of this position is that Progressives don’t understand what an assault weapon is. Actually, the term was not even invented until Bill Clinton decided to ban them in the 90’s. If there was actually going to be such a weapon as an assault weapon, it would be a fully automatic fire weapon such as was used to storm the beaches at Normandie, Okinawa, Iwo Jima, and you get the point. Banning guns that Progressives call assault weapons would ban over 70% of all firearms in the United States.

Bernie wants to ban bump stocks. From a freedom and liberty standpoint, I disagree with this position but from a practical point, I have no opinion on bump stocks. They just burn up ammo at an extreme rate and I suspect they are hard to shoot accurately, but I have no experience with them.

Bernie wants to federalize 100% background checks. The rational behind this is that he wants to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and those with mental issues. In Bernie’s favor, he says that he is in favor of background exemption for “family, friends, and neighbors.” I applaud this exemption but would argue, correctly, I might add, that criminals don’t go to gun stores to buy guns and FBI statistics do not support the idea that criminals buy their guns at gun shows. Bad guys steal their guns or they buy them from those other bad guys who stole the guns. I do applaud Bernie in his concern for addressing mental health issues in this country. He is absolutely correct in this position. The US is grossly lacking in this area.  

Bernie wants to take on the NRA. The rational given is that he wants to take on all big-money support in Washington. He says that the NRA has a corrupting effect on Washington. Well, let’s look at that with regards to other industry lobbying organizations. Most other lobbying organizations lobby to get money and/or business, or favorable legislative perks for their organization members; in this last category I would point to the labor unions. However, the NRA lobbies exclusively to advocate for governments (state and federal) to merely follow the constitution. I greatly appreciate the NRA from a training aspect as they have set the standard for firearms safety and training in the US. The NRA-ILA (Institute for Legislative Action) wasn’t even formed until 1975. The whole purpose of the NRA-ILA is to ensure that the Second Amendment remains intact and that Progressives do not emasculate it, or worse, abolish it. I find it sad that we have to have a lobbying organization that fights to uphold the Constitution. I thought that was the job of our elected officials.

Numerous famous people such as actors, and prominent business persons have said that guns are rarely used in defense of an individual or group of individuals and therefore average citizens have no legitimate reason to own guns. This argument is naive at best. Estimates of anywhere from half a million to three million times per year just the presence of a firearm in the hands of prospective victims have prevented the crime. These figures are difficult to impossible to verify because most of these cases are never reported to the authorities.

Now, I told you that I would look at some of the major problems I have with Bernie. First, he has never had a job where he took home a regular paycheck. When he was young, he did sell some articles for $15 (to whom, I don’t know), one of which talked about how women fantasized about gang rape. In his youth, he had some part-time jobs, but never ran a company, made a payroll, or even attempted to establish a career except for politics. He was a draft-dodger.

In his career in the Senate which he has held since 2007 (he was a Representative from 1991 – 2007) he has been able to pass three bills, two of which were to name post offices.

In 1988 he took a cold-war era honeymoon in Communist USSR. He went to Cuba in hopes of meeting Fidel Castro. This attempt was unsuccessfully. He describes himself as a democratic socialist. He is a firm believer in giving things away such as free health care and 100% forgiveness of student debt. As the old saying goes, if you think something is expensive now, just wait until it is free. All the stuff Bernie wants to give away has to be paid for by someone, and that will be the wage earner.

Just the idea that Bernie Sanders may have a shot at the presidency scares the wits out of me. I don’t believe for a minute that a Sanders presidency would even have the low success of the Obama administration.