thependulumswings

When President Ronald Reagan took office in 1981, he vowed to crack down on substance abuse and reprioritize the War on Drugs, which was originally initiated by President Richard Nixon in the early 1970s.

President Reagan’s wife, Nancy Reagan, launched the “Just Say No” campaign as a part of the war, which encouraged children to reject experimenting with or using drugs by simply saying the word “no.”

In 1985, the percentage of Americans who saw drug abuse as the nation’s “number one problem,” was six percent. In 1989, that number jumped to 64 percent.

Now that we were all aware of it, how well have we succeeded in our efforts?  The word “poorly” is being kind.

Drugs today are as readily available, used, and abused as they were in the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s, ’00s, and ’10s.  If you want to get high you simply make the buy.

On March 30, 1981, President Ronald Reagan was shot and wounded by John Hinckley Jr. in Washington, D.C. as he was returning to his limousine.  He also severely wounded White House Press Secretary James Brady.

Rather than a Just Say No to Guns campaign, The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act was enacted on November 30, 1993.  Often referred to as the Brady Bill, it is an act of the US Congress that mandated federal background checks on firearm purchasers in the United States.  It imposed a five-day waiting period on purchases, until the National Instant Criminal Background Check System was implemented in 1998.

The bill was introduced by none other than Representative Charles E. “Chuck” Schumer back then.  He’s still doing the people’s business and carrying Nancy’s (Pelosi, not Reagan) water 28 years later.

And then there was the terrible Boulder, CO mass shooting that left ten dead Monday.  It’s the lastest of notoriety in a long line of gun killings before, during, and after the Brady Bill and other gun control “measures” taken to control the violence.

President Joe Biden is urging the Senate to take action on H.R. 8 and H.R. 1446, the former of which would create universal background checks and the latter of which would expand the length of time a background check can last.  Sound similar to the Brady Bill?   Also, Colorado adopted universal background checks in 2013.  Hmmm.

Biden also called for an “assault weapons” ban following Monday’s shooting attack at the Boulder, Colorado grocery store.

“I don’t need to wait another minute to take common-sense steps that will save lives in the future and urge my colleagues in the House and Senate to act. We can ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines in this country once again.”

“I got that done when I was a senator. It passed. It was the law for the longest time. And it brought down these mass killings. We should do it again,” Biden remarked.  The Department of Justice released a report following the 1994-2004 “assault weapons” ban and noted that no real reduction in crime could be credited to the ban.  So maybe we should “Just Do It” again.  It sure sounds good.  It always does.

Ban everything new if you want to deny the Second Amendment Right and you would still have 375 million on the streets.

Guns today are as readily available, used, and abused as they were in the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s, ’00s, and ’10s.  If you can’t get want one through conventional means you simply make the buy in the streets.

Or, we could just point fingers, not guns.

Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) pointed one Tuesday on CNN saying Republican lawmakers were “complicit” in all the mass shootings that take place in the United States, given their opposition to gun legislation.  Old Blumey must feel like people don’t kill people, guns kill people.

In turn, Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) pointed another and questioned the wisdom of a push by congressional Democrats to enact legislation in the immediate aftermath.

“Look, these killings were terrible,” he said. But.  “We’re free, and one of the prices we pay for that freedom is that you’re always going to have some people who abuse it.  Freedom is a risk.  You’re not going to stop the killings until you stop the killers.  “In my judgment, we do not need more gun control,” Kennedy continued. “We need more idiot control.”  Old Johnny must feel like guns don’t kill people, people kill people.

“We regulate gun ownership in America. If you are convicted of certain crimes, if you have a tendency to violence, if you are mentally ill, and you want to buy a gun, your name has to run through a database. The problem is that the database has huge holes in it.”

“Republican Senators Grassley and Cruz had a bill to strengthen our national database.”  “Do you know why the bill didn’t pass?” he added. “Many of my Democratic colleagues filibustered it.”

Sounds like the Democrats just say no to what the Republicans say, and the Republicans just say no to what the Democrats say.

Meanwhile, relative to so many other enormously funded initiatives, this country still fails to vigorously tackle mental health issues. Ever talk to a homeless person?

It’s almost as taboo of a subject today as being openly gay was just a decade or two ago.  While we’re printing money maybe we could toss some at the need to control the “idiots” as Kennedy directly called them.

Or, we could once more Just Say No.

How’s that working out so far?