Concealed Weapons: Yet another reason to loathe Illinois

First off, I work at a Level 1 Trauma Center, an Emergency Dept in a city that has a crime rate that is by ratio, higher than Chicago.  I know what guns do. Actually, I know what PEOPLE do with guns.  At first, I admit.  I wasn't really 100% for concealed weapons. I wasn't against them by any means, but I figured the more people with guns, the more problems. I did some research, and I'm glad I did.  Here's my two cents.


I love shooting as a hobby.  I go deer hunting every year and shoot targets whenever I get a chance.  I'm not a gun expert, I'm not an ammo expert.  I shoot a .243, .357/.38 special, .22, and if I want to dislocate my shoulder, I'll shoot the 12 gauge.  I love the power, the thrill of hitting a bulls-eye, and if I could hunt every weekend, I would...so long as I am using what I'm shooting...I'm not for killing for nothing but sport.  Unless, of course, it's a legitimate population control problem.  I've never had to use a gun for anything but targets or hunting, and I hope that remains to be true throughout my life.


At first glance, most people are going to shy away from citizens being allowed to carry a concealed weapon.  I can say part of me agrees with this.  I unfortunately have witnessed the village idiot who thinks he knows everything and anything about guns, and ended up shooting himself in the leg while showing off his 'skills,' or rather lack-there-of.  Some people should never hold a firearm. However, some doctors should never have held a diploma or carried an MD at the end of their name.  A doctor who is clueless about his practice is just as dangerous as a know-it-all with a gun (I've also witnessed this).  One is just more physically apparent than the other; both equally lethal.  You don't see laws in place keeping normal people from getting doctorates because of the occasional idiot that gets through medical school.  However, you see a LOT of laws keeping normal, level-headed citizens from keeping firearms for defensive purposes.  Especially in the no good rotten Liberal ridden flat state of Illinois. (To further assess my endless hatred for Illinois, please see this post.)


More guns circulating means more crime? Right? WRONG. It makes little to no difference, in fact, most of the statistic point the opposite way.  Let's see here.  The violent crime rate in the state of Illinois is 243% greater than the national average.  Now, lets look at Tennessee.  The violent crime rate there is 223% greater than the national average.  And Texas.  In Arlington, Texas, the violent crime rate is 83% above the national average. 


James Q Wilson, Ph.D Professor of Political Science at Boston college was quoted saying: 
"States that passed these laws experienced sharp drops in murder, rape, robbery, and assault, even after allowing for the effects of poverty, unemployment, police arrest rates, and the like. States that did not pass these laws did not show comparable declines. And these declines were not trivial – he is writing about as many as 1,000 fewer murders and rapes and 10,000 few robberies. Carrying concealed guns reduces – it does not increase – the rate of serious crime, and that reduction is vastly greater than the generally trivial effect of gun-carrying on accidental shootings."


If a criminal wants a gun, he's going to get it, regardless of whether its legal or not.  Legality of the firearm makes absolutely no difference.  All you're doing is taking the firearm away from the person that is ACTUALLY going to use it for defense.  It is proven, and common sense, that a criminal is less likely to attack if someone has the chance of being armed.  In this wonderful hate-crime ridden city, I can't even intervene if I were to witness anything just from the stand point that if I do, I am dead. Guaranteed.  I'm better off calling the police, and praying for whomever is being victimized.  There's being a hero, and there is being an idiot, and in a state that has no concealed weapon permits, the hero option is completely eradicated.



John Lott, PhD, Visiting Senior Research Scientist at the University of Maryland at College Park wrote in his book More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun-Control Laws::
"It is a fact that in communities where citizens have been granted licenses to carry concealed weapons and are not restricted from keeping loaded guns in their homes, crime rates drop. Such conditions have proven to be a deterrent to crimes such as home invasions, burglaries, muggings and car-jackings because criminals will not risk being confronted by a victim's firearm. Tightening laws restricting the use and possession of firearms does not protect average law-abiding citizens; it only puts them at greater risk. Enforcing licensing restrictions, trigger locks, and waiting periods makes it more difficult for law-abiding citizens to defend themselves and as a result encourages criminal activity. Only criminals benefit when ordinary citizens are deprived of their right to own a firearm and protect themselves, their homes, and their families."


Let's take this for example.  This sheriff has the right idea here.  Our justice system sucks.  It just does.  I just saw another article about a man who loured a woman to his house and then tried to make her his sex slave.  He had been to jail three times.  Had hundreds of films and thousands of pictures of violent child pornography.  After this rape, they decided he deserved a life sentence (wow, really? you think so?) but he's up for parole in 5 years.  You know what would have happened if she would have had a gun? He'd be dead. And I guarantee you the next person he's going to rape/kill in 6 years, probably would have appreciated that gesture.


Illinois is flat out unconstitutional.  We have the right to BEAR arms.  Not just own them.  Not just to let them sit and look pretty in our gun safes.  This is how they call Illinois gun laws constitutional.  We are allowed to keep the guns in our closets, which is pretty much bearing arms.  No. We have the right to bear them for traditionally lawful purposes, outside of militia and police.  Not everyone is going to go run for their concealed weapons permit.  Most people want nothing to do with that responsibility, and that is fine.  But like I said before, keeping law-abiding citizens from bearing arms will not keep the criminals from bearing them.  In fact, now, more criminals bear arms in Illinois than level headed citizens.  Wrong? Just a little bit.  I see the outcome to this quite often in the ER, far too often, and frankly, I'm sick of it.


The vague idea of everyone being able to conceal a weapon is terrifying, but when you look at the facts, and truly consider WHO is carrying those firearms, the initial thought is misleading.  You're more likely to die in a car accident tomorrow than to get shot accidentally, or even purposely, by a law abiding citizen who is carrying a concealed weapon.  I may be speaking just for myself, but I'd rather die from an accidental misfire from a concealed weapon, than a thug who wanted nothing but my ATM card.  Just saying.

Facebook: Good, Evil, or Neither. I'm on a Mission.

I finally did it.

I deactivated my Facebook. My friends have my phone number. My e-mail address. My real address. I have no idea why it took me so freaking long to do that. It's almost liberating. I can have an actual social life, get my school work done, and figure out who's talking to me because they're just bored, and who's talking to me because they actually want to. Maybe I'll be on here more, actually learning something and taking part in real conversations. I'm by no means saying it's staying deactivated forever, but the goal is for at least a couple months. The Facebook addiction has to stop. I'm 21 years old, I'm in nursing school, I have a pretty good network of friends. I don't need this.

This whole Facebook phenomenon has bothered me from day one. The fact that literally, LITERALLY 50% of people have one, is ridiculous. I will admit, Mark Zuckerburg is brilliant on many levels, but he's created such an easy mask for everyone. People I know in person portray themselves on Facebook exactly how they want others to perceive them, that doesn't mirror how they actually are. It encourages the mask, when in other instances it can actually help people take the mask off. I've seen awesome things happen through Facebook... thousands of people coming together for one cause, praying for someone they don't even know, that they wouldn't have heard of unless Facebook was there. I've gotten to know acquaintances, friends that I 'knew,' but never would have truly gotten to know if it weren't for Facebook. And for that, I'm very grateful. I've obtained precious friendships that I would hate to lose.

On the other hand, I can't get anything done. I'm creeping on people I don't even care about, let alone am "friends" with, looking through their pictures for heaven knows why, wasting hours of my time doing absolutely nothing productive. People were not meant to know absolutely everything about each other's lives. Period. I don't need to know where everyone works, where everyone lives, when everyone is working, how everyone feels, who everyone is dating.  It's not healthy.  Especially in the girlfriend/boyfriend department. Ex-gf/bf's are not supposed to be able to creep the snot out of each other, having to see their next boyfriend or girlfriend, when in most circumstances, before MySpace/Facebook, you both move on with your life and go your separate ways, often not ever hearing about each other at all. It makes the drama that much more frequent, and the obsession that much worse.  Now there is "Facebook Official," a term that has pretty much been coined as "dating."  Your'e literally not dating until it's "Facebook Official."  Then once it's Facebook official it's out for everyone to see, then you end up realizing this person isn't all who they're cracked up to be, and you break up a month later.  Obviously, after you've both posted "I love you xoxoxo BABE" all over each others wall (which by the way, makes me want to vomit).  Doesn't that just look fantastic on your profile. Week long relationships followed by a solemn status that could be compared to something a Jr. High girl writes in her diary.  That's just slightly embarrassing. If you're not embarrassed by that, I'm embarrassed FOR you.

Then we get the point where Facebook changes something and people act like Mark Zuckerburg is a homewrecker. Oh, heaven forbid, he changed the layout of YOUR Facebook. It goes past opinions on the new layout. It goes to a point that is absolutely pathetic. Get over it people, change happens. It's human nature to like routine. Remember when you hated the last update 6 months ago? Yeah. You hated it until you adapted to it. Now they want to change the one you used to hate with one you'll hate for about 2 weeks. Then you'll get used to it, forget it was ever different, and we'll hear nothing more about it. Wow, grow up.

Facebook also makes it incredibly easy to see what kind of person someone is; almost too easy sometimes. Heck, all you have to do is look at their slideshow of profile pictures. It's almost comical how narcissistic some people are. A fine, shining example is the young adults sporting the stereotypical-teenager-half-naked-bathroom-mirror-pictures where the camera phone flash is bouncing off the glass next to their almost-kind-of-not-really-might-be-ribs-ripped-abs. You can also tell when a man has no guts at all, when instead of talking to you in person, regardless of seeing you every day, he sends you messages on Facebook instead, giving you his phone number and telling you to text him rather than asking for yours and having that chance of being declined. I can understand not asking face to face sometimes, even I will sometimes prefer that men do that, but there are better ways than handing her your phone number and saying "text me." I mean seriously. You're not 12. Which by the way, 12 year olds shouldn't have cell phones. But that's a different rant for a different day. Anyways.

Speaking of phones. People have their faces buried in their smart phones all freaking day (I am no exception by any means) and they miss what's going on around them. It's like living in The Sims world. I never knew the point of that game, yet it was addicting. It was like living without having to live. That's exactly what we're doing to ourselves. We're putting our entire life online; school, work, social, business, advertising, music, everything. On one end of the spectrum, its making us thrive, on the other its absolutely destroying us. Its a win-lose situation all in one, and obviously nothing is perfect. I've been on Facebook for a really long time, for years now. I want to see the other side of it.


My mission, that I will report back on in the coming months:

1) Find out really, how hard is it to stay off Facebook; really, how bad is my addiction to the social network?...more importantly..can I actually stay off of it?

2) Am I really missing out, being 21 years old, in college, and not being on Facebook, like EVERY single one of my friends/family?

3) Does getting rid of Facebook get my face out of my phone...or at least help get my face out of my phone.

4) Find out how much society relies on this one site for general communication.

5) Will my quality of life change even slightly if I do or do not have it?

6) Facebook: A terrible means of distraction and masked relationships, or just a harmless means of communication that brings society together? Or the answer that I hate the most, but I know I will most likely arrive at: Both.


I'm curious. So I'm going to try it.

I'm a procrastinator, and if I don't have the one thing that has helped me procrastinate for the last 4 years, who knows what I might accomplish.


I'll update in the next month or two on this, we shall see.


POST-EDIT: I wanted to share this with you as well, this guy has some great points!

Mommy, Where Do Nincompoops Come From?

So I was pondering how people could become so ignorant, stupid, mindless, and heartless as some politicians and people are today.  It dawned on me.  American children scare the daylights out of me.  The new generations are so far beyond screwed up that I honestly don't even want to consider what is going to happen in the future of this country.  Consider this and remember the type of politicians, people, and celebrities that are emerging:

1) Punishment doesn't exist anymore.  Heaven forbid you have to be 'mean' to your child, or lay a hand on them.  Frankly, its abuse not to discipline your kid.  Every child is different, there are some you will never have to lay a finger on them, but others, need physical reinforcement to let them know they can't throw a jar of pickles at dad's head when he tells them they can't have what they want.  This kid will grow up to be an absolute arrogant brat, a person who expects everything to pan out for them.  A liberal politician who expects everything to be done for them, with little-to-no common sense what-so-ever.  A 12 year old girl comes into the ER and screams like a banshee because she doesn't want to be there.  She wants to go home and eat ice cream.  Mommy strokes her hair and goes, "It's okay baby, we can stop and get ice cream on the way home." Three people had to help get a simple splint on her slightly sprained ankle because she "didn't want it."  Heaven forbid.  Tell your kid to shut up, buck up, or get popped upside the head.

2) Divorce.  I can say not all, but a very large majority of people I know whose parents have gotten a divorce, have ended up mentally marred in some way by it.  In fact, it usually leads to that person ALSO getting a divorce later on in life.  Like I said, this is not everyone, but I see a very strong trend.  A child was meant to grow up with a mother to nurture and a father to be protected by.  Let's take these proud gay couples, with their "rights" (because homosexual is apparently a race now) and let them adopt children.  I don't care if you're gay. I don't care if you want to live with your partner.  I'm not going to try to stop you, I really couldn't care less.  But do not adopt children.  There is a reason that God designed us to procreate with the opposite sex.  What are these children going to grow up learning? Exactly what their mommies or daddies taught them.  The kids raised by two people of the same sex will learn nothing about the opposite sex and how a marriage between a man and woman should be.  I would like to see that child have a successful marriage with the opposite sex 20 years in the future, after having never seen the likes of love between a man and a woman in the same house. What is that going to cause for America? More divorce, more broken families, more people with little to no common sense in human interaction.

3) Technology.  It's teaching us how to be lazy.  Instant gratification is becoming standard.  There is no patience, no hard work, no process to much of anything.  Not only that, but no one is learning how to interact with each other anymore.  Instead, we all text each other or use Facebook.  You don't have to actually go ask that girl for her phone number, just message her on Facebook and give her YOUR number.  Never have to talk face to face, never have to learn any real social skills.  The only social skills anyone is getting good at anymore is drinking, partying, and chatting it up online.  Watch as the ever so common phobia of public speaking will only continue to rise at an alarming rate.

4) Political correctness.  Oh, how I HATE hearing any sort of politically correct phrase.  Oh, no, don't have an opinion, you just might offend someone.  But don't think about it too hard, because your politically correct phrase will become politically incorrect for having been said to not offend someone.  Not to offend someone who is, by political standards, no different than anybody else.  Oh wait..did I just find circular reasoning in a liberal principle?  EUREKA.

5) Celebrities.  Taylor Swift.  Obama.  Miley Cyrus.  Kanye West.  I could go on.  But you get the point. Unhealthy, stupid, ignorant, cool.  It's all the rage.

6) Education.  It's being absolutely butchered to pieces.  American children are lazy.  Education is not a privilege to us, it's just something we have to BS our way through and get that degree so we can half-ass our job and complain about how our low income and lack of fulfillment is making us depressed.  I really want to say kids are stupid, but really, it's the parents, the politicians, and the adults teaching these kids that are stupid.  It's a vicious cycle that's only going to get worse.  All the classes are filled with liberal principles and ideas about global warming and evolution.  There's no opinion in it.  It's just taught as fact and nothing else said. No mind the fact that global warming has been completely disproved scientifically and that Darwin himself even said, AND I QUOTE: "If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed which could not possibly have been formed by numerous successive slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down." ..."To this day, the eye makes me shutter."

7) The medical field.  Everything has a medication or a disorder.  Everything.  I'm sad and life is not going the way I planned it. Here, take this antidepressant. The world is chalked full of Google Doctors, who have diagnosed, treated, or at least freaked themselves out with the extensive collection of symptom lists WebMD has to offer.  Everyone has SOMETHING wrong with them. Not to mention the abuse of the medical field, that you and I, my dear friends, are paying for.  I'm happy to inform you that we got to pay for 'Lashanda' coming in to get her pregnancy test in the EMERGENCY room because she was, and I quote, "too busy to get one from the dollar store."  Or the drunk comes in because the EMS personnel are required to take them in if they are intoxicated.  The guy takes up the last room, doing what... nothing. Just sleeping it off.  All while a woman is having a miscarriage in the waiting room. The world is full of injustice.. some of which we have no say in.  A lot of which, we do.

I could go on forever.  The way you're raised has everything to do with how you function as an adult, whether you want to admit or not.  We're in for a heck of a lot of trouble in the next couple generations... it's not going to get any better. Especially not with people like Obama running this country.