What can we do about reducing crime in America? Throughout my military career I was taught if you recognize a problem also identify solutions. That is called leadership. It is easy to blame firearms for a multitude of sins. Besides focusing on an inanimate tool as a problem, what are some real solutions for reducing violent crime while honoring our Constitution? Example:
Education is number one. Education gives people hope for doing something better with themselves and their life. No education gives control to the educated people that want to use the UNEDUCATED. If we were to make education the number one prioity a lot of these problems would go away in a couple of generations.
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@FunCycle Education is important. The US is a big spender on education. If I read the 2020 Education Report right, we budgeted $64B this year for education. What would you change about the Educational System in the USA?
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In my opinion, one way to reduce violent crime is for the family unit to remain intact. The family unit has been under assault for quite some time. Fatherlessness plays a major role in this. Iām not saying that people that are raised in a home with both parents will not commit any crime. However, I believe the likelihood decreases. We need more men to take responsibility for the children that they have helped create and for some they did not help create. Everything starts in the home. Our society mirrors what is or isnāt being done at home. We need men helping and developing younger men.
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Everything will move for the good when the level of education improves
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First, reduce the amount of money until they become more efficient and actually educate.
The US throws all that money, and yet, since the creation of the Department of Education during the Carter administration, the scores for the US has declined, the ranking has declined, against the world.
Throwing more money at a problem, but continuing to repeat the same actions, does not solve the problem.
Along with education, and it might be educational as well, is to ensure people are knowledgeable about firearms, and that just as a car, they are a tool. The tool is NOT to blame for the actions of the individual who uses the tool.
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Jeff,
Not sure if you remember the movie, āThe American Presidentā with Michael Douglas but there was a great monologue by Douglasā character that stated,
āā¦We have serious problems to solve, and we need serious people to solve them. And whatever your particular problem is, I promise you Bob Rumson is not the least bit interested in solving it. He is interested in two things, and two things only: making you afraid of it, and telling you whoās to blame for it. That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you win electionsā¦ā
Now, Itās been my experience that they had the sides mixed up because I find that more often the GOP is actually the side that is working to solve problems while the democrats tend to be more inclined to promote the 2 things mentioned above (i.e. make you afraid of it, and tell you whoās to blame). I say that as a former card carrying Democrat turned Republican after I began asking the simple questions like, what has this politician done for our country? have they contributed anything to help anyone, how much have they spent vs where are we at, etcā¦you know, basic expectations.
Take Biden as an example, heās a career politician who has spent 47+ years in office and has exactly nothing to show for it. Heās changed titles but thatās about it. Heās done nothing to help anyone and in fact during his tenure as VP, he made things worse for many groups and people in our country.
So, when you consider that democrats as a whole use firearms as talking pointsā¦they seem to embody the line from the movie I quoted above. Democrats are not interested in solving the problem. Thereās no benefit if they do. TO them, itās more valuable to keep things as they are. Why? Simply put, because by choosing NOT to fix the problem, more people will die and democrats can continue to chip away at our 2nd amendment right till thereās nothing left of it. Keeping things the way they are means they can go onto TV the next shooting and call on the public to help them pass more restrictive bills Democrats want. Heckā¦in my warped head, I wouldnāt be surprised at all if the democrats look forward to the death and chaos because they can capitalize on it and pass more restrictive gun laws. They regularly go on TV and tell you to be fear the AR 15 or the AK 47 calling them āassault riflesā and using terms like ghost gun, and āfully semi-automaticā to help strike fear in ignorant minds. They want to use that fear to pass more gun laws and limit more of your rights. They are effectively, using tragedy to take away more of your freedoms by using fear and telling you whoās to blame.
Now, on the other side of the spectrum, you have republicans who WANT to put an end to the violence. People like Barr are coming up with viable solutions. He uses logic and reason and bases his judgement on facts. Any Democrat wants to take more guns awayā¦but this doesnāt work for any problem does it. Consider how many people were killed by vehicles in 2019ā¦38,800+ based on National Safety Council vs 15,292 firearm related deaths (excluding suicides). I guess we should take away vehicles like they want to ban gunsā¦it would save lives right? However, if we consider this interesting statistic Homicides by murder weapon in the U.S. 2021 | Statista
we see that knives killed more people than the dreaded AR riflesā¦in fact more people were murdered using blunt objects than the AR style weapons democrats regularly use as talking points. Yet somehow, they tend to ignore handguns all together. So the bottom line, democrats have NEVER been interested in fixing the problem or theyād target the larger cause for more deaths. Truthfully, democrats are only focused on telling the ignorant masses what to fear, and who to blame because thatās what getās them elected. Nevermind that every city they govern goes straight to hell as they mismanage funds and bleed them dry and every couple of years ask for more money to fix the problem while they take any additional funds and piss them away like they did before. Itās a broken record and frankly thatās why I left the democratic partyā¦because the only change they want is the change in their tax bracket while crapping all over everyone else.
So in summary, if you want solutions, donāt expect them from the democrats, because they have no interest in fixing anything. Instead elect more republicans to office and hold them all accountable. Maybe even pass a law that refunds all tax payer money if the politician doesnāt solve what they asked for the money for in the first place. Hold our politicians accountable and youāll never be disappointed. Sorry for the lengthy post againā¦
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Primarily Leftist (Socialist) teachers & administrations. That alone would make a Big difference in just One generation!
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Also, if any āteacherā doesnāt believe & follow the Constitution they Do NOT belong in the teaching profession!
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@FunCycle and @Kevin29 On education, our system from elementary to collegiate level is broken. Iām sure everyone is reading articles on teachers concerned about parents monitoring remote Zoom lessons. What could they be hiding? Canāt monitor your kids preference in cis-gender identity? Where the hell did that come from? As a nation we score very poorly in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) subjects. Kids are graduating high-schools without basic reading skills. The current educational system has time to rewrite our history, biology, and to expand social āsciencesā in strange and peculiar ways. And the teachers unions are trying to utilize the CCP virus to control us even further. Why do young people embrace Communism when we know it has failed on so many levels? We should revamp our funding for education. I think the dollars should follow the child.
@TEWay2 You hit a critical and fundamental point in Western Society. The family has always been a fundamental building block to society. I will be so brave as to add ābased on a fundamental set of moral valuesā. Our society has lost our moral compass. Iām going to take heat on this one but the United States of America was founded on Judeo-Christian principles. It is up to the family to teach and instill those principles in their children. If it isnāt to late, sit down with the kids and open that Bible.
@Erik10 I really didnāt want this thread to go political but it is a critical election year. It is a damned shame that the politicians in blue cities are encouraging mayhem and allowing their citizens to be terrorized. Donāt let facts get in the way of politics. What major city doesnāt have a rotating-door judiciary system? How many times do we have to read about someone getting arrested for a violent crime then getting released to go commit another? Same for illegal aliens that have been arrested and released. Defund police and spend the money on private security for politicians and feel-good social reform objectives. No mention of refunds or lowering the tax rate. Plenty of indications that taxes will increase.
@Les4 You said it, brother! Wished we had a blood test for communist. We could have teachers and administrators sign a contract, with legal teeth, to eliminate their socialist/marxist/communist propaganda.
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Honestly, I think itās high time we repair the broken judicial system. DUI drivers with multiple convictions being told that ONLY if they kill someone will it be more severe, rape cases where the suspect could serve less time in jail than in court, and many many more examples all need reforms. I firmly believe the crime needs to be more severe in all cases because slaps on the wrist and early release are making a mockery of our system at every turn.
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100%! I agree. It bothers me to no end on just how broken the moral compass is in our country. We are living in a Romans 1:28 kind of world as it relates to morals and values. We need a spiritual revitalization in our country.
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@TEWay2 Very pertinent for todayā¦
28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. 32 Although they know Godās righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
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We touched on a few of these solutions already.
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A lot less ideological indoctrination would be a good startā¦stop focusing on making sure the random 5-year old can identify fifty-seven non-existent genders and maybe more on math, history, science, and reading.
My opinion, no warranty expressed or implied, mileage may vary.
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Indeed. The education system has failed to ensure the populace is well informed. Reading? They have stopped teaching cursive writing, and spelling is now acronyms and initials.
There are a significant number, including college and university graduates, that can not name the three branches of government or the five rights contained in the First Amendment, and some have been elected to offices, including the Legislative Branch. Remember, it was AOC who said the three branches of government were the House, the Senate, and the Presidentā¦ she is the PRIDE of Boston University.
We have many who graduate and do not know anything about the history of the United States, nothing about the War of 1812, nothing about the Spanish American War, nothing about WWI or WWIIā¦
You have expressed a significant amount that is agreeable, and while some is political, there is actually little that is not in our lives today.
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One big problem with the education system today is trying to push kids who arenāt qualified for the sake of diversity/inclusiveness and attempting to balance the racial distribution of classes by bussing kids into different schools.
Kids who get put into programs they arenāt qualified for struggle and as a result teachers have to spend more time on going over basic reading/writing/math instead of other topics like history, science and civics. It gets worse when they start putting those kids into gifted and talented programs which have limited seats, denying those seats to children who are more qualified, but whose racial background(s) are overrepresented.
With bussing, youāve got kids being sent to schools on the other side of the county because the school board noticed that schools in certain areas are outperforming others. Maybe if they shuffled some students around, theyād improve the results at the underperforming schools. Only noone stopped to think about how those kids who get shipped across the county lose more time on the bus, let alone the effects of separating kids from friends theyāve known for several years. Unsurprisingly, the underperforming schools havenāt improved and the better schools have been going down.
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@George80 Sounds like you have some experience with the educational system. Also noticed you are from NoVA. The schools here in Fredericksburg are a mess. We homeschooled our kids. Best investment ever made.
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When I graduated, there was ONE high school in Stafford.
When I left, there were I think FIVE and another was being built and the schools were failingā¦ while they were demanding more money for pay raises.
(At the time, the Stafford schools were the third highest paid schools for 0-5 years experience, and the second highest teacher pay with 6 + years of experience. They said the teachers would go to higher paying localities, which for up to 5 years experience was Fredericksburg, Prince William, and Fairfax, and only Fairfax and Prince William with 6+ years.
The schools were declining even then and that was almost 20 years ago when I left.
Of course, I do not miss it, do not miss the traffic and congestionā¦ because when I was thereā¦ the 60ās, 70s and even early 80s it was primarily rural.
Home schooling is a good optionā¦ glad you can do it.
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Amen. With no role model, no discipline at home you are asking for gangs, thugs, and trouble. This has been continually worse for decades, and now we are reaping the results.
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