A New Round

View 754 Sunday, December 16, 2012

Senator Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California, has announced that she will introduce a bill to ban assault rifles on the first day of the new Congress. This will begin a new round of the move to disarm American citizens, as the people of Great Britain were disarmed following the slaughter of children in a school in Scotland in 1996. It was my understanding that the Bushmaster at Sandy Hook was found in the automobile, not in the killer’s hands, but of course that may have been another false report; but he didn’t need the rifle. The two pistols with multiple magazines would have been more than sufficient.

I point out that a majority of Swiss households have assault rifles and ammunition readily available – indeed they are required to have them.

And far more than 20 school age children were killed by automobiles than by guns last year– indeed, cars are the leading cause of death for children of any age, and have been for a long time.

The Sandy Hook massacre will spark a new round of political debate, and it will be used in every political discussion for a year or more.

There are about 350 million Americans. Two percent are said to earn more than $200,000 a year, and raising taxes on them is a sine qua non for the President. It’s the only way to pay off the debts and continue to entitlements. Two percent of that is 7 million people. If we levied an additional $10,000 on each and every one of them, and all of that was paid without additional costs, the result would be an additional $70 billion a year. The United States borrows something like $40 Billion a month. How much revenue does the President expect to obtain from this?

Of course if the intent is not to raise revenue but to lessen the difference in income, that is another story. One does suppose that those who have very large incomes have many options on where they live.

A recent letter, which will be in Mail reasonably soon, reminded me that we are nearing the anniversary of the death of Dr. Harry Erwin, whose Letter From England was a regular feature of Chaos Manor Mail for decade or more. That sent me looking for my announcement, which I found in the January 3 2012 View. That issue also had my comments on the coming primary season. I really miss Harry Erwin and his commentary on the social and political scene in England.