Dakota Beacon

As soon as it was reported that President Trump was “considering” using a social score system to determine to whom our Bill of Rights applies, his devoted followers seemed unable to accept this and have been calling it “fake news”.  Trump has fueled the “fake news” by remaining silent on the issue.

The impression that he supports this is given in his own speech of August 5, following the shootings in Dayton and El Paso, where he says in plain English that he is advocating both “red flag” laws and also working with private enterprise - social media giants - to use software and techniques they have developed to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people.

Of course this is a hopelessly stupid way to fight gun violence.  Passing another law and spying on normal people day in and day out to figure out in advance who is going to shoot someone and then not selling that person a gun is gutting our Bill of Rights.  In one speech this president has decimated our First, Second, Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights. In doing this, our government - Trump and Congress - can do absolutely nothing to stop criminal use of guns.  Why? You may well ask. Because what these shooters are doing is already against the law. The law does not stop gun violence, at least not laws directed at someone whose intention is to violate the law.

A few laws might indirectly curb this violence.  One might be to apply the lessons learned by the commission which actually studied the Parkland high school shooting.  After analyzing the facts in that case the experts determined that more guns, not fewer, would have prevented the carnage there.  That makes sense. The same principle applies to other situations, malls, churches, college campuses, military bases, festivals, auditoriums and anywhere else where many people congregate.  

We are paying a steep price for tolerating as a candidate a man with no real background in American history or understanding of our laws and their origination and logic.  When we elect a president who is really unfamiliar with any of this and go instead to the shallow end of the entertainment business we get this. Could Trump even paraphrase the constitutional amendments his scheme violates?  Of course not. He is easily manipulated by others with an anti-American agenda. A lot of his supporters keep telling me that he is just the front man for a military coup behind the scenes, and all will be revealed in time, after their good work is accomplished.  I regard these people as not really serious. Just as bad is the idea of a president mindlessly boarding the bandwagon taking us all to oblivion with a social credit reporting system.

Who do you suppose wrote his El Paso speech?  It sounds like it could have been Ivanka. Whoever wrote it, it is full of the kinds of ideas which make our worst enemies thrilled.  He is taking us down the path the Chinese people know all too well. Working with “tools” developed by private sector social media IS creating a social credit system.  Today he is thinking of using it for gun control. Never mind that he is talking about using a legal restriction solely against law-abiding citizens to control a felon bent on breaking all laws.  And the means he proposes here to do it will soon engulf the rest of our freedoms. We can’t allow this to happen. We also can’t continue to run interference when he does and says stupid things.  By doing this, by covering for him by calling the truth “fake news”, we are entering into a kind of suicide pact. It is the best example I can think of, of an ostrich-like, head-in-the-sand denial by Trump’s fans as to his real actions.  Please take a critical look at the video of his speech. It’s from CNBC and it’s really him talking.  

It’s good to be aware of the actual statements of the president and, for now, leader of the free world, and to evaluate them honestly.  It does you and your children and grandchildren no favor to pretend all is well here. What happens in the heat of an effort to “do something” about gun violence will soon affect every other corner and facet of your life.  Think about that. Read and watch the videos about how this is working out in China and apply your own logic to these facts. Most of all, don’t try to sugar-coat Trump's words and acts so that others feel a false sense of security.  We cannot exchange freedom for security, and we do not forfeit security in holding onto our freedom.  This  false sense of security will leave us no safer than before, just no longer free.  Do we really want to live in a world where our emails are scanned looking for clues as to crimes we might commit so we can be punished in advance?  Do we want our co-workers, neighbors and family conpiling dossiers on us as bargaining chips for their own promotion?  Because this is where China has gone.  Even if it were possible to find every gun (and it isn't) and confiscate it we wouldn't be either safer or any longer free people.