When Infinite Possibilities Find the Most Effective Bio and Chemical Toxins

 

With all this talk of tactical, narrow-targeting nuclear weapons, biological and chemical killers – all in the hands of maniacal and delusional tyrant, there’s a lot of nervousness among opposing political leaders. Mankind has been deploying these indiscriminate weapons on a mass destructive basis for over a century. Sure, ancients poured burning tar on soldiers scaling castle walls and catapulted plague-infested rats and bodies into castles under siege, but WWI was the nascent era of gas masks and chlorine gas. 

Today, we also have fears of robotic killers taking over the planet (like the Terminator above), capable of superhuman strength and totally immune to radiation and biological and chemical weapons. Humans dominated by the mechanical servants they designed to do the tough stuff. The stories of fantasy power robots taking over, however, is less of a genuine fear when the same artificial intelligence that enables such sophisticated machines has been with us for a while. It comes in the form of self-targeting missiles and warheads, lethal-fire artillery and gatling guns controlled by AI-driven control systems… and here’s the big one: using AI driven mega-computers to find and design chemical and biological agents for which there is no ready antidote.

If you think this is mere paranoia, think again. Science expert, Margaret Wertheim, writing for the March 30th Los Angeles Times reports: “The scenario presented in the journal Nature Machine Intelligence outlines a threat almost no one in the drug discovery field appears to have even contemplated. Certainly not the report’s authors, who couldn’t find it mentioned ‘in the literature,’ and who admit to being shocked by their findings. ‘We were naïve about the potential misuse of our trade,’ they write. ‘Even our research on Ebola and neurotoxins ... had not set our alarm bells ringing.’

“Their study ‘highlights how a nonhuman autonomous creator of a deadly chemical weapon is entirely feasible.’ They are not fearful about some distant dystopian future but what could happen right now. ‘This is not science fiction,’ they declare, expressing a degree of emotion rarely seen in a technical paper.

“Let’s back up for a moment and look at how this research came into being. The work was originally intended as a thought experiment: What is AI capable of if set a nefarious goal? The company behind the research, Collaborations Pharmaceuticals Inc., is a respected if small player in the burgeoning field of AI-based drug discovery… ‘We have spent decades using computers and AI to improve human health — not to degrade it,’ is how the four co-authors describe their work, which is supported by grants from the National Institutes for Health.

“The scientists were invited to contribute a paper to a biannual conference hosted by the Swiss Federal Institute for Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection on ‘how AI technologies for drug discovery could potentially be misused.’ It was a purely theoretical exercise.” The presentations at this biennial conference produced the results of a remarkable experiment with artificial intelligence.  Scientists at Collaborations Pharmaceuticals Inc. asked their AI computer to search, not for cures, but for hellish toxins. 

Their results were published on March 7th in Nature Machine Intelligence: “In less than 6 hours after starting on our in-house server, our model generated 40,000 molecules that scored within our desired threshold. In the process, the AI designed not only VX [a virulent nerve agent— classified by the U.N. as a weapon of mass destruction and used to assassinate Kim Jong Un’s half-brother in Kuala Lumpur in 2017], but also many other known chemical warfare agents that we identified through visual confirmation with structures in public chemistry databases. Many new molecules were also designed that looked equally plausible. These new molecules were predicted to be more toxic…  than publicly known chemical warfare agents. This was unexpected because the datasets we used for training the AI did not include these nerve agents. The virtual molecules even occupied a region of molecular property space that was entirely separate from the many thousands of molecules in [the known group of chemicals] which comprises mainly pesticides, environmental toxins and drugs … By inverting the use of our machine learning models, we had transformed our innocuous generative model from a helpful tool of medicine to a generator of likely deadly molecules.”

“The four scientists approached the problem with a simple logic: Rather than set their AI software the task of finding beneficial chemicals, they inverted the strategy and asked it to find destructive ones. They fed the program the same data they usually use from databases that catalog therapeutic and toxic effects of various substances.” LA Times. Remember, Vladimir Putin has the same mega-computers that have been AI driven for quite a while. It also appears that he has no more moral compass than these machines.

I’m Peter Dekom, and that Terminator fellow pictured above may not remotely be what mankind needs to fear. 

A Census that Does Not Make Sense

 

When you realize the importance of a once-a-decade, constitutionally mandated US Census, inaccuracy wounds those who are undercounted and erodes democracy itself. Federal allocations to state and local governments are often a direct function of Census numbers. Undercount a demographic segment in need, and the supporting funding drops accordingly, putting a disproportionate burden on state and local governmental resources. Undercounting can also deprive a state of House votes and can shift the control of a voting district away from those whose presence was not included, generally less affluent individuals in harder to reach communities.

As part of its intentional manipulation against a fully accurate Census, the Trump administration (in power in 2020 when the Census was taken) tried to get an intimidating question about citizenship on the survey form (ultimately, judicially rejected as a transparent attempt to dissuade minorities from cooperating to ensure a valid count) and undercut the budget allocation for the very outreach program the Census officials desired to count those difficult minority communities. The pandemic, in full swing as Census workers plied their community outreach, added an additional burden – generating an offsetting inaccuracy – as people were wary of answering survey-takers knocking at their doors.

A Census is never perfect, but as modern techniques are developed to include more individuals in that Census count, you might believe those numbers to be increasingly accurate. But when you have an administration with open antipathy to minorities of color, the reverse is what actually happened. Writing for the March 11th Associated Press, Mike Schneider reports on the Census Bureau’s own internal assessment of their 2020 effort: “The Census missed more of the Hispanic or Latino population than in 2010, and an even larger share of Alaska Natives and Native Americans on reservations… 

“Black, Hispanic and Native American residents were overlooked at higher rates than a decade ago, the U.S. Census Bureau said Thursday [3/10]… much higher for some minority groups, the bureau said in a report on how well the once-a-decade count tallied every U.S. resident and whether certain populations were undercounted or overrepresented. Overcounts can occur, for example, when those who own vacation homes are counted there as well as at their home addresses.

“The Black population in the 2020 census had an estimated net undercount of 3.3%, and the gap was almost 5% for Hispanics and 5.6% for Alaska Natives and Native Americans living on reservations… The non-Hispanic white population’s net overcount was 1.6%, and Asians had a net overcount of 2.6%... In the 2010 census, by comparison, the Black population had a net undercount of more than 2%, and it was 1.5% for the Hispanic population. There was a nearly 4.9% undercount for Alaskan Natives and Native Americans living on reservations, and an undercount of 0.08% for Asians. The non-Hispanic white population had a net overcount of 0.8%.

“The 2020 census reportedly missed 0.24% of the entire U.S. population, a rate that wasn’t statistically significant despite being much larger than the 0.01% missed in the 2010 census… The census figures help determine the distribution of $1.5 trillion in federal spending each year as well as how many congressional seats each state gets. Undercounts in various populations can shortchange those groups’ funding and political representation over the next decade.”

As we have been increasingly experiencing in recent elections, state, local and nation elections are often decided by less than a single percentage point, many other by low-end single digits. A redistricting frenzy has exploded across the land, based on those Census numbers, with politically biased gerrymandering, seldom challenged by the US Supreme Court, reaching new higher levels. 

“Forty states — most recently Wisconsin — have now finished redrawing their congressional maps (not counting the six states with only one congressional district). Only Florida, Louisiana, Missouri and New Hampshire have yet to approve a new map, and we could be waiting a while: In all four states, stakeholders in the redistricting process are at odds about what kind of map to draw….

“However, there are still a few unknowns that could change these topline takeaways. Most notably, the ultimate map in Florida — where 28 congressional seats are at stake — could be worth multiple extra seats for one party or the other. Courts may also still throw out some of the maps that are currently in place, such as Ohio’s. The Buckeye State’s latest map is not much fairer than the one that was previously struck down.”  Projects.fivethirtyeight.com, March 3rd. Democrats and Republicans are pushing hard to reconfigure districts to favor their candidates. There are dozens of legal challenges to biased efforts, many likely to be determined at a state level.

Article I, Section 4, Clause 1 of the US Constitution states: “The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators.” The 15th Amendment gave emancipated slaves the right to vote, adding women via the 19th Amendment. Recent Congressional efforts to pass national voting laws to be more inclusive have failed in the filibuster-prone Senate, and the US Supreme Court, absent dramatic evidence of a discriminatory intent, has been loath to overrule state redistricting. 

At the heart of all of these determinations and challenges is the US Census, admittedly a survey that overcounts traditional white voters and undercounts minorities of color. It’s a system that is inherently flawed and perhaps getting worse.

I’m Peter Dekom, and in significant part, American democracy rises and falls with the accuracy of our Census… and right now, it’s falling.

Understanding the Invasion Risks of Baltic Republics

  

“Let’s not fool ourselves” 

Edgars Rinkēvičs, Latvian foreign minister

As Sweden and Finland move off the fence towards NATO membership, they face a recent (March 12th) threat from the Russian Foreign Ministry of “serious military and political consequences.” Finland shares an 810-mile border with Russia. During Stalin’s rule of the Soviet Union, the Finns successfully repelled a Russian invasion. But until recently, Sweden and Finland tried to walk a middle ground between Russia and the rest of the west. That middle ground vaporized with Putin’s war in Ukraine:

“Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said two weeks ago that the country would be carrying out a security policy review and that it would be ready at the end of May. ‘I do not exclude NATO membership in any way,’ she said. Stefan Nordstrom, a major in the Swedish Army, told Reuters that it would be ‘naïve’ to not recognize that there is a threat from Russia. ‘The security situation in the whole of Europe has changed, and we have to accept that, and we have to adapt,’ he said.” Yahoo! News, April 11th. Experts expect formal application of both Finland and Sweden to join NATO early this summer.

But if Russia is aghast at Sweden and Finland’s potential membership in NATO, two countries that were never part of the Soviet Union, it faces more direct challenges from three NATO members – Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia (the Baltic Republics) – that were very much a part of Soviet Russia. And as usual, the focus comes down to tensions in those border regions where there are lots of Russian speakers, even where they are totally content to live without repatriation to Russia. Putin’s rhetoric follows the same “spoken language/culture” excuse that Hitler used to invade the Czech Sudetenland and take Austria in pre-WWII and that Vladimir Putin used to annex Crimea, invade Georgia and support so-called “Russian separatists” in eastern Ukraine. Of course, Putin added the excuse of suppressing Nazi’s to launch the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Look at the above map of Estonia. That little red arrow points to an area of eastern Estonia filled with Russian speakers. In normal times, people crossed the border for shopping excursions, but these are no longer normal times. Estonia is deeply concerned about a fifth column of Russian agents who have infiltrated the region around Narva. The above poster, written in Estonian, Ukrainian, Russian and English is common in eastern Estonia… and clear evidence of Estonia’s concern.

Writing for NBC News, April 11th, Phil McCausland brings home the realities these Baltic states face, starting with the small (55 thousand) border town of Narva: “[Narva could] be at the edge of a new Iron Curtain created by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It’s a place between two worlds, where Russia and Russian identity meet Estonia and the West… That’s apparent even in the architecture: Hard-edged brutalist buildings of the Soviet era house or sit between sushi restaurants, a German grocer and a startup incubator…

“Estonia, as well as the neighboring Baltic countries of Latvia and Lithuania, have populations that reflect that mix and the tense geopolitics. Many here describe three camps among Russian speakers. About a third entirely oppose Russia’s war in Ukraine, while a middle group says it desires peace but expresses a sense of confusion among vacillating reports from Western news media and Russian propaganda sources. A small minority support Russia’s invasion... 

“[There] are concerns that the Russian speakers in the Baltics could provide another avenue for President Vladimir Putin to expand Russia’s sphere of influence. Some also believe the group could be manipulated by Moscow — and the propaganda that is broadcast across borders — to become unwitting agents in the new Cold War that’s beginning to take shape…

“More than 95 percent of Narva residents speak Russian, and at least 30 percent carry Russian passports, so every act of the Kremlin’s aggression becomes a flashpoint for the city… Estonia and other countries have tried to integrate Russian-speaking communities to varying degrees in the past, but the efforts are assuming a new urgency. The war in Ukraine increasingly worries some officials in the Baltic states that Russian speakers could be marks for disinformation and thus threats to national security… 

“Many more signals come from Russia itself: The state Duma, the lower house of parliament, said it was considering legislation that would declare all Russian speakers ‘compatriots’ of the state and worthy of Russia’s protection, and former President Dmitry Medvedev, who is now the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, said last week that the goal of the Ukraine war is for ‘the opportunity to finally build an open Eurasia — from Lisbon to Vladivostok.’

“In response, Estonia has pushed for greater military support from NATO, and it recently added some restrictions on Russians and Belarusians who want to declare residency in Estonia, which has made it more difficult for people from those countries without visas to travel here… Estonia’s police and border guard services have also increased security measures at the border crossing… 

“Edgars Rinkēvičs, the Latvian foreign minister, said in an interview last week that the government is keeping a close eye on the situation. Officials have provided more than 160 humanitarian visas to Russians since the start of the war, but they have clamped down on immigration as much as they can from Belarus and Russia because some peple are simply fleeing the economic situation.

“The Latvian Parliament, meanwhile, is considering bills that would suspend issuing temporary residence permits to citizens of Russia and Belarus until July 2023. A second bill would allow for the stripping of Latvian citizenship from those who have supported war or other crimes against a democratic state or the people who committed those crimes.” Is Putin contemplating a full march into Europe, perhaps one small invasion/annexation at a time, like Hitler? Will he wait until his military is rebuilt for the effort or launch early before that new “Iron Curtain” can be sufficiently militarily reinforced? Or sit, fuming, that his dream has collapsed. Perhaps, however, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky’s warning that Putin’s war is just the beginning of an attack on Western democracy accurate? An unavoidable WWIII? Does Putin need more evidence of our resolve and deterrence?

I’m Peter Dekom, and if you read all the details of this Russian abomination, the rationale for a strong NATO response and stronger support of Ukraine just may be what is necessary. 

Death Panels, Aging America and the Sandwich Generation

 

“I find myself drawn to a less friendly analogy: not that of fresh Wonder Bread 

slices gently squishing us, but that of panini grills pressing us flat.” 

Ada Calhoun who coined “Sandwich Generation” in The Atlantic, January 7, 2020

When the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was passed in 2010, there was much resistance to a concept where government might subsidize access to healthcare. Messing with the best “healthcare system in the world” – which even at the time was (and remains) profoundly false – was amplified by Republicans in Congress actually making a claim that universal healthcare would, of necessity, result in “death panels”: doctors meeting to decide, particularly in cases of elderly patients or those with severe and often chronic conditions, who would be denied coverage because it was not economically sustainable. Die, die, die!

Yet red states were much more likely to opt out of expanding Medicaid under the ACA, leaving millions to face health issues and even death without care. We remain the only developed nation on earth without universal healthcare… a newly developed “right.” Conservatives seem hellbent on not spending money to support “people with no options” in order to preserve tax breaks and low rates for the rich. They call anything they don’t like “creeping socialism,” when that is absolutely an incorrect description.

We are distracted and disappointed by so much, from Putin’s war, exorbitant inflation and immigrants pounding at our borders to culture wars, a civil rights averse Supreme Court and polarization on steroids. The very sustainability of our democracy was clearly one of the motivating features of Putin’s timing on invasion. But there are huge subcurrents in our nation that have slipped to the back burner, which threaten each and every one of us more deeply than that list of issues above, physical realities as opposed to political choices. Climate change and the aging of America sit atop that set of physical challenges. Today’s blog is about age demographics.

The Health and Human Services website tells us: “More than 10,000 people turn 65 every day in the United States, and people are living longer, healthier lives.” Indeed, some are. But the economics of taking care of an aging population do not augur well, if we are unable to provide affordable childcare to support women to return to the workforce, we are failing even more miserably taking care of the disabled, mentally impaired or simply “older, tired” elderly. Placing a parent or grandparent in a managed care facility is a combination of cruelty and paying an exorbitant monthly fee, often $10,000 or more (mollified by some government support… but hardly enough), for de facto incarceration in COVID factories with bad food, unending boredom and a feeling of abandonment. Sure, there are exceptions, but the rule is profoundly different. If you can afford even that!

Social Security, often the only source of elder income, is hardly up to keeping up with inflation. Americans also have notoriously failed to prepare for “retirement.” An August 21, 2021 report from CNBC tells us: “Most workers over age 40 don’t have sufficient retirement savings and aren’t setting aside enough to catch up, according to a survey from the Insured Retirement Institute…Despite the nest egg shortfall, many still expect to retire early and believe they will have ample retirement income…. More than half of older Americans have less than $50,000 for retirement. But the majority aren’t increasing savings to boost their nest eggs… Nearly six in 10 workers save less than 10% of their income and a third set aside less than 5%, the survey revealed.”

And we are among those countries with a rapidly rising “graying” population. The Census tells us: “The nation’s 65-and-older population has grown rapidly since 2010, driven by the aging of Baby Boomers born between 1946 and 1964. The 65-and-older population grew by over a third (34.2% or 13,787,044) during the past decade, and by 3.2% (1,688,924) from 2018 to 2019.” One in five Americans is over 65, and our “replacement rate” – 1.9 live births per couple – is lower than the rate needed to sustain a population (2.1 live births). 

This translates to one super-harsh reality, there are fewer younger people (who make up the workforce) every year compared to those who have reached or about to reach retirement age… or are simply no longer physically able to work. Growth is now predicated on immigration, which is not a popular program these days. Yet we have a shrinking population. Thus, money from a lower relative percentage of working Americans, for the elderly who have not saved enough for their “golden years,” is what supports that growing percentage of non-working gray Americans. 

Where government programs and private savings fall short, the consequences can be profound. From homelessness to severely substandard living conditions to torturing isolation. But one additional burden applies to middle-aged “children” who are saddled with the burden of supporting aging parents and grandparents. The “Sandwich Generation.” Katie Schlott, writing for the March 25th FastCompany.com, describes the plight of that defined “sandwiched” cohort: “It’s understandable why 1.8 million women have left the American workforce since the first wave of COVID. It is impossible to simultaneously care for young children, care for aging parents, and hold down a full-time job in the United States. 

“‘When the pandemic hit, our deeply ingrained expectations that women would naturally shoulder these responsibilities were dramatically exposed and rightfully questioned,’ wrote Ai-Jen Poo and Palak Shah in Fast Company. ‘And we began to see and understand the true value of generations of caregiving labor, both paid and unpaid.’ 

“The caregiving crisis will dramatically accelerate in the decade ahead as the oldest Baby Boomers turn 80. Yet, we already have a shortage of professional caregivers: NPR recently reported that seniors often wait months for home healthcare. For Americans on Medicaid, the wait time is more than three years for home care assistance. But, we don’t have months or years to wait for care; it’s needed now.” Schott suggests that the expansion of Biden’s infrastructure legislation is a start, noting that there are possible nascent steps we should take:

• Use technology to integrate our healthcare records, benefits information, and bills [stop inefficient silos and create macro-coordination].

• Create a seamless solution for coordinating caregiving needs [Using big tech companies to automate and track caregiving]. 

• Business coalition that supports each step of the caregiving journey [improving cost and effectiveness efficiencies]. 

It’s not that Americans don’t care; they just do not know what to do about it. They are represented by a Congress where seeking campaign contributions trumps looking after most of us. Loud rich people with $$$ are calling the shots… and they just do not like to pay taxes and are still seeking even further cuts.

I’m Peter Dekom, and we are all growing older, may have aging parents and grandparents, but with our heads in the sand, we simply do not seem able to get our priorities straight.

Conservative Gun Mythology vs Mass Shootings and Street Crimes

  

“It’s kind of like a ‘spray and pray’… There’s so many rounds coming out at such a high velocity in such a small amount of time.” Det. Pat Hoffman of the Los Angeles Police Department’s gun unit

Today’s blog goes beyond the logically flawed Heller vs District of Colombia, the 2008 Supreme Court decision that held effectively that the Second Amendment – originally passed to support citizen militia in a time of flintlocks and muskets – created a basic right for Americans to own guns. Beyond the unambiguously false NRA axiom that only a “good guy with a gun can stop a bad guy with a gun”… in a world where only one in thirty-five gun homicides is justifiable and where adults in  households with a gun are twice as likely to result in an unjustified gun homicide (seven times more likely to result in death) than households without. See my recent Reasonable Gun Control Laws Don’t Work if They Are Not Enforced blog for the research. Today’s blog even goes beyond the 3-D printed proliferation of ghost guns, many of which do not show up on airport x-ray machines.

There wasn’t a single large magazine or rapid-fire long gun or pistol in existence when the Second Amendment was passed in 1789. Yet somehow many states are allowing military grade semiautomatic assault rifles and handguns to be carried legally by civilians, often openly or even concealed without a permit. The number of mass gun killings in the United States has soared to new heights (depths?) in lockstep with such efforts to liberalize gun ownership. Just watching a remake of Westside Story reminds us that gangs used to go to extremes with knives, pipes and chains… but not guns. The appearance of a single revolver, near the end of the movie, sent shockwaves to the two rival gangs. Guns available at guns stores and gun shows have become increasingly automated and lethal since that musical was written in the 1950s.

If you consider overseas mass criminal homicides today (other than during wars or comparable conflicts), they are mostly bombs (e.g., Islamist suicide attacks in Israel or in Mumbai in 2008) or vehicular ramming (e.g., the 2016 truck rampage in Nice). The attempted mass killings via knifepoint have all been quickly contained. There is no National Knife Association saying that the “only a good guy with a knife can stop a bad guy with a knife.” Today’s blog is just about how easy, and pervasive, the process is to change a “legal” semiautomatic weapon into being fully automatic and illegal gun. More than the mere rapid-fire assist of the mostly banned “bumpstock” added to a semiautomatic assault gun.

This newer simple mechanical “adjustment” released over 100 bullets in the mass shooting in Sacramento on April 3rd. A converted assault weapon, changed from semi to fully automatic with a slight retooling, showed how fast such a machine gun, with a large magazine, can kill and injure. 6 dead, 12 injured, some critically. Simply, converted weapons are finding themselves all across the United States, ramping up murder rates significantly. 

Writing for the April 7th Los Angeles Times, Libor Jany, Richard Winton and Kevin Rector explain: “[A semiautomatic gun is easily] modified with a so-called ‘auto-sear’ or ‘switch’ [pictured above] to boost its firepower. The conversion devices are illegal, and authorities say they are turning up at crime scenes across the U.S. with alarming frequency…

“Semiautomatic handguns and rifles require shooters to pull the trigger each time they want to fire a bullet. When retrofitted with a switch, however, these types of weapons become fully automatic and can fire hundreds of rounds per minute, according to Dr. Garen Wintemute, an emergency room doctor at UC-Davis who studies gun use. Switches, which are small cube-shaped attachments that afix to a gun’s firing mechanism, can be readily purchased on illicit websites or made with a 3D printer.

“‘Basically, what a ... switch does is let you put a machine gun in your pocket or on your belt,’ said Wintemute, director the California Firearms Violence Research Center at the university. In a scenario where crowds are present, as in Sacramento, a gun with a switch paired with a magazine that holds a large number of bullets can easily result in greater bloodshed, he said.

“The switch devices are classified as machine guns by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and possessing one is a federal offense. And yet, Wintemute says, instructions for installing one on a gun can be found online and require little to no technical expertise… The ATF, the federal agency responsible for regulating guns in the U.S., seized about 1,500 weapons modified with switches in 2021, compared with about 300 in 2020, said agency spokeswoman Ginger Colbrun. The sharp jump, Colbrun noted, was part of a longer upward trend in the number of weapons found with switches.

“On Wednesday [4/6], Sacramento police said that a preliminary investigation suggested at least five shooters may have been involved Sunday in unleashing the fusillade of bullets that struck 18 people, six of them fatally. Amid the carnage along K Street in the shadow of California’s Capitol, Sacramento police detectives found a stolen gun that had been ‘converted to a weapon capable of automatic gunfire.’… The discovery confirmed suspicions authorities had developed after hearing audio recordings of the gunfire on social media. Officials estimate at least 100 shots were fired. Police said in a statement that although they hadn’t yet established a motive, ‘it is increasingly clear that gang violence is at the center of this tragedy.’… 

“Handguns retrofitted with switches have surfaced at other California crime scenes. Gunmen used them in the deadly shooting of federal guards in Oakland in 2020, as did gang members in the killing of four people in Fresno the year before.” The pattern is repeating itself explosively all across this gun-obsessed nation, the only country on earth (not at war) with such a proliferation of guns. Next time an hard-on-crime conservative tells you about how gun rights must be preserved and expanded in this country, let them know that their attitude is directly responsible for the rising number of gun crimes, especially homicides, here in the United States.

I’m Peter Dekom, and the United States had lived for over 200 years without a ubiquitous constitutional right to own and use a gun, until a logically/constitutionally incorrect 2008 Supreme Court Heller vs DC ruling literally distorted the plain meaning of the Second Amendment to create such a right... for the first time in our history.