Hunkered Down in Bremerton

Send in the Life Coaches

I like to think of myself as reasonably progressive. I thought Obama did a good job, Trump - terrible. I think voting rights should be extended, not made more difficult, but I think the federal government has grown too large. Perhaps more people agree with me than disagree... I don't know.

One thing that I think the liberal or progresives get wrong is about how to solve the problems of gun violence that seems to be raging out of control right now.

The majority of recent gun violence incidents that have occurred in Washington state have been committed by angry black males who cannot lawfully possess a firearm. That's a fact. That there are a greater percentage of black males in the criminal justice system is not a case of racist policing nor racist prosecution...It's because they engage in more criminal activity. The police do not have sufficient support from the communities to get illegally possessed firearms off the street.

The King County Executive has proposed spending millions of dollars hiring additional life coaches to stem the violence. Yea, these angry black men are angry and shoot people because the didn't get sufficient life coaching. Ha Ha. I couldn't write that sentence without shaking my head and smiling.

The way to solve gun violence is to get the guns out of the hands of criminals. This takes resources and commitment on the part of communities to beef up policing, to have more prosecution of criminals, and to have more judges in more courtrooms to insure prompt prosecution.

We also need to track where these firearms came from. If they are street sales...track down and proscecute the seller. All weapons on the street have either been purchased or stolen. If they are licensed gun store (or internet) sales, close the sellers down and prosecute. The sale of a firearm to a person who cannot legally own a firearm should rate right up there with murder. Policing agencies should track down the origin and transactions of all firearms used to committ crimes and track them back to the source with prosecutions along the way. The policing agencies need the funds and manpower to accomplish this.

Of course, it's true that this all comes about because of THE DRUG PROBLEM, too many drug sellers, too many drug buyers. The "War on Drugs" has now been fighting this problem for almost 50 years and it worse now then in the 1970s. Local entities like the City of Seattle and King County haven't been able to stop drugs on a local level. It's not a problem of lack of "Life Coaches".

Getting tough on drug users and drug sellers doesn't work. Now it is time to get tough on gun shooters and the enablers.

Howard B. Julien

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Updated June 19, 2021