The Relentless Weeds of Radicalism

Have you ever noticed that gardens do not always grow as we want them to? We have a couple of wildflower gardens in our yard that although they seem to be budding with plants, are slow to put forth any blooms.

So we try to be patient, to continue watering them and pulling stray shoots of grass out of them, while we wait.

But that scenario does not hold true for weeds. They grow without being planted. Dandelions, for instance, can push through the grass and stick up a yellow bloom overnight and go to seed just as fast. We don't plant them and certainly do not consciously water and nurture them. But they grow nevertheless. It is a daily job to search them out and uproot them before they bloom and these blooms turn into seeds and propagate more of the same.

Good ideas and ideals worth defending are like flowers. They tend to be slow to come to fruition. It takes hard work, determined efforts and convictions before they take hold.

Bad ideas and radical thinking, on the contrary, are like the dandelions, springing up overnight and going to seed at the speed of sound. America is experiencing that reality today. The true virtues of American life has taken the backseat and the rapidly growing weeds of discontent are seemingly controlling everything.

Who would have thought, three or four months ago, that entire sections of cities would have been surrendered to radical domestic terrorists while the police either refuse to control the area and enforce the law, or they are being told not to by misguided leaders? Who would have thought that Antifa would be teaming with Muslim Sharia Police to "govern" No-Go Zones in American cities, as have been prevalent in Europe for years?

The blooms of radicalism has popped up and gone to seed at a record pace. Police departments are being defunded. The police are being removed from the schools because radical thinking sees them as more of a threat than protectors of our children.

Congress is passing laws to regulate the police all across America by instigating regulations they have been trying to do for decades but could not. Now the political climate has changed and they are advancing their long-desired ideals.

Environment matters. You have always known that water is a liquid, but when put in a pan on a stove and heated, it becomes a gas, steam, and when placed in a freezer, it becomes a solid. Same water, different environment. Different reality.

The environment enveloping America is changing who and what we are. Not just by chance, but by consciously changing the environment. This new environment has opened the door for tyrannical regulations being forced on all of us in the name of public safety and for "our own good."

Over 50% of all retail space in America was shut down by Democrat governors, for "our own good." Trillions of dollars has been lost to the economy. Almost 50 million people were forced out of work by their responses to the Covid-19 "crisis." Wearing masks is mandatory in many places and some leaders want it to be a permanent thing.

This could not have happened a decade ago, or even last year. It took the new environment of chaos and turmoil and an agenda to feed the weeds. Our history is being destroyed by over-sensitive radicals who know nothing of the history they are destroying, and they don't care. People who love to watch fires, don't always care what is burning.

We must realize that, just like the weeds that we must deal with soon or they will take over the garden and the yard, this reluctance to confront the radicalism that we are so far both permitting and promoting, will take over every community and as the communities of America go, so goes the country.

The weeds of discontent and aggression are as stubborn and relentless as dandelions and they must be removed from the root up. Picking off a bloom here and there won't do the trick. You have to be serious and determined about their eradication.

Tolerance will only lead to more weeds, bigger weeds until they are all we will see. And tolerance of radicalism, incivility, and anti-social behavior will only lead to more of the same. The longer we wait to begin to uproot this evil, the more difficult it will become.

At some point, what was once a garden will be an unappealing weed patch that no one wanted, and no one saw coming. But the path we choose determines the destination we will one day arrive at. It is as sure as any law of nature. So, at this crossroads, we will either choose the survival of America or its demise. We can't have it both ways.

It is time to pull some weeds. Glen Spicer

A Method to the Madness

I understand that many try and steer away from politics because it tends to be a volatile issue. But with the screwy things that are happening in America today, it is time to take a stand.

We are seeing the Left getting student-aged millennials and young people fired up about the “evils” of the Confederacy, the historical importance notwithstanding. So, the destruction or removal of statues of Confederate soldiers and leaders was guaranteed to follow.

The Confederate Flag has always been a popular target but has grown even more so as of late. Even the state of Mississippi is under fire because a corner of their state flag displays a small version of that flag.

But the drive for “ending racism” did not stop there. Statues of Abraham Lincoln has been vandalized, even though he “freed” the slaves. A statute of Teddy Roosevelt is being targeted now because it shows him on horseback with an Indian standing on one side and a Black man standing on the other side. So, how is this racist?

The statue of Ulysses S. Grant, the General who won the Civil War for the North, has been torn down. Should he not have been seen as a hero? Not by those bent on destruction and ignorant people with no working knowledge of our history.

Even George Washington’s statue did not escape their lunacy and one of the statues of Christopher Columbus has been decapitated and toppled. The statue of Francis Scott Key, who penned the words to the National Anthem, is seen as an undesirable now and they demand it be removed.

What was promoted as an end to displays of racism has devolved into sheer thirst for destruction. Or perhaps it has actually evolved into what it was designed to be from the start, an orchestrated attempt at destroying the history of America by those who hate this country.

We have seen the unprecedented rise of “Democratic Socialism,” whatever that is supposed to be, and we had Democrat Party presidential candidates run on that platform. While their campaign did not run the course, the idea has not died.

The Black Lives Matter movement has also always devolved from the idea of social equality and racial justice to an excuse to loot, burn and destroy America and the assaulting of Whites just because they are White (which is the very definition of racism itself) and into a reason to assault police officers.

Suddenly, every police officer in America is somehow to be responsible and held accountable for the actions of a small handful. By that logic, every Black person should be held accountable for every crime committed by a Black individual. Does that sound logical? Of course not, but logic for BLM is nonexistent.

The Left and BLM are joined at the hip and the erasing of “inconvenient history” or the symbols of law and order has replaced any demand for justice with brutality, savagery and anarchy. The idea of justice for George Floyd, a Black career criminal who was incarcerated nine times on drug, thief and gun charges, who once held a loaded gun on the belly of a pregnant Black woman while his five friends robbed her house, and who was raised to the level of hero and martyr by the Democrats and BLM, has long disappeared.

There is a method to their madness and it involves chaos and civil disobedience carried to the extreme. It is to collapse the economy, overrun society with confusion and turmoil, open the door to whatever “solution” the Left says they represent, and currently to install protestors as a protected class of people and even giving over portions of cities like Seattle to them for their nonsense to be carried out without interference by police, the influence and power they are demanding be stripped from the community.

In Denver, the police have been removed from city schools because the logic of the city council says that this move will make students, especially “students of color” feel safer. How does that work? I guess the possibility of another mass school shootings does not bother them as much as their child seeing a uniformed police officer protecting them does.

State governors have issued warnings to everyday citizens to “remain in their homes unless you are protesting.” After being told for months that the Coronavirus was deadly and we must isolate ourselves to restrict the possibility of spreading it, protestors are allowed to gather by the thousands with no repercussions, further illustrating the fact that responses to this “virus crisis” is guided by politics, not medicine, science or even commonsense.

Both the Covid-19 responses by Democrat governors and the BLM movement have the same goal, the elimination of what we know America to be. It won’t stop any time soon because those governors that are enabling the protestors, and backing off even when their cities are being burned, are Leftists with the same inherent desire, to see America “fundamentally changed” just as Obama promised to do when he was elected. They are carrying on his efforts that he left unfinished.

We will likely never fully understand the extent that the responses to this pandemic will have on America and its population. Apart from the economic impact, where they shut down over 50% of all retain store spaces in the country and cost the economy trillions of dollars, we are seeing a spike in suicides as their fear promoting has driven some past the place where they could see that life is worth living.

And another side of the coin has been the assault on Christianity. Christians and Jews were told by New York City mayor Di Blasio, for example, to remain at home and if they were to reopen their churches and places of worship, they would be arrested, while at the same time, he patted himself on the back for having fed “hundreds of thousands” of Muslims (by his own estimate) during Ramadan.

So, what we are seeing is an assault on America, its heritage, it’s traditions, its history and its future, all in the name of tolerance and civility even though their methods are anything but tolerant and civil.

America is at a crossroads and where we end up will determine which fork we take. Will we demand a return to peaceful communities and the honoring of America’s past and present, even while attempting to make it a better place to live, or we take the path that will cause us to see the destruction of this great American experiment complete?

The time for not taking a stand and for avoiding politics, as nasty and as messy as it can get, is past. We have seen what the promotion of fear and hysteria has done to us and our willful obedience has made us complicit in the result. We will either be an influence in what happens to America from this day forward, or we will find ourselves one day scratching our heads and wondering, “What happened to America I once knew?”

Glen Spicer

Unreasonable Concessions Being Made to Muslims

Anti-Semitism is inherent in Islam and ingrained into all Muslims. Muhammad gained power and became a leader not by preaching Islam but by enforcing Islam, first on the Jews and then on the rest of the world. Liberals in America talk against anti-Semitism and at the same time promote the election of Muslims who believe and act just the opposite. Hitler's Mien Kampf is actually less anti-Semitic than the Qur'an is, so that should tell any intelligent person how deeply it is ingrained into the Muslim mindset. But then, being hypocritical is a Democratic Party trait.

Two Democratic Party Muslim Congresswomen are perfect examples. Ilhan Oman is the first person to be allowed to wear a head covering in Congress, even though there has been a ban on such items since 1837.

Concessions to Muslim culture is gaining a foothold in American politics. Along with such seemingly harmless actions as this, comes the more radical ideas as well.

In November of 2012, Omar released this anti-Semitic statement on her Twitter page: “Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel.” Considering she now has a seat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, this should be very disconcerting to all who see Israel as an ally in the Middle East, a beacon of democracy in an otherwise theocratic landscape.

Another newly-elected Democratic Party Muslim also shares the same anti-Israeli sentiments. Rashida Tlaib, along with Omar, has given her support for the Palestinian-led BDS Movement (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) which has taken a stand against the Israeli government and its treatment of Palestinians.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer have both voiced their disapproval of the BDS Movement in the past, but even though they have called for an apology from Omar for her anti-Semitic Tweet and obvious outrage against Israel, they have not taken a very firm stand in reality. It seems easier to let it pass from the news cycle than to rock the boat of these two new superstars of diversity the Democrats have help into office.

Although Omar has apologized, she has not turned from her blaming Israel for the ills of the Middle East, a typically Islamic stand.

Anti-Semitism is nothing new to Islam. On his deathbed, their Prophet Muhammad called for the extinction or exile of every Jew in Arabia and today that country is basically an apartheid-run country where Jews are not welcome.

Consider this hypocrisy. Democratic Representative John Yarmuth has called to ban teenagers from wearing M.A.G.A. hats, saying on Twitter, “I am calling for a total and complete shutdown of teenagers wearing MAGA hats until we can figure out what is going on. They seem to be poisoning young minds.” (I had no idea hats could poison the mind.)

As she spoke of an incident involving Covington High School students that he was far too quick to condemn for their behavior before it became evident, through actual complete video coverage of the event in question, that the charges of racism were unfounded and false. “The conduct we saw in this video is beyond appalling, but it didn’t happen in a vacuum. This is a direct result of the racist hatred displayed daily by the President of the United States who, sadly, some mistake for a role model.”

Once the more complete video was released, it showed that this was not the case, but this Congressman quick-to-judgment moment shows prejudice rampant in the Democratic Party against anything they can attach to Donald Trump. This example was used here because he showed an effort, without evidence, to restrict the wearing of a hat because it represents a President that he disapproves of but he has said nothing about the wearing of the hijab in Congress which is evidence of hatred, bigotry and racism against Jews that has been the mainstay of Islam for 1400 years. Apparently, this symbolism, which represents the oppression of women in Muslim countries, doesn’t get a rise out of him or any other Democrats, for that matter.

I see it as the first of many concessions to Muslims we will continue to make and it should be noted that every capitulation is an act of dhimmitude on the part of non-Muslims. Muhammad established the dhimmi class of people when he discovered that he had found a way to continue to reap the monetary rewards of Jews for generations whereas simply killing them had a limited and single reward.

He established that if a Jew, for instance, who lived in a country that Islam had conquered wanted to continue to practice his/her faith, they could do so after agreeing to pay the jizya, a tax sometimes amounting to half their yearly income. As a result of doing this, they were allowed to practice their faith but under certain very-restrictive circumstances.

Among other things, non-Muslims could not own expensive horses and if they wanted to ride an animal, it must be a mule or a donkey, and sometimes they had to ride backwards. There was even a specially designed saddle with the “horn” on the back. Funny hats or missed-matched shoes were commanded to be worn by Jews and other non-Muslims, or a yellow patch on their clothing, so that they could not be mistaken for a Muslim.

If their worship services included clapping as a form of worship, their clapping could not be loud enough to be heard in the street because a Muslim hearing it would be offended. For Christians, they were allowed to wear a cross around their neck, but it had to be a large one, weighting over two pounds in some places. Clothing restrictions also applied.

If it rained, a Jew was forbidden to go outside for fear that water running off his body would pool in the street and a Muslim would be defiled if he accidently stepped in it.

There was three parts of the behavior of Muslims in the dhimmi state. First, they were prohibited to be friends with the non-Muslim or of embracing their opinions or patterns of behavior. Secondly, they were prohibited to even have a discussion with them. And thirdly, there was the obligation to humiliate them.

The historical evidence contains volumes of oppressive attitudes towards Jews and other non-Muslims, and the very fact that we have members of Congress that are Muslims, should stir the concern of every American.

While President Trump is accused of being racist, mainly because of his “Muslim Ban,” a move meant to restrict immigration of people from terrorist-supporting nations and protect the American people, a move which legally he is entitled to implement.

Compare that stretch of the imagination of Democrats who see this as being not in the interest of the American people, to a fact of Islamic history, that Muhammad referred to African Negros as “raisin heads.” You should see the obvious double standard as no Muslim will ever be reminded of their Prophet Muhammad’s own racism.

Because Muslims are instructed 14 times in the Qur’an, as well as being reminded by the example of Muhammad’s life and the instructions of Muslim clerics, that they are not to be friends with non-Muslims, how can any true Muslim have a fair and effectual interaction with any non-Muslim? Simply, they cannot.

Taking it all into consideration, no Muslim should be allowed to hold any office in America where they are enabled to design or vote on any policies that govern the life of any non-Muslim or on a larger more global scale, any ally of the United States.

One last clarification, before the Muslim apologist chimes in, Islam is more of a political doctrine than a set of religious principles. It seeks to govern every aspect of life for Muslim and non-Muslim alike. That makes it political, not religious. If we would treat it as such, all the discussion and conflict with American values would resolve itself, for no real American should see as acceptable the embrace of anyone in government who is anti-American at their core. It is counterproductive, and simply put, ludicrous.

Is America Now Proudly a Nation of Death?

Some may remember the legal proceedings brought against former physician Kermit Barron Gosnell in 2011 when he was charged with illegally performing abortions beyond the state’s 24-week time limit and for the murder of babies born alive during the procedure. He was also charged with involuntary manslaughter of Karnamava Mongar, one of the mothers he gave an abortion to that died afterwards.

Even before this, he had legal troubles surrounding his medical practices. In 2000, he was sued on behalf of a woman he performed an abortion on who experienced abnormal bleeding after the procedure when she had returned home. She called and reported the problem but was ever advised to return for treatment and she subsequently died 3 days later of a perforated uterus and a bloodstream infection. Gosnell settled out of court in 2002 for $900,000.

In the 2011 case, Gosnell and his staff members were subsequently arrested and charged with 8 counts of murder, (7 of the infants had their spinal cord cut with scissors to facilitate their deaths after they were born alive during the abortion procedure), 24 felony counts of performing abortion beyond Pennsylvania’s set time restraints of 24-weeks, and 227 misdemeanor counts of violating the 24-hour consent law.

His 2013 convictions varied slightly as he was finally convicted of 21 felony counts of illegal late-term abortions, 211 counts of violating the 24-hour informed consent law, first degree murder in the deaths of 3 of the infants and involuntary manslaughter of Mongar. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole when he waved his right to appeal in exchange for the death penalty being taken off the table.

Last week, with much fanfare, New York state passed the “Reproductive Health Act” and it was celebrated in the chamber with a standing ovation. The RHA removes abortion from the criminal code making it no longer illegal, and established the legality of killing a baby right up until the time of its birth.

The convicted doctor Gosnell always declared he was innocent and “just ahead of his time.” Sadly, and shamefully, New York state just proved him right.

It is not clear who originally stated, “Any society, any nation, is judged on the basis of how it treats its weakest members – the last, the least, the littlest.” The sentiment is attributed to both Pearl S. Buck and Cardinal Roger Mahoney but is true nevertheless.

Nelson Mandela once said, “The true character of a society is revealed in how it treats its children.” In another version he was credited as having said, “A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but it’s lowest ones.”

Jesus said concerning those who harm children in Luke 17:2, “It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.” What more grievous offense could be done to a child than to murder it?

History will indeed judge America for the way it has defended and tolerated, and currently promotes, the murder of our most innocent ones, and God will too.

Not All History Is Worth Making

With the new Congress coming in January, it is not without controversy. Among disconcerting factors is the election of two Muslim women to Congress and ever since then, deception has been the order of the day.

Even before they have taken office, facts have emerged that dispel the assumption that they are merely good Americans seeking to work for America and the American people. But is that true?

Ilhan Abdullahi Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Harbi Tlaib of Michigan have made history by becoming the first Muslim women to be elected to Congress. But not all history is good history.

Rashida Tlaib has chosen to be sworn in, not on the Bible, but on the Qur’an once owned by President Thomas Jefferson. She claims it as a symbol that Muslims have always been here in America. True to form, she is seeking to deceive America. Thomas Jefferson did indeed own that Qur’an, but it was not because he sought to embrace or even to include Islam in the American landscape. He acquired it as a means by which to know his enemy.

In 1786, Jefferson and John Adams traveled to London to meet with Sidi Haji Abdrahaman, the aid to Tripolitania’s Ambassador to London. Jefferson’s concern was understanding why they sought to wage war against America when we had not shown aggression against them. The reply he got was a warning then, and a warning now, to America.

Jefferson wrote that the Ambassador stated that their reason for aggression “was founded on the Laws of the Prophet, that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have answered their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as prisoners, and that every Mussulman (Muslim) who should be slain in battle was sure to go to Paradise.”

This sentiment is still prevalent and exhibited in the terrorist attacks around the world today. It is the underlying theme of modern Islamic terrorism and it is also the underlying theme of Muslims that seek to obtain office in a country they are instructed to abhor.

The elected Muslim women bring with them other concerns as well. America has a tremendous ally in Israel and considering the fact that Islam is anti-Israeli as established in their Qur’an and their Prophet’s lifestyle, their election is not beneficial for American-Israeli relations.

Both women proclaimed themselves to hold a “moderate” view of Israel but their past shows something different. They both have supported the BDS Movement. The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions Movement challenges Israel’s right to exist. They oppose continued military aid to Israel and oppose the two-state solution to the Israeli-Arab conflict, which would allow for the Palestinian state to exist along side of Israel. Instead, they support a one-state solution which would, over time, by sheer numbers, replace Israel with a Palestinian state, erasing Israel from the map, as many Islamic dictators vow to do.

Ilhan Omar replaces a Muslim man, Keith Ellison in Minnesota’s 5^th congressional district. In her acceptance speech, she opened with the typical Arabic greeting, “As-Salam Alaikum” and there was no America flag present, a disconcerting fact in itself.

She also noted in her speech that she was the first woman in her new position to wear a hijab, the Islamic head covering that some see as a symbol of oppression of women who are seen as second-class citizens in Islam.

Her troubling past includes a Tweet from November 2012 where she wrote, “Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel.” Such statements would seem to disqualify her to be in support of workable American-Israeli relations.

After her Tweet came to light, she attempted to walk it back and denounced her support for the BDS Movement. However, a week after being elected, her office released a statement which read in part, “Ilhan believes in and supports the BDS movement, and has fought to make sure people’s rights to support it isn’t criminalized. She does, however, have reservations on the effectiveness of the movement in accomplishing a lasting solution.”

On September of this year, she spoke at a fundraiser which was attempting to raise money for Palestinians in Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas, an organization that has been designated as a terrorist group by the U.S. State Department. Hardly an endorsement for a representative of the United States.

The other Muslim woman to be elected to Congress, Rashida Tlaib, won a race where she had no Republican challenger, practically ensuring her victory. The night of her acceptance speech, no American flag was seen in the room and she draped herself in a Palestinian flag. She declared, “A lot of my strength comes from being Palestinian.”

As far as being supportive of Israel, she changed her public persona, as did Ilhan Omar, when after winning the Primaries she stated when asked if she supported a two-state solution, “One state. It has to be one state. Separate but equal does not work… This idea of a two-state solution, it doesn’t work.”

“Separate but equal” is not the Islamic stance concerning Israel and Israel’s right to exist is always threatened by any opposition to that idea. So, while many applaud the election of these two Muslim women to Congress as being historic, when you look beyond the surface and see the implications of those victories, there is cause for concern. And while they are still outnumbered in Congress and their views are not held by the majority, Islam now has a growing foothold in the process by which America is governed.

2018 saw a record number of Muslims being elected to various offices in America, from local to the federal level. As Omar Ahman, the founder of the Council for American Islamic Relations, CAIR, once stated proudly, “Islam isn’t in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Qur’an, the Muslim book of Scripture, should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion of earth.”

So, instead of celebrating the election of Muslims into our government perhaps it should not be celebrated as much as viewed with suspicion. This has nothing to do with embracing “diversity” or “cultural sensitivity” but is an ominous warning of the dilution of American values, a dangerous trend.

The Democratic Party, of which these two Muslim women are a member of, have been seeking to rewrite history by erasing the Confederate portion of it by crumbling statues and misinterpreting historical facts. Trying to weave Islam into the fabric of America is both deceptive and devious.

Yes, Islam has played a role in the history of America, but it has been as an enemy, not a friend. While no Islamic army is powerful enough to force its desire to have America become an Islamic nation upon us directly, Islam is now working from within to accomplish that same goal it declared to Thomas Jefferson early in our existence.

Just as Jefferson did in 1805 and again in 1815, we must resist the Islamic demands that would bind us to a philosophy that is contrary to all we stand for. Call it Politically Incorrect or whatever you want to. America’s survival depends upon recognizing our enemies, knowing how they operate, and acting accordingly to preserve this great American experiment.

The old question, “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time,” still holds true. America cannot be devoured instantly, but by one bite at a time it can disappear into the dust bins of history as have all of what used to be the Christian Middle East and Europe.

Islam needs to know that America is off the menu.

Will Gun Control Prevent Suicides?

Anti-gun advocates cite the prevention of suicide as one of the reasons to further restrict gun ownership or as a reason for totally disarming the population eventually. But is disarmament effective in reducing the suicide rate of any given country?

The country with the highest suicide rate in the world is South Korea, where there are 24.7 suicides per 100,000 people. In 2007, there were estimated 510,000 firearms in civilian hands in South Korea. That number includes rifles and shotguns along with handguns. By 2017, that number had been reduced to just 79,000 firearms, with the number of handguns in civilian hands being just 1,758, the most popular firearm of choice for suicide. Yet, South Korea still has the highest suicide rate in the world.

Hungary ranks second with 21.0 suicides per 100,000 people. Only 22,963 handguns are in the hands of the citizenry and Hungary ranks 74^th out of 178 countries in firearm ownership. Yet it boasts a suicide rate second only to South Korea.

Japan has the third highest rate of suicide with 19.4 per 100,000 committing suicide. Japan has only a reported number of handguns in civilian hands totaling a mere 77. Yet, Japan has the third highest suicide rate in the world.

Japan’s suicide rate is 60% higher than the global average, according to the World Health Organization. In 2014, the year that statistic was compiled, 25,000 Japanese citizens killed themselves, about 70 a day. Among children ages 10-19 in Japan, suicide is the leading cause of death. And while the suicide rate among older adults is declining, the rate among this 10-19 age group seems to be increasing. The greatest number of deaths seems to coincide with the return to school after summer break, with bullying, family issues and stress being the greatest factors.

With the availability of guns obviously not being the greatest contributing factor, the Japanese government has decided to try another approach and is attempting to lower the suicide rate by 30% by 2026. Hiring counselors for school-age youth and creating 24-hour Help Lines to address mental challenges being the goal. Such efforts are overdue, as the suicide rate in Japan among the young is the highest it has been in 30 years.

Belgium has the fourth highest rate of suicides in the world with 18.4 per 100,000 people. Only 5.8% of households in Belgium have a firearm of any kind. Belgium has established the legality of assisted suicide and from 2002-2011 some 5,500 have chosen that option. Close to 1% of all total deaths in Belgium are from euthanasia.

Coming in fifth is Finland with a suicide rate of 16.5 per 100,000 people. Only 13% of households in Finland have guns of any kind and yet it boasts the fifth highest in suicides. Half of all suicides in Finland were committed by people who were under the influence of alcohol or dependent upon the substance, with males being more likely to commit suicide than females.  

A suicide occurs somewhere in the world every 40 seconds with about 800,000 people killing themselves annually. When factoring in all the violent deaths worldwide, including those from wars, suicide accounts for 15% or five times as many violent deaths each year than those occurring in war zones.

Compare that to the United States which has a suicide rate of 10.1 per 100,000. In America, the number of households with one or more guns stands at a whopping 42.0%, much higher that South Korea, Hungary, Japan, Belgium or Finland. In fact, the US has somewhere between 111,300,000 to 114,000,000 handguns in civilian hands. Note, that is millions, not thousands, and some estimates go as high as 350,000,000, enough for every man, woman and child in America to have a gun.

The United States, among the 178 countries studied, is ranked #1 in private gun ownership and yet we are #10 of the top 26 countries in suicide. We have more guns in private ownership than every other country in the world and if you believe the Liberal gun-haters, we should have the highest suicide rate. Guns don’t cause suicides, mental attitudes and the inability to cope with circumstances in life itself causes suicides.

In contrast to it all, Greece has 1,920,000 guns, counting legal and illegal ones, and amazingly it has the lowest suicide rate in the world, coming in at a small 2.9 of 100,000 people. The number of households with one or more firearms in Greece rests at 20.6%. Greece shows that although 1 in 5 homes has firearms in them, suicide is not a naturally occurring result of gun ownership.

As South Korea, Hungary, Japan, Belgium and Finland prove, if guns are not available, people who want to die will find another way. With a cultural stigma attached in many cultures in the world to suicide, it can be assumed that the number of reported suicides might be lower than the actual number, making it a bigger problem than anyone will admit to.

True to form, beginning in 2019, Democrats have already vowed to make gun control a top priority when they regain power in the House come January. It is their pet cause regardless of the facts. If they really cared about public safety, guns would not be the target of their Liberal agenda. Mental illness should be. But then, that would not be a very popular campaign slogan to run on, now would it?