Template:Measured
Measured
Oregon Measure 114, Changes to Firearm Ownership and Purchase Requirements Initiative (2022) will not only infringe upon the exercise their natural rights of bearing arms for self defense, protection of their family and community it also has the potential of making hundreds of thousands of Oregonians law breakers.[2]
There were opposition arguments filed that suggest imposition of some problems and a greater danger upon residence.[3] Most of these arguments would only convince those who are already convinced the Measure is an infringement.
There were fallacious arguments in support of this measure but they obviously lack of understanding and knowledge of facts.[4] No one seemed to make an effort to expose their real hypocracy and deception.
Rev. Mark Knutson who was the chief petitioner and pastor at Augustana Lutheran Church in Portland stated, "I hope it shows how residents in a state can come together from many directions and address the public health crisis of gun violence with common sense and well-put-together legislation. I hope that people are inspired to say: We can do this."
What health crises?
What Health Crises
This idea that the presence of arms or the capacity to hold more than ten bullets is a health crises is a repeated false claim.
Cancer is the leading cause of death in Oregon not guns.
Obesity causes far more death than guns through the common complication associated with being over weight.
In fact 18.7 deaths from drug overdose per 100,000 residence far exceeds injury deaths rate from firearms which have been claimed to be only 13 per 100,000.
The statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) tell us that the increase in gun fatalities is due to the growth in population and actually remains below the levels of earlier years.
So in fact there is no "public health crisis of gun violence" but only a public and media hype crises by people like Mark Knutson who skew the facts for their own agenda and virtue signaling.
So let us repeat that statistic again.
The actual death rate "remains below the levels of earlier years" according to the CDC.
The truth will give us the measure of far more deception by the proponents of Measure 114 if people are "willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it.[5] Deception has been employed to drive public opinion, inducing fear with falsehoods, moving the minds of the people by a media of mendacity, and sealing their souls with self serving virtue signaling.
What is the actual death rates caused by guns?
Since the actual death rate "remains below the levels of earlier years" what is causing that death rate as it is presented to us?
Is it homicides or something else?
Real health crises
If someone actually wants to talk about a real "mental health crises" we can look at the Suicide rates which have increased by 36% between 2000-2018. “Oregon had the nation's 13th highest suicide rate in 2020", according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.
The Oregon Health Authority reported that 83% of deaths were the result of suicides with only 13% being homicides.
About 833 people died by suicide statewide. It ranked ninth the year before, when 906 people died by suicide" but those numbers are back up this year and still counting.
So, the "gun violence" caused by firearm homicide is not 13 per 100,000 after all butfar less than even 2 per 100,000. That number which is far lower is hardly a health or safety crises.
Suicide is never the result of high-capacity magazines. The legal assault on high capacity magazines is absolute nonsense but they got away with it because their opponents were easily plaid and Oregonians were duped by a bias and incompetent media.
If Oregon's suicide rate is 20.4 per 100,000 then when people add the number of suicides into an "injury death by firearm" or "firearm mortality" category that creates the high statistical value that is virtually lying with statistics.
Avoiding the statistical distinction between homicides and suicides is dishonest and is done to make people fear more and misidentify the problem.[6]
The vast majority of deaths found in the 13/100k statistic are not truly "gun violence" in the sense of a homicide as Mark and his "cohorts"[7] would like the people to believe.
By mis-identifying the real mental health crises as guns and high capacity magazines, instead of depression and despair which has lead to suicides increasing all over the state Mark Knutson and his cohorts[7] draw attention of the people away from real health undermining efforts to address that growing problem.
Mark Knutson cohorts[7] include the dishonest press and mendacious media, and the censoring of the conversation by social media that has become all to common.
Suicides in Europe
It is not guns that cause suicide any more than ropes or bridges cause suicide.
In the Netherlands in what is the rated as "world's fifth happiest country" also a serious problem where there are few guns. Men far out number women with hanging and strangulation being the most popular method at over 830 in one year. Drugs/medicines/alcohol are second with equal popularity among men and women(330+). Near 200 jump in front of Train/metro with another soo jumping from heights and drowning. Other methods include poison, deliberate accidents, jumping in front of a car, cutting one's own wrists, gas, burning or electrocution. Almost no one shoots themselves in the Netherlands because there are almost no guns but the suicide rate remains very high and climbing and this.
Suicide is a serious issue and a "Real health crises" that should be discussed by people who want to address the real issue rather than use it as a political agenda lever.
The greatest ally of Knutson cohorts[7] was the disunity, sloth, and demoralized Oregonians who know how to get angry but not how effectively organize. That is where those social bonds have always been essential. Oregonian's are a scattered flock, with few of the social bonds common in the free societies of the past.
Causes of Homicides
As we have seen death rate due to homicide "remains below the levels of earlier years" and is not a health crises according to the CDC but if we include suicide in its proper context and examine the violence which is reported as being related to "intimate partner violence and gang violence", all of which are related to mental health, depression, and both legal and illegal drug deaths.
If the proponents who want to infringe on everyone's natural right to protect themselves in their homes and community actually cared about the community health they could see the real cause is the depression, lack of meaning and purpose in lives, the drugs and addictions that are driving the rise in suicides.
Instead by attempting to disarm the law abiding citizen they fail to provide for the real crises and actual threaten public safety by endangering individual safety.
More violence less protection
Are the same people trying to infringe upon your right to protect your family actually encouraging an unrestricted flow of criminals into the community and protecting them at your expense?
There are over 980 criminal aliens with outstanding Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainers in Oregon state prisons as of July 1, 2022 according to David Olen Cross, an independent crime researcher based in Salem, Or.
Cross’ report presents the data that 47% of the criminal aliens convicted of rape, sexual abuse or sodomy and another 138 criminal aliens account for 14 percent of the total had committed homicidal crimes.
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Estimates are that 38,000 are illegal or undocumented aliens. It is also reported that these criminals are housed at a cost of over a billion dollars annually to American taxpayers.[8]
Statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Sentencing Commission, federal Bureau of Justice and other sources estimate that illegal immigrants who only account for 3.5 percent of the population in the real world account for "13.6 percent of all offenders sentenced for crimes committed in the U.S."
Jail time in America is like a country club compared to incarceration to the home country of most criminal aliens. There is a great incentives for criminals to illegally come into America which puts hundreds of thousands of Americans at risk, increases drug traffic and violence and gang activity.
Meanwhile without a domestic increase of violence except among inner city gangs who are often peddling the same drugs brought across the southern borders, Knutson and his dishonest or delusional "cohorts" want to take your right of self defense away in violation of the Constitution of the powers.
Violating law and rights
This Measure 114 which supposedly passed in Oregon according to those people entrusted with counting the vote but it does clearly infringe upon the natural right to bear arms which is inclusive within the Law of Nature and Right Reason and what has been called Divine will.
Every life form has a right to protect itself, its progeny, and its community against unwarranted usurpation.
Besides being a clear infringement upon natural rights and also a violation of the 2nd Amendment of the Bill of Rights of the Constitution of the United States.
It will also shut down businesses infringing more upon individuals rights to obtain, keep and bear arms even though there is no gun health crises.
No member of the government nor citizen subject to that constitution has the authority to infringe upon that preexisting natural right to bear arms.
Other violations
This measure and and the other efforts to get it passed presented other violation of the single subject Ballot rule, and a (See law: Oregon Constitution, Article IV, Section 1 (1d)[9] and Article XVII, Section 1 Amendments and Revisions) and was designed to deceive millions of voters.
This measure will make tens of thousands of Oregonians law breakers and subject them to arbitrary police actions and fines.
Delusion and Infested minds
Oregonians are not only ignorant of their rights i.e. lack knowledge[10] but they are also slothful in their responsibilities just as we saw with Article 2 Section 22.
Every able bodied citizen of a nation that values freedom should desire to arm themselves in a manner that will allow them to properly protect their neighbor and themselves.
Early Americans understood that and placed limits on the power of legislation. The modern citizen has been infested with the spirit of sloth, covetousness and ignorance over reason. Bit also the desire to rule over their neighbor.
The citizen of the United States have their own right to appeal these Measure 114 but they would be far better served to change their thinking to that of earlier Americans and heal their nation of the real disease that infects it.
Despite the obvious evil embodied in this measure insult is added to injury because a man calling himself Reverend Mark Knutson was the chief petitioner and a pastor at an institution identifying itself as Augustana Lutheran Church in Portland.
He clearly does not know the Gospel of Christ and because of his appeals to the rulers who exercise authority to take fundamental rights from neighbors he is also one of the many false prophets of the beast.
He is not alone.
Fixing the Fault
The thinking of Americans has been steadily altered over the last century and more through your educational systems. You need to be willing to see the whole truth of this fact and provide for it.
People are not being told by their schools nor their media, nor their churches what makes a society strong and great.
What made America great?
"I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers, and it was not there… in her fertile fields and boundless forests, and it was not there…in her rich mines and her vast world commerce, and it was not there… in her democratic Congress and her matchless Constitution, and it was not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because America is good; and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great."[11]
But those early Churches were not like the churches we see today and the people in them do not think like nor do like those early American churches.
What was different then when freedom was won and what do we need to do now when that liberty and freedom is slipping away day by day?
Embryonic republics
Long before the founders of the American Republic voiced their objections to democracy Plato postulated “Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy...”
And long after Adams and Ralph Waldo Emerson said “Democracy is morose, and runs to anarchy.”
More recently historian and Congressman Ron Paul said: “Our country’s founders cherished liberty, not democracy.” I did find that Karl Marx, who was an advocate of communism, claimed “Democracy is the road to socialism.”
While it is true some were thinking that the people being “Accustomed to trampling on the rights of others you have lost the genius of your own independence and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises among you.”[12]
The practices of the Masses that degenerate the people were known since Sodom and preached against by Moses, Jesus and the apostles.
“Under a democratic government, the citizens exercise the powers of sovereignty; and those powers will be first abused, and afterwards lost, if they are committed to an unwieldy multitude.”[13]
Caesar was right, mankind is governed by names and their definitions. This why I began by sharing with you the change in the definition of democracy between 1928 and 1952 in a similar publication.
Changing the definitions of words like Democracy, Republic or even Religion will lead to the deception of the people.
- “If you establish a democracy, you must in due time reap the fruits of a democracy... with great increase of the public expenditure. You will in due season have wars entered into from passion and not from reason; and you will in due season submit to peace ignominiously sought and ignominiously obtained, which will diminish your authority and perhaps endanger your independence. You will in due season find your property is less valuable, and your freedom less complete.”[14]
Ben Franklin advised that “A nation of well informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved. It is in the region of ignorance that tyranny begins.” Those rights depend upon us valuing our neighbors’ rights as much as we value our own, which is virtue.
The not so good ideas
While Reverend Mark Knutson is a self proclaimed social justice warrior and socialist he also wants to claim to believe in Christ.
It is absolutely clear that Jesus was not a socialist.
How anyone could even suggest that Jesus preached socialism is an indictment of the Modern Church.
Christ came to preach against socialism, not for it.
Socialism was one of the major reasons He took the kingdom from the Pharisees[15] and appointed it to the Apostles with the instructions not to be like the other governments of the world who called themselves Benefactors but exercised authority one over the other.
It was the Corban of the Pharisees which made the word of God to none effect. That Corban which was started by Herod the Great and the Pharisees who held political power at that time was a socialist scheme. Herod's temples, like the Temples of Rome, operated a social welfare system of free bread through taxation instead of freewill offerings as Moses said to do.
Winston Churchill wrote that: “Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.” He went on to say that “The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.”
http://preparingyou.com/wiki/Democracy
Yes we can fix this
We can fix this if we realize that "The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults." ― Alexis de Tocqueville
In order to do that America needs to be willing to see the whole truth and provide for it. We need to repent and seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness as our personal priority.
Despite the obvious evil embodied in the terms and presentation of this measure an insult is added to injury because it was the Reverend Mark Knutson[16] who was the chief petitioner to create and push this bill forward with his inclusive interfaith church while imagining that depriving people of their God given rights while coveting his neighbors goods and going to men who exercise authority.
- “Loss of life is pure tragedy,” Knutson said but the newest threat to Americans by gun violence has been the influx of foreign criminals.
- Mark Knutson went on to say “When people die on the streets, that is somebody’s child... We have to remember that. That’s not some abstract number. That’s a human being. We need to rise up. When my neighbor bleeds, we all bleed.”
These words are true but in what manner do we "rise up"?
And the deaths on the street have not actually increased except where the people are made perfect savages with their appetite for benefits and the habit of receiving them through the force of that exercising authority.
There are hundreds of situations where people stopped mass murder because they were armed. When evil came they were able to rise up and stop evil. Mark wishes to take that right and ability from the people.
“A good guy with a gun is an effective way to stop a bad guy with a gun.”
Hundreds of thousands of times crimes have been prevented or halted by the clear presence of firearms. But there is no doubt that millions of times crimes are never committed because criminal elements of society are concerned that a firearm might be present which creates an environment of criminal hesitancy that cannot be denied. Mark Knutson seems unconcerned about the reduction of that criminal hesitancy by his measure that infringes upon the right to be armed. The people that may be injured may also "bleed".
Prohibition
The right to bear arms is not a "constitutional right" granted by the Second Amendment.
The Second Amendment is prohibiting the Congress or anyone who has the power to make law in the United States from doing so in a way that would be an infringement upon that Natural law right. ("shall make no law").
- "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
No member of the government subject to that constitution has the authority to infringe upon that preexisting Natural law right.
People might be better prepared to counter the acts of violence in their society by addressing the real cause rather than the symptom. It is the violent or savage heart and the inability to care about others that brings violence.
If Rev. Mark Knutson and so many other preachers were actually preaching the Gospel of the kingdom. The modern Church should be seeking to understand the Christian conflict with Rome. Rather than appealing to the government to hinder and infringe upon the natural rights of their neighbors to defend themselves or protect their community.
Appeal to force
With this appeal to the rulers who exercise authority one over the other to take away the rights of your neighbor to defend themselves and others hypocrites who say they believe in Jesus actually go against Christ who directed His disciples to arm themselves.
- Luke 22:36 "Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take [it], and likewise [his] scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one."
He certainly does not have the same mind of Christ if he wants to take away the rights that God endowed the people with. Guns are not a health crises any more than cars which kill more people than firearm homicides. Smoking kills more people than alcohol, AIDS, car crashes, illegal drugs, murders, and suicides combined — and thousands more die from other tobacco-related causes — such as fires caused by smoking (more than 1,000 deaths/year nationwide)
The hazard is that he and his cohorts are disarming people so they are less able to rise up and protect themselves and others in their community.
As a pastor of what is called the Augustana Lutheran Church in Portland, he clearly does not know the Gospel of Christ and because of his appeals to the rulers who exercise authority one over the other is more like the appeal to persecute Christians by Ambrose who was servant of the Fathers of the earth and a member of the of the Church of Constantine".
False prophets
Reverend Mark Knutson appears to not be a minister of Jesus the Christ and the Gospel of the Kingdom but appears to be a false prophet as a political activist for the Caesar of the world.
- Revelation 16:13 And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs [come] out of the mouth of the dragon,[17] and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.
- Revelation 19:20 "And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone."
- Revelation 20:10 "And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet [are], and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever."
- 1 Peter 4:1 "Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin;"
Legal definition of the Church
The real problem in America is not just that Americans do not think like Americans at the time of Alexis de Tocqueville and Davey Crockett but they do not think like the early Christians.
The Church can only be defined by Christ, but a legal definition is available:
- "CHURCH In its most general sense, the religious society founded and established by Jesus Christ, to receive, preserve, and propagate his doctrines and ordinances."
- "A body or community of Christians, united under one form of government by the profession of one faith, and the observance of the same rituals and ceremonies."
Black's Law Dictionary 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th... eds.
What united them was a daily ministration of love and the practice of fervent charity instead of the legal charity of the world.
The term church may be used in several senses.
While many institutions may call themselves a church, to meet consistent legal definition it must be established by Jesus Christ.
The Church as a body is a corpus or corporate, and it would not include the people, except through practices of charity. This would not include Legal charity if the State that degenerates the masses and ushers in tyranny and was forbidden by Christ.[18]
The church as a community does include the people or laity in a communion of that charity.
You cannot get near God without what is sometimes called Sacrifice.
The manner of that sacrifice is where the Christian conflict is seen.
Bouvier's Law Dictionary 1856 Edition
CHURCH. In a moral or spiritual sense this word signifies a society of persons who profess the Christian religion; and in a physical or material sense, the place where such persons assemble. The term church is nomen collectivum;[19] it comprehends the chancel,[20] aisles, and body of the church.[21]
- ↑ Galatians 5:15 But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.
- ↑ : Measure will
- "require permits issued by local law enforcement to buy a firearm;
- require photo ID, fingerprints, safety training, criminal background check, and fee payment to apply for a permit; and
- prohibit manufacturing, importing, purchasing, selling, possessing, using, or transferring ammunition magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds and make violations a class A misdemeanor.
- ↑ Lane Magill, Wasco County Sheriff: "One of the major impacts it will have is the overall cost. The measure only accounts for a $65 charge for the process, but the major issue the sheriff’s office will be impacted by is having to hire at least one additional employee to handle this new process. You might ask, 'Why is hiring another person a big deal?' Under the current budget we now have there is no money to do this and if this passes; the sheriff’s office will be considering a reduction in patrol staff to meet the mandate!"
- Paul Donheffner, chairman of the Legislative Committee of the Oregon Hunters Association: "114 will NOT:
- prevent violent crime or mass shootings because criminals will never comply with the law; only law abiding gun owners will be restricted.
- prevent mass shootings because murderers or terrorists can use a dozen 10-round magazines to create the same destruction as four 30 round magazines, but why would they comply with magazine limits anyway?"
- National Rifle Association-Institute for Legislative Action: "IP 17 is yet another anti-gun ballot initiative that seeks to further erode Second Amendment rights in Oregon. It imposes a permit requirement in order to exercise the Second Amendment right to acquire a firearm ...The permit application process includes a one-size-fits-all training mandate, a subjective mental health review that is ripe for abuse, submission of fingerprints, and payment of a fee - up to $65 to apply, and up to $50 to renew. Issuing authorities have up to 30 days to issue permits to qualified applicants and they must be renewed every five years. Meanwhile, criminals will continue obtaining their firearms illegally."
- Kevin Starrett, executive director of Oregon Firearms Federation: "Where do you suppose all the smaller towns who rely on private gun clubs for training are going to go for the live fire portion of the class? How often will they provide it? What costs will be created? How do those increased costs and barriers affect Black folks in inner-city Portland?"
- ↑ Rebecca Gladstone, president of the League of Women Voters of Oregon: "The League of Women Voters of Oregon believes that the proliferation of handguns and semi-automatic assault weapons poses a major health and safety threat to Oregonians. Gun violence, the leading cause of premature death in the US, should be confronted with a sense of urgency and a range of evidence-based solutions. Here is why the League strongly supports Measure 114: Research shows that a permit-to-purchase requirement is one of the most effective ways to reduce firearm homicide and suicide rates."
- Anthony Johnson, the communication director for the committee supporting Measure 114: "I'm a gun owner myself and I believe that people should be able to possess guns, but obviously the status quo of our gun laws are not working. We need to implement some common sense, sensible regulations to save lives and Measure 114 will do that."
- Penny Okamoto, executive director of Ceasefie Oregon Education Foundation: "Permit-to-purchase has been shown to reduce suicide and homicide. Homicide by 28% when Connecticut enacted theirs, and suicide by 33% when Connecticut enacted their permit-to-purchase."
- ↑ "It is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it." Patrick Henry, Give me liberty or give me death speech
- ↑ How to Lie with Statistics is a book written by the journalist Darrell Huff in 1954. Supposedly recommended by Bill Gates.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 “All the members of my cohort have already accomplished some amazing things in their communities and the places they serve, so the energy and the desire to see the Church grow for the right reasons is energizing,” Knutson said. “I’m on vacation when I’m here. I am so excited because I get to be in a room with others without the daily agendas coming at me, but to really go deep in thinking and talking from experience. That is powerful stuff.”
- ↑ Federal Report Shows Open Borders Bring Increased Crimes and Costs for Taxpayers
- ↑ (d) An initiative petition shall include the full text of the proposed law or amendment to the Constitution. A proposed law or amendment to the Constitution shall embrace one subject only and matters properly connected therewith.
- ↑ Hosea 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.
- ↑ This was incorrectly attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville in the book 'The Kingdom of God and the American Dream by Sherwood Eddy which was published in 1941 and again on November 3, 1952 in a final campaign address in Boston by Dwight D. Eisenhower. It similarly was quoted in A Third Treasury of the Familiar by Ralph L. Woods, published in 1970. Presidents Reagan and Clinton and many others have quoted the line not just because they thought Alexis wrote it but because they believed it was true. Others traveling through America in 1834 did write an almost identical quote at the same time as Tocqueville was touring America, “America will be great if America is good. If not, her greatness will vanish away like a morning cloud.” "A Narrative of the Visit to the American Churches: By the Deputation from the Congregation Union of England and Wales (Vol. II). by Andrew Reed and James Matheson, Harper & Brothers, 1835.
- ↑ Abraham Lincoln, September 11, 1858.
- ↑ Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 1776.
- ↑ Benjamin Disraeli(1804-1881), British Prime Minister
- ↑ Matthew 21:43 Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.
- ↑ This is the same Pastor W. J. Mark Knutson has turned his church's steeple into an alarm to warn of approaching ICE agents.
- ↑ Draco of 7th century BC, also called Drako or Drakon meaning dragon or serpent.
- ↑ See Benefactors, Covetous practices.
- ↑ NOMEN COLLECTIVUM. This expression is used to signify that a word in the singular number is to be understood in the plural in certain cases.
- ↑ the part of a church near the altar, reserved for the clergy and choir, and typically separated from the nave by steps or a screen.
The term nave is from navis, the Latin word for ship, an early Christian symbol of the Church as a whole, with a possible connection to the "ship of St. Peter" or the Ark of Noah.] - ↑ Ham. N. P. 204.