By Joe Bass

During the last 50-plus years, our governments have carried out two social engineering programs designed to improve society. They are known as the War on Poverty and the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

These efforts have resulted in many, often-overlooked improvements, but they have also caused many negatives that didn’t exist previously. Some negatives resulting from welfare have already been mentioned, and others will be discussed later.

One major problem has developed based on government and civil rights activists ignoring Dr. King’s concept of judgments based on character.

One manifestation of ignoring Dr. King and not focusing on character can be seen in the use of “research” approaches designed to promote political agendas instead of discovering truths that can be used to develop effective corrective approaches to address real challenges. Some of these efforts are designed to get the American public to not support certain civil rights.

An example of an effort to violate a civil right can be seen the focus on gun control in relation to school, church and theater shootings. Government, with the help of the mainstream media, supports the idea that certain locations should be weapon-free zones in which no one has a gun or even a pocket knife. There is no discussion about changes in personal character that have occurred in our society since the mid-1960s.

When attempting to overcome social problems, it is necessary to gather complete research data instead of gathering only data that supports political agendas that promote “solutions” that will not address real challenges.

There exists a great deal of data that demonstrates weapons are not the problem. The following are only a few examples. In considering these examples, it is important to know that major problems associated with criminal violence and firearms did not exist until the mid-1960s.

When I graduated from high school in 1960, it was easy for any American with the money to purchase a wide selection of rifles, shotguns and handguns. Most firearms were purchased from Montgomery Wards, Sears, and J.C. Penney through mail order catalogs. There were no background checks, and the firearms were mailed to your home.

Also available were M1 Carbines that were semi-automatic “weapons of war” that used 30-round interchangeable magazines. The federal government sold them to the public. For comparison, an M1 Carbine is a .30 caliber combat rifle while an AR15 is a .22.

From a personal perspective, I went to school during the 1940s and ‘50s. In 1952, when I was 12 years old and in the fifth grade, I was the proud owner of two semi-automatic rifles and one revolver. I had plenty of ammunition to go with them in my bedroom. Most of the boys I knew had similar arsenals, as did some girls. And I carried a pocket knife to school from that year forward.

How can an informed, thinking person support firearms restrictions, knowing that the major social problems of today did not exist when firearms were more easily available? Shouldn’t we focus on attempting to determine what happen in changes of personal character among many citizens?

Joseph L. Bass is the executive director of ABetterSociety.Info Inc., a nonprofit organization in Hobson. Email him at ABetterSociety1@aol.com.