Two weeks ago, I wrote about Johnston County's proposed ordinance concerning limits on where firearms and projectiles could be used (to include BB guns and bow and arrow shooting). I sent that very column to my elected representatives on the County Board of Commissioners. I received some feedback from several of them. One such email I got was an official message from Allen Mims, the Chairman of the Board of Commissioners. It read as follows.
"As you are aware, the Johnston County Board of Commissioners was scheduled to hold a public hearing…to review and discuss the adoption of a proposed firearm ordinance. I, as well as my fellow Board members, have received several communications over the last week from concerned citizens regarding the implementation of such an ordinance. In light of these concerns, the Board and I have decided to develop a workgroup, consisting of Commissioner, staff and citizen representatives, who will review the proposed firearm ordinance, address the citizen concerns and develop a revised ordinance that is mutually acceptable among us all."
This shows that some people do still listen to their constituents when enough people make their voices heard. That is not to say that the reviewed and amended proposed ordinance will be any better, but at least the County Board is taking another look at the situation.
In other gun control insanity, I was reading an article about yet another gun buyback program that was in Providence, Rhode Island. This was not for unused our found firearms, though. It was for toy guns for children. That's right, toy guns. Providence is not exactly known for being conservative. I have known far too many left-wing control freaks that despise freedom and traditional American values from that area.
Children, especially boys, love to play with toy guns. I had cap guns, squirt guns, toy machine guns, and the like when I was a tot. My oldest son loves to play with his toy guns, and I have been teaching him about gun safety. Eventually I will gift him with his own real one, when he is old enough and mature enough. The same goes for my infant son. Toy guns nowadays come in bright colors or at least with orange tips, so as not to be confused with real ones. Even without the safety contrast colors, as children we never mistook our toys for the real thing and playing with toy guns never caused us to become violent in real life.
According to The Boston Globe, "In exchange for their toy guns, all the children received wrapped presents that were indisputably not violent — dolls, stuffed animals, and board games like checkers."
When I told my son about the program, he grabbed his toy shotgun, held it above his head, and proclaimed, "…from my cold dead hands!" Charlton Heston would have been proud.
Why is it that liberals will not be satisfied until everyone has equal misery? My boy is quite happy playing with his toy guns. I am happy when I get to play with my real ones. That does not make us violent. It makes us normal, freedom loving, American males. Liberals want to neuter people like us with anti-gun legislation, regulation, court decisions, treaties, and ordinances. When they can't reach children that way, they try to indoctrinate them into thinking that guns, even toy ones, are evil.
Look, guns are no more evil than the car you drive. Lighters are not evil, but evil can be done with them in the hands of an arsonist. Cars are not evil, but in the hands of a drunken driver, they can be lethal. Guns are not evil, but in the hands of an evil person, they can facilitate evil, violent acts. More people have died because of Ted Kennedy's car than have died from a bullet wound from one of my guns…and I have about 25 times as many guns as Kennedy had automobiles.
Since drunk drivers hurt people, I propose a buyback program for all toy cars and Jack Daniels bottles. How about swimming pools? Many children die in swimming pool accidents, so let's have a buyback program on all inflatable wading pools, backyard swimming pools, and Barbie Townhouse accessories. According to the logic used by liberals, it all makes sense to me.
As for me, I join with the bumper sticker sentiment of my son that was famously uttered by the late Charlton Heston, "...from my cold, dead hands!"
Showing posts with label board of commissioners. Show all posts
Showing posts with label board of commissioners. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 05, 2011
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Column for Dec. 23, 2010
“Save us from ourselves, Big Brother! Please act as a father for us because we are but stupid sheep!” Does the Johnston County’s Board of Commissioners think that this is how we all think and that is what we all need? Sorry, but I am 42 years old, a responsible adult, and don’t need a group of elected officials attempting to codify common sense for me. I had parents to teach me, I am a parent doing the same, and some things are just plain common sense.
I am going to quote from Grass Roots North Carolina, a state wide Second Amendment organization. “Johnston County commissioners are considering an ordinance to ban shooting of any kind of projectile within 600 feet of a dwelling. This would include BB and pellet guns. Upon questioning, county officials admitted that this would even include bows and arrows.” I know what has really kicked this subject into consideration, and quite honestly, it is another instance of hard case making for bad law. Because some individuals operate a veritable shooting range on private property in the county (outside of any town limits or jurisdiction), the county wants to pass an ordinance barring all county residents from shooting even a BB gun.
I am already covered by such nonsense, seeing that I live within the town limits of Selma. I am not allowed to discharge a firearm for sporting or pastime purposes in the town limits. I can see the regulation within the closer quarters of town limits more so than in the more rural areas of the county. I only have a quarter of an acre of land on which to recreate. The insanity is that Article 13, Article I, Section 13-4 of the Town of Selma code reads, “Any person using an air rifle in the town shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.” I can not even take my Daisy Red Rider and plug a stray dog that threatens my children or teach my boy how to proficiently handle a BB gun in my backyard. Quite honestly, if I want to tape a paper target to my glass door in my backyard and shoot at it, that should be my business and nobody else’s.
The county is even taking it one step further. A football field is 300 feet long (100 yards x 3 feet per yard). The county wants you to have to be two entire football fields away from a house in order to shoot a firearm, bow and arrow, or even BB gun. My best friend has 3 acres out in the country. His nearest neighbor can barely be seen from his house. If I wanted to comply with the town ordinance and go to his house in rural Johnston County to shoot a BB gun or even a .22 caliber rifle, we would not be allowed to do so. And I am talking way out in the country. In my friend’s words, he lives so far out in the country that he does not get the TV show “Saturday Night Live” until Tuesday. If my friend wants to stand on his porch and shoot at targets or even psychotic squirrels, he will not be allowed to do so. He would have to be off his own property, over two football fields away from his house. That is just ridiculous.
My son just won a toy marshmallow shooting crossbow Sunday night. Will he be able to shoot it in Selma without being guilty of a misdemeanor? How about in rural Johnston County? Do we have to turn in his Nerf guns to county or town officials now as part of some Nerf buy back program? Should I have saved the receipt to return the BB gun I bought him for Christmas (he better not read this column and none of you had better tell him about it since this column is going to be published just before Christmas)?
We do not need government to save us from ourselves. When I was growing up, we rode in cars without seat belts, played with lawn darts, and carried pocket knives. We survived. We also learned how to shoot safely and away from other people. Just because a few yahoos are around does not mean that every last common sense using citizen needs to have Big Brother holding our hands or acting as a parent for us.
I don’t know about you, but I am going to contact all of my elected officials on the County Board of Commissioners and let them know that too much government regulation is just not welcome. If they don’t listen to me, I hope that they will listen to common sense from citizens during the January 3rd public hearing on the matter.
------
As a result of the lobbying efforts of people like myself and other citizens, I got the following email today.
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Proposed Firearms Ordinance Hearing
Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2010 15:57:14 -0500
From: Rick Hester
From: Allen L. Mims, Jr., Chairman, Johnston County Board of Commissioners
Re: Proposed Johnston County Firearm Ordinance
As you are aware, the Johnston County Board of Commissioners was scheduled to hold a public hearing on January 3, 2011 at our 6:00pm meeting to review and discuss the adoption of a proposed firearm ordinance. I, as well as my fellow Board members, have received several communications over the last week from concerned citizens regarding the implementation of such an ordinance. In light of these concerns, the Board and I have decided to develop a workgroup, consisting of Commissioner, staff and citizen representatives, who will review the proposed firearm ordinance, address the citizen concerns and develop a revised ordinance that is mutually acceptable among us all.
Currently the workgroup will be comprised of the following members, with the possible addition of a couple more individuals:
Allen L. Mims, Jr. – Chairman of the Johnston County Board of Commissioners
Jeffrey P. Carver – Vice Chairman of the Johnston County Board of Commissioners
Rick J. Hester – County Manager
Steve Bizzell – Sheriff
Berry Gray – Planning Director
Citizens: Jeff Lawrence, Mike Walters, Jake McAllister, Stephen Reeves, Jonathan Parker and Todd Blackburn
Therefore, the public hearing scheduled for January 3, 2011 has been postponed until further notice. Upon receipt of a revised ordinance from the workgroup, we shall re-advertise the date and time of the public hearing.
Thank you.
I am going to quote from Grass Roots North Carolina, a state wide Second Amendment organization. “Johnston County commissioners are considering an ordinance to ban shooting of any kind of projectile within 600 feet of a dwelling. This would include BB and pellet guns. Upon questioning, county officials admitted that this would even include bows and arrows.” I know what has really kicked this subject into consideration, and quite honestly, it is another instance of hard case making for bad law. Because some individuals operate a veritable shooting range on private property in the county (outside of any town limits or jurisdiction), the county wants to pass an ordinance barring all county residents from shooting even a BB gun.
I am already covered by such nonsense, seeing that I live within the town limits of Selma. I am not allowed to discharge a firearm for sporting or pastime purposes in the town limits. I can see the regulation within the closer quarters of town limits more so than in the more rural areas of the county. I only have a quarter of an acre of land on which to recreate. The insanity is that Article 13, Article I, Section 13-4 of the Town of Selma code reads, “Any person using an air rifle in the town shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.” I can not even take my Daisy Red Rider and plug a stray dog that threatens my children or teach my boy how to proficiently handle a BB gun in my backyard. Quite honestly, if I want to tape a paper target to my glass door in my backyard and shoot at it, that should be my business and nobody else’s.
The county is even taking it one step further. A football field is 300 feet long (100 yards x 3 feet per yard). The county wants you to have to be two entire football fields away from a house in order to shoot a firearm, bow and arrow, or even BB gun. My best friend has 3 acres out in the country. His nearest neighbor can barely be seen from his house. If I wanted to comply with the town ordinance and go to his house in rural Johnston County to shoot a BB gun or even a .22 caliber rifle, we would not be allowed to do so. And I am talking way out in the country. In my friend’s words, he lives so far out in the country that he does not get the TV show “Saturday Night Live” until Tuesday. If my friend wants to stand on his porch and shoot at targets or even psychotic squirrels, he will not be allowed to do so. He would have to be off his own property, over two football fields away from his house. That is just ridiculous.
My son just won a toy marshmallow shooting crossbow Sunday night. Will he be able to shoot it in Selma without being guilty of a misdemeanor? How about in rural Johnston County? Do we have to turn in his Nerf guns to county or town officials now as part of some Nerf buy back program? Should I have saved the receipt to return the BB gun I bought him for Christmas (he better not read this column and none of you had better tell him about it since this column is going to be published just before Christmas)?
We do not need government to save us from ourselves. When I was growing up, we rode in cars without seat belts, played with lawn darts, and carried pocket knives. We survived. We also learned how to shoot safely and away from other people. Just because a few yahoos are around does not mean that every last common sense using citizen needs to have Big Brother holding our hands or acting as a parent for us.
I don’t know about you, but I am going to contact all of my elected officials on the County Board of Commissioners and let them know that too much government regulation is just not welcome. If they don’t listen to me, I hope that they will listen to common sense from citizens during the January 3rd public hearing on the matter.
------
As a result of the lobbying efforts of people like myself and other citizens, I got the following email today.
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Proposed Firearms Ordinance Hearing
Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2010 15:57:14 -0500
From: Rick Hester
From: Allen L. Mims, Jr., Chairman, Johnston County Board of Commissioners
Re: Proposed Johnston County Firearm Ordinance
As you are aware, the Johnston County Board of Commissioners was scheduled to hold a public hearing on January 3, 2011 at our 6:00pm meeting to review and discuss the adoption of a proposed firearm ordinance. I, as well as my fellow Board members, have received several communications over the last week from concerned citizens regarding the implementation of such an ordinance. In light of these concerns, the Board and I have decided to develop a workgroup, consisting of Commissioner, staff and citizen representatives, who will review the proposed firearm ordinance, address the citizen concerns and develop a revised ordinance that is mutually acceptable among us all.
Currently the workgroup will be comprised of the following members, with the possible addition of a couple more individuals:
Allen L. Mims, Jr. – Chairman of the Johnston County Board of Commissioners
Jeffrey P. Carver – Vice Chairman of the Johnston County Board of Commissioners
Rick J. Hester – County Manager
Steve Bizzell – Sheriff
Berry Gray – Planning Director
Citizens: Jeff Lawrence, Mike Walters, Jake McAllister, Stephen Reeves, Jonathan Parker and Todd Blackburn
Therefore, the public hearing scheduled for January 3, 2011 has been postponed until further notice. Upon receipt of a revised ordinance from the workgroup, we shall re-advertise the date and time of the public hearing.
Thank you.
Thursday, December 02, 2010
Column for Dec. 2, 2010
Who controls the purse strings in Johnston County? I thought it was the Johnston County Board of Commissioners. At least that is who I thought had the power to control county money, levy taxes, and portion out money as they see fit. That is why we elected them. There is a quote from the movie "Dune" which says, "He who controls the spice, controls the universe!" In the case of Johnston County, it had better be the Board of Commissioners that control the spice, not the Board of Education.
I have been reading with interest the rhetoric from the Board of Education and the Superintendent of Schools about the budget crunch here in our little county. This is nothing new and it is nothing applicable only to Johnston County. But how affairs have been conducted has been a media skirmish. The Board of Commissioners is asking for money back from the school budget. The School Board made counter offers and asserted that any further budget cuts would be devastating to the county's school system.
I don't buy that assertion for one minute. The schools will continue, even if on a shoestring budget. There are tons of wasteful and foolish things we can cut from the budget and still provide a decent education. I guarantee that if I was given a line item budget, I could find plenty of areas from which to trim expenses. Just because something is a good idea does not mean we should be doing it, providing it, or spending money on it. Right off the top of my head, I can think of several areas from which to cut, including middle school athletics, the superintendent's salary, and the pay increases given to the administrative office staff.
The one sacred cow that I would not mind seeing slaughtered is the threat of having to do away with some staff positions in the school system. Stupidly, 330 staff positions were being funded by federal stimulus dollars. It is just plain common sense to me that anything funded by the federal stimulus spending travesty (that my grandchildren will be paying for in years to come) will not be funded after that money runs out. So why then did the Johnston County School System depend upon that money to fund school worker salaries? It makes sense to me that when that money ceases, so do those jobs. We should never count short-term serendipity money as a basis for long term spending and employee retention. That is just plain foolish.
I was reading Superintendent of Schools Ed Croom explanation about how the school system accounts for the multi-million dollar reserve fund. If you are counting on a "reserve fund" rather than general funds to pay for construction projects, then something is amiss in how we are accounting for money. I have read some conflicting accounts from different sources that do not jive with that assertion, so the truth has got to be somewhere out there waiting to be fully explained to the populace of Johnston County. Figures have ranged from $23 million to $32 million of reserve funds and investment accounts.
If it is true that the school system has that much in undesignated funds, then I think that some taxpayers in Johnston County are due a refund. If these funds are indeed designated for construction costs, then the accounting needs to be made plain.
One thing that bothered me about this whole melee was that after the Board of Commissioners requested money back from the school system, the Board of Education countered with a lower figure with a stipulation attached that they could get the money back at any time. I don't see where they are in a position to be able to set terms. Another disappointment was that School Board Chairman Larry Strickland decided to hold a press conference in which he criticized the Board of Commissioners for being fiscally prudent in cutting the budget to the school system. I am now having second thoughts about that vote I cast on November 2nd.
The Board of Commissioners is supposed to be the elected body to control the spice. They supply the money, have the power to raise revenue, and should have the say about rescinding any budgets. Period. End of sentence.
I have been reading with interest the rhetoric from the Board of Education and the Superintendent of Schools about the budget crunch here in our little county. This is nothing new and it is nothing applicable only to Johnston County. But how affairs have been conducted has been a media skirmish. The Board of Commissioners is asking for money back from the school budget. The School Board made counter offers and asserted that any further budget cuts would be devastating to the county's school system.
I don't buy that assertion for one minute. The schools will continue, even if on a shoestring budget. There are tons of wasteful and foolish things we can cut from the budget and still provide a decent education. I guarantee that if I was given a line item budget, I could find plenty of areas from which to trim expenses. Just because something is a good idea does not mean we should be doing it, providing it, or spending money on it. Right off the top of my head, I can think of several areas from which to cut, including middle school athletics, the superintendent's salary, and the pay increases given to the administrative office staff.
The one sacred cow that I would not mind seeing slaughtered is the threat of having to do away with some staff positions in the school system. Stupidly, 330 staff positions were being funded by federal stimulus dollars. It is just plain common sense to me that anything funded by the federal stimulus spending travesty (that my grandchildren will be paying for in years to come) will not be funded after that money runs out. So why then did the Johnston County School System depend upon that money to fund school worker salaries? It makes sense to me that when that money ceases, so do those jobs. We should never count short-term serendipity money as a basis for long term spending and employee retention. That is just plain foolish.
I was reading Superintendent of Schools Ed Croom explanation about how the school system accounts for the multi-million dollar reserve fund. If you are counting on a "reserve fund" rather than general funds to pay for construction projects, then something is amiss in how we are accounting for money. I have read some conflicting accounts from different sources that do not jive with that assertion, so the truth has got to be somewhere out there waiting to be fully explained to the populace of Johnston County. Figures have ranged from $23 million to $32 million of reserve funds and investment accounts.
If it is true that the school system has that much in undesignated funds, then I think that some taxpayers in Johnston County are due a refund. If these funds are indeed designated for construction costs, then the accounting needs to be made plain.
One thing that bothered me about this whole melee was that after the Board of Commissioners requested money back from the school system, the Board of Education countered with a lower figure with a stipulation attached that they could get the money back at any time. I don't see where they are in a position to be able to set terms. Another disappointment was that School Board Chairman Larry Strickland decided to hold a press conference in which he criticized the Board of Commissioners for being fiscally prudent in cutting the budget to the school system. I am now having second thoughts about that vote I cast on November 2nd.
The Board of Commissioners is supposed to be the elected body to control the spice. They supply the money, have the power to raise revenue, and should have the say about rescinding any budgets. Period. End of sentence.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
