Late last month in Philadelphia a grim milestone was reached, 500 homicides were recorded with a month left in the year, which sets the pace for Philly to see over 550 total homicides for the year, supposedly a new record there for the city of brotherly love - [philadelphiaweekly.com]

The most recent homicide victim wasn't even buried yet, and right away sure enough out come the gun control activists demanding more gun control measures be enacted, but hardly anyone it seems wants to have an honest discussion on what continues to fuel these types of crimes, which there certainly would be other factors to consider. After awhile it gets old to hear the same emotionally-driven dribble that guns have only one purpose and that is to kill, which is nothing more than an emotional-based pleading of the sorts. Target practice/sport shooting with paper targets could hardly be considered homicidal. Instead of arguing the same old tired talking points, let's have a discussion on what is really behind the rise in violent crimes, and what could be done to remedy the problem. When one stops and actually views this topic through an independent and unbiased lens, one would see that firearms themselves are a relatively small problem in comparison to other factors.

For a start, our public education system needs some serious improvements, far too many of our young people are being failed by the public school system. The drop-out rate in some places these days is staggering, take Philadelphia for example where in 2020 roughly 81% of high schoolers graduated, and about 6% of students didn't even make it to the ninth grade, and that's truly concerning. Then some wonder why the level of violent crime is on the rise in Philly? History would indicate that when most of the population receives at least a basic and quality education, said society is more often than not more civilized with a lower percentage rate of violent crimes and theft. Instead of dreaming up more gun control measures which have largely been failing the city of Philadelphia, how about a law in which mandates anyone under age 18 absolutely cannot drop out of school, and by age 18 most students would already be in their senior year by that time and the chances of them dropping out at that point would decrease with less than a year to go. That would be a decent start.

Next, how about setting aside more funding for after school curricular activities like computer clubs or sporting events? Keep our youths consistently engaged with programs that get them to think for themselves critically on matters and that might get them interested in careers in science and technology. Such programs would surely help keep more kids off the streets and minimize the risk of them joining violent-prone gangs. The city of Philadelphia is well known for taxing about everything under the sun, and I've often wondered where in the hell are all those taxpayer funds going to? So many things in Philly could use improving, and there doesn't appear to be a shortage of funds, so what's the hold up?

Also, can we maybe perhaps come to terms with the fact that at the very least some of these progressive leftwing policies have not done much to improve society? Take gun control measures for instance, Philadelphia is so restrictive with their weapon policies that you can't even order a slingshot online and have it delivered to the city, and yet despite such restrictions can anyone out there rationally explain why so many young people are able to get their hands on weapons? The answer to that is obvious of course, that being criminals and gang members if desperate enough will always find a way around the law. Mayor Kenney is a pushover, too afraid to do anything meaningful in fear that the outrage mob might call him racist etc for proposing laws that could primarily target black youths, no we can't have that now can we for the sake of what's politically correct...

Since the summer of 2020 new progressive policies have left local police departments seriously underfunded with many police officers suddenly quiting their jobs with little to no warning in advance, and guess what happened afterwards? You guessed it, violent crime in major cities around the country has skyrocketed, and so has retail theft. Philadelphia DA Krasner is another good little bobblehead puppet, whilst it may be a good idea to go easier on crimes that are victimless within reason, truly aggressive offenders should be put and kept behind bars as they represent a genuine threat to society. Too many violent offenders are too quickly released back into the public only to commit more heinous violent crimes. Guns wouldn't be a problem if such offenders were kept behind bars to begin with, as pretty much no one in prison is getting their hands on a gun in which to commit crimes with. Let's stop worrying about being politically incorrect for fear of racial disparity, and not hesitate to lock-up those who are violence prone regardless of what their skin color is.

Speaking of which... this whole business with "systemic racism" in the US is certainly not doing any favors to our minority youths. When you keep a certain segment of society constantly fearful and paranoid that anyone out there who looks different than themselves and is thus automatically out to get them over said differences, sooner much rather than later that is going to turn into a recipe for disaster, which is precisely what's happening. The obvious reaction to such would be what we are witnessing right now, black youths are even more fearful of cops and in return they conclude the only reasonable response would be to resist the police and violently if necessary. An already bad situation there made infinitely worse thanks to needless fearmongering. The schools should be teaching students the history of racism in America etc, but might want to layoff the whole spiel that the system is actively against all of them, that's not helping the cause any and only serves to radicalize people and keep them in a constant state of fear and confusion. What an absolute disservice we do to our minority youths, and it's inhumane at that, we surely could do better. Start with small changes like my suggestions above, and then work to give young people a reason to live and thrive in society. I guarantee you that when people are fairly contented in life pursuing activities that please and fulfill them they will be far less likely to engage in criminal deeds and random acts of violence. Help to reinforce the dreams and aspirations of young people, instead of filling their heads with fear-driven propaganda, and encourage your local representatives to pursue after school activities etc. For when hopes for a better quality of life disappear, desperation and resent and rage will surely fill the void, and once the monster has been created there's no telling what unimaginable horrors could be released on the unsuspecting public.

No, we don't have a gun problem in the US, we have a people problem, or more specifically a serious lack of caring individuals who want to do the right thing by all of us, especially where politicians are concerned. With that said, I fear we as a whole will not be able to move forward with making any meaningful progress until we acknowledge the failures of current legislation. Once we admit more of the same old same old is not working out, maybe just maybe at that point we might be able to move forward with new ideas in the pursuit of progress. Let's put the blame on the actual criminals who commit violent acts, and think of ways to either rehabilitate them or make sure if not able to rehabilitate then keep them off of the streets away from innocent people who are minding their own business. Please note my restraint on talking about how some of these draconian pandemic lockdown measures have negatively impacted minority youths, again most of which were pushed by far-left progressive types.

On one final note... if one is genuinely liberal and thus open-minded to hearing out all sides on the matter, then one would at least take into consideration what was mentioned above and realize there is some merit to the points made. Anything less than that would not be liberal, it would be something else, but surely not a liberal open mindset. I'm to a point where I can't stay silent on this anymore and have to say something regardless of who may get offended. When the Government or law enforcement fail to do their jobs adequately enough, then we the citizens need to step in and start thinking about viable longterm solutions to the problems we all face.