Background Checks?

The 2nd amendment is something that I believe will never taken away from american citizens. There is always a new initiative or bill being introduced  that argues for stricter gun control laws to make things more difficult for citizens to purchase firearms or not be able to own certain weapons, accessories, and puts limits on what a citizen is able to do with that weapon. The laws seem to all be so ridiculous.
 The most recent issue concerning gun rights comes from the state of Washington and there 2 initiatives that are polar opposites. The initiative 591 would prevent the state of Washington form adopting universal background checks during gun sales. Initiative 594 would establish background checks on all gun sales in the state of Washington. It is said that that both of the measures are not likely to pass due to an alliance between democrats and republicans that declines the initiatives most of the time.
 This initiative from 591 to prevent the adopting of universal background checks I think is ridiculous. I myself do believe in the right to own firearms. But why make all this stink about purchasing firearms. The measure to push for better background checks I think would be good. If you want to purchase a firearm it should be necessary to go through all of the background checks to keep criminals from purchasing firearms and others that are not mentally stable.  Coming from the state of California i grew up in a state that is notorious for there gun laws. Did it stop me from purchasing a firearm? No. There are just more steps and more red tape but its necessary process to make sure that weapons are not being sold to the wrong people. I just had to wait a little bit longer due to these processes. There needs to be universal firearms background checks to further keep guns out of the wrong hands.

A Citizens Legislature: Blog Stage 5

A Citizens Legislature: Blog Stage 5:     If the U.S. government were to legalize the production and cultivation of hemp for industrial use we would see profound improvements to ...

Decriminalize Marijuana

The main focus of my argument is that the United States needs to decriminalize marijuana. Currently marijuana is a schedule 1 narcotic and is in the same category as much more dangerous drugs such as Heroin, Cocaine and Ecstasy. Given this status marijuana has no current medical value use. A recent study by Sanjay Gupta a  neurosurgeon and chief  medical correspondent for CNN published a essay where he apologizes for his firm stance against cannabis. His article entitled "Why I changed my mind on Weed" he goes to say that cannabis has very legitimate medical value and is sometimes the only thing that works.
Yet Federal Legislation outlaws any form of herb that comes from cannabis. No matter how much they want to keep it banned, the growing number in support for legalizing marijuana shows in Gallup's poll published October 22, 2012 showed that 58% of americans are for legalizing and 39% are opposed. With the support of the people now in favor for legalization, the steps that have been made in many of the current states are great examples of how decriminalizing marijuana would help the economy. California saved nearly $1 billion dollars from 1976 to 1985 by decriminalizing the personal possession of small amounts of marijuana. Colorado and Washington just last year made huge steps in making it legal for adults to possess marijuana if over the age of 21. These states are the proving ground of how decriminalizing at the national level will bring in millions. Saving money that would be spent to prosecute users and put them in prison. If we decriminalized marijuana American taxpayers would save more than $1 billion dollars that is used to incarcerate citizens for pot possessions. Also law enforcement resources could be redirected toward crimes that are much more serious.
Further more the  decriminalization of cannabis would give life to many other business's that can make the more that 25,000 products that are made from the cannabis. We need to not look to far into the past and see that the  Prohibition of Alcohol was a failure. With the prohibition of alcohol came increased violence and crime. The same circumstances apply to the prohibition of marijuana, the sooner we decriminalize marijuana, the sooner the we see the senseless laws thrown out, the sooner we will have the interests of the American people heard.