A Menu for Gun Control

 

Gun Control is on the table of public opinion again.  There are design and regulatory options available to reduce the killing power of firearms available to the public.  Responsible gun control will, I believe, be crafted from the options below.  In my opinion, laws consistent with the 2^nd Amendment to the Constitution could be enacted which:

 

1.    Every firearm needs to be registered.  The registration process must involve, at a minimum, criminal, restraining orders, substance abuse and mental health records.  Gun safety and handling courses should be mandatory.  Every sale must involve registration or a registration transfer.  The Gun-Show and Private Sale loophole will have to be closed and all unregistered guns will have to be documented.  All firearm transfers (sales and gifts) should go through a licensed firearms dealer with background check.  (Similar to Transferring a Car) There must be a record of every change of ownership.

a) Every firearm must bear a legible serial number and be registered in federal database to someone.
b)  Owner must notify a dealer and report any lost or stolen firearms.

2. Limit magazine capacity and perhaps require design features with reduced reloading speed.   I like the Larry Simoneaux’s suggestion that weapons should be limited to fixed magazines with capacities under ten rounds.  http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20121231/OPINION04/712319995/-1/OPINION04

3. Limit speed of semi-automatic fire.

4. Limit types of rounds (e.g. no hollow-point or Teflon coating).  Loads designed to penetrate bullet-proof vests or glass should be illegal.

5. Impose an annual tax on possession of firearms.  Firearms have a social cost ranging from injuries and bullet-proof vests for law enforcement officers to registration and regulation expenses.  An annual tax on the possession of firearms will allow gun owners to contribute to the cost of their choices. The tax could be a graduated tax such as $5.00 per caliber per year.

6. Require that firearms be stored or transported only with a locking trigger guard or in a locked gun cabinet.

7. Implement an automatic firearm alert system through electronic identification.  All Firearms would be required to have a permanent Tracking Chip.  The Firearm Tracking Chip (FATC) would be designed to be detected by FATC Detectors (FATCD).  FATCDs could be installed in schools, stores and private homes for that matter. The FATCs would have to be built into a sensitive part of the firearm so they could not be disabled without disabling the firearm: a problematic but not impossible engineering issue.

 

8.  All firearms must be registered with annual renewals.  Registration and renewals will trigger a review of appropriate databases to confirm eligibility.

 

 

As long as the 2^nd Amendment is interpreted as granting a right to citizens to possess firearms, there will be gun fatalities.  But there are ways to keep guns out of the hands of children, people with a history of crime or domestic violence and those with a mental and/or emotional disease or disability.  There are also technological avenues to limit the amount of damage done by someone intent on mass murder.

 

The death rate for gun related deaths in US was 1 in 10,000.  In the UK it was only 4 in 10,000,000. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_firearm-related_death_rate

The text of the 2^nd Amendment allows for regulation of firearms.  We tightly regulate motor vehicles, drugs and natural gas distribution in the name of public safety.  Social vulnerability to assault weapons justifies a more thorough regulatory system for firearms.

Mike Mallory

1-13-13

 

I have changed the name of my blog and broadened its scope. The blog was originally called the "Everett Sketcher" and was devoted to art reviews and plein air paintings in and around Snohomish County. The scope was so narrow that I wasn't able to produce enough suitable material. It is time for a change.

I have been considering new names. I was thinking about Mycopedia, but it was taken. "Mike's Copedia" seemed cumbersome.

I plan to provide a space for the wide range of my interests. I hope to post images of my art, examples of my creative writing, opinion pieces, social criticism and more.

My personal mission is to enliven the world by responding to life with insight and delight. I have decided to move forward with the blog name, "The Grand Reveal." The name is still on probation.

If you are currently a follower, I hope you will stay with me as I develop this more expansive theme.

Mike

I joined the Seattle Plein Air group for a paint-out at Lake Forest Park. The weather kept us indoors so I took a stab at the escalator.

Boston's Pizza

I painted this while sitting in the Coffee Shop at the Mill Creek UW Bookstore. It is 7 x 10" watercolor, ink and watercolor pencil.

Bev Jozwiak at The Cole Gallery

The Cole Gallery in Edmonds represents forty artists and hosts a rotating feature exhibition of each artist. The current artist featured by the gallery is Bev Jozwiak. Jozwiak is a signature member of the Norwest Watercolor Society. Curator, Denise Cole, claims that of the workshops offered to artists, Jozwiak’s are the most popular.

Jozwiak’s featured watercolor paintings depict figurative and avian subjects. Her figurative work in this exhibition is split between young women and children. One of her avian subjects is a rooster; the rest are crows. Whether she is painting birds, a bride’s maid or women waiting for the No. 9 bus, Jozwiak’s approach is both energetic and memorable.

Her colors are intense and her contrasts lively, but the source of her “Wow” factor, and she does have the “Wow” factor is her expressive and deliberate brush strokes. Jozwiak’s painting style is intensely personal. Her work appears to be driven by a kinetic relationship with her world.

The edge of a shape is a critical transition in artwork. Edges are said to come in three flavors: hard, soft and rough. Jozwiak’s edges move beyond the standard. Her edges can be jagged, gestural, bleeding, spattered and at times the pigment simply fades out into a solitary pencil contour line defining the shape.

Jozwiak paints with bold brushstrokes. Paint is often thick and opaque. She characteristically mixes pigment on the paper rather than the palette, which results in surprising color juxtapositions.

Her compositions are engaging. Most of her children are active. In Budding Artist a child is painting. In Life’s Little Treasures children are curiously searching the ground for that perfect little object to take home and put in a jar on the shelf. The young women in Jozwiak’s show are waiting. In Bus Stop Conversation and Waiting on #9, they are waiting for the bus. In “All Dressed Up...” the subject appears to be waiting for a date to show up. All of Jozwiak’s figures appear to be embedded in their own reality. The gaze of the figures is always behind the frame rather than out of the frame toward the viewer. Directing the gaze of the subject behind the frame, the artist contains the energy in the image she has created. We are allowed to peer in, but the subjects do not notice us. The effect enlarges the virtual world of the subject.

Jozwiak is playful as well as expressive. When she paints crows, she represents a bird that is familiar with the human world. In Traffic Cop II a crow is shown perched on a traffic signal light. In Crow Bar II a crow has found its way into a traditional still life of grapes, wine glasses and bottles. The crow has a grape in its beak. These scenes may sound cute, and while Jozwiak works with humor, her images go beyond cute. Even in these tame situations, her crows have a mischievous wildness and about them.

The Cole Gallery is located in downtown Edmonds at 107 5th Avenue. They are open seven days a week. The Bev Jozwiak feature exhibition continues through June 11, 2010. A selection of her work is on permanent display at the gallery.

Jozkwiak's website is at - http://bevjozwiak.com/html/
The Cole Gallery's website is at - http://www.colegallery.net/

This is an 11 x 15" watercolor I painted in the Georgetown neighborhood of Seattle as part of the 27th WorldWide Sketchcrawl.

5/14/10
Mike

Claudia Postema was Wise Designz

The Wise Designz Gallery is hosting an exhibition of the watercolor and mixed media work of Claudia Postema entitled, “Morph into Expression.”

Postema is a North Everett artist known locally for her watercolor paintings. Her oeuvre includes a variety of subjects, including: still life, animal portraits, landscapes, marine and more. This show was designed to illustrate a turning point in Postema’s art. Historically she has exhibited traditional watercolor technique with a tight or realistic representation of her subjects. However, Postema has, according to Josie Wise, the curator of this show, “moved in a new direction” with her art and is now pushing her paintings toward expressionism.

Unfortunately, the only paintings hanging on the wall are Postema’s new expressionistic works. In order to compare the new works with her earlier works, it is necessary to flip through some nearby racks holding prints of her prior paintings.

The subject matter of her most recent work continues to be recognizable, but the presentation has shifted from a realistic reporting to an emphasis of the abstract gesture and form of the subject as well as the introduction of a more passionate palette. The aggressive framing accentuates Postema’s artistic direction.

Most of the newer works are florals and most of the florals feature sun flowers. Sunflowers are an ideal subject for expressionism: they are big and colorful, they have a head and in the right light even appear to have a face. Postema’s uses color and design to make her sunflowers more expressive.

In two paintings titled Red Sunflowers on Blue she exploits a complementary color scheme to create dynamic tension between subject and background. The images are unsettled and tentative in their appeal. Her painting “Blue Sunflowers” plants manganese blue sunflower heads on a rich red background. Red is a powerful color and in this case has overpowered the subject.

My favorite piece was a work titled “Lemon Drop”. The painting presents three sunflower blossoms against a mottled gray background. The blooms in this painting are bright, celebratory and upright. This image is a testament to fruition.

Other favorites include a mixed media piece entitled “Sunflowers”, which has swaths of cheesecloth embedded into the textured background and a painting which seems to carve the organic form of nasturtiums out of rectangular fields of background color.

If you have time to see this show, make sure you peek in on the Hewitt Avenue window to see a series of four paintings of grapes. This series represents delicate and mysterious clusters of grapes painted over a wet-in-wet underpainting, which takes advantage of watercolor’s fluid characteristics.

Wise Designz is located at 2908 Wetmore Ave. in downtown Everett, Washington. They are open from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Tuesday through Friday and 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Saturday. Wise Designz is also part of the Everett Art Walk, which takes place on the third Saturday evening of every month. The Claudia Postema exhibition continues through the end of April, 2010.