As a Quaker, I am as alarmed as anyone at the Newtown shootings as well as those that preceded that event.  As Clerk of the Sarasota Friends Meeting, I felt our meeting had a duty to make our voice heard in the current debate over whether gun control legislation should be enacted.  Quakers have a history of issuing resolutions, known as "Minutes", on matters of general concern.  With this in mind, I composed the following Minute, with some fine tuning by the Meeting's Peace and Social Concerns Committee, which was approved by the February 2013 Meeting for Worship with a Concern for Business:

Minute in Support of Gun Control

We, members and attenders of the Sarasota Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), after prayerful reflection and thought, feel it incumbent on us to call upon Congress and the President to enact legislation to halt the production and sale of weapons that can be used to injure, maim and kill innocent people in a single instance.

As Quakers, we believe that there is that of God in every person and in particular, we eschew any violence directed at one human being by another.  We recognize that such is an unfortunate part of everyday life.  However, the instances of mass shootings have focused attention on the problem that our society and our lawmakers must address.  From the University of Texas, to Columbine, to Virginia Tech, to Fort Hood, to Aurora, to Newtown, the absence of meaningful gun control laws have allowed this national epidemic to gain a foothold.  We urge Congress to eschew the pressure and monies they receive from those in opposition to gun control and pass meaningful legislation to reduce if not eliminate these types of instances.

We recommend the following practical steps:

• There must be universal background checks on all persons who wish to purchase a firearm, not only from licensed gun dealers, but also at gun shows and in sales between individuals.  Sellers who fail to do background checks should be held accountable for any damage, death, or injury caused by their purchaser;
• The manufacture, sale, and distribution of all assault-type weapons must be immediately and permanently banned;
• Explosive bullets such as those used by the Newtown shooter are banned by the Geneva Convention in international warfare but are legal in the U.S.  This type of ammunition should be banned;
• Likewise, any ammunition clip that holds more than a minimal number of bullets should be similarly banned;
• A fund must be established to aid local agencies in the buyback and destruction of guns, with particular emphasis on assault-type weapons.

We reject the proposal by some who feel the answer lies in the posting of armed guards in every school and the arming of all teachers.  Adding guns raises the odds in favor of violence and does nothing to address the problem—that of keeping particularly deadly weapons out of the hands of irresponsible individuals.

We believe these reforms are in accord with the original and clear intent of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

On Being Likened to Adolph Hitler

One of my Facebook friends is a distant cousin whom I have never met, Conrad Hilsheimer.  He is the consummate conservative and I am the consummate liberal.  We enjoy yanking each other’s chain on a variety of political matters, starting in earnest with the 2012 general election.  Lately, however, it has taken a turn because of the current debate on whether there should be any gun control laws enacted or not.  Unfortunately, some of my friends pound on him and some of his friends pound on me, but the two of us respect the other and tolerate each other’s position. Today, though, a comment by another of my distant cousins hit me below the belt.  Conrad takes the position of the NRA that absolutely there should be no gun control laws enacted while I take the position that reasonable controls must be enacted—controls such as universal background checks and a limitation on the capacity of ammunition clips.

Late this week Conrad posted a photo on Facebook of a man bonding with his young son over a rifle.  I made a comment that the only beef I have is with those who want no background checks on gun buyers or other reasonable gun control legislation passed.  This morning, after signing onto F/B I am greeted with a response from another distant cousin, George von Hilsheimer, PhD who wrote: 

“Dave, how in the devil did you get Hilsheimer genes? You sound just like Adolph Hitler, "we German people are demonstrating our higher civilization by registering our guns, it is a civilized act. Well, the next civilized act was to collect all the guns. For me, try taking them from my cold, dead hands. George Sie werden zu shoen alt und zu schpaet schmart. And given that your genes are week, [sic] "You became too soon old, and too late smart. George”

This from a man who supposedly has a degree from Saybrook College in San Francisco and who also studied at the universities of Chicago and Miami (FL).  The only educational institution I could find is an online outfit named Saybrook University.  It has no campus or physical location I could find.  It could be located in San Francisco, someone’s garage, or Timbuktu for that matter.  I have a degree from North Carolina Wesleyan College, but I also studied at Rollins College, the University of Maryland, Florida State University, The Citadel, and the University of Wisconsin.

This afternoon I did a web search on this man and ran across an Orlando Sentinel story from 1992 about his being charged with practicing medicine without a license because he was accused of improperly performing the duties of a physician by diagnosing allergies.  Apparently he injected testosterone into a boy’s legs which nearly crippled him.  He agreed to a plea deal in which he was placed on two years’ probation and was prohibited from owning or administering any medical clinic.

In 1973 he had been arrested and charged with practicing medicine without a license at the former Green Valley School, which closed in 1974 after a U.S. Senate investigation into its practices and federal subsidies.  The charges were dropped on a technicality.  At the hearing, former nurses testified about the use of torture, mock funerals, injections of dust and testosterone, and other unorthodox methods of treatment.  After seeing a news story about this on The CBS News with Walter Cronkite, I asked my grandmother if we were related to George Von Hilsheimer.  She laughed and told me he was the black sheep of the family.  I certainly can believe it.  In fact, she told me that he added the “von” to his last name.  I’ll refrain from speculating on the reason.

In closing, while this man likens my views on gun control to those of Adolph Hitler (I am not against legal gun ownership), it would appear to this observer that his practices are more akin to those of Dr. Josef Mengele.  Let the reader be the judge.  I still believe that reasonable gun control legislation, including universal background checks, should be enacted. Oh, and by the way… I responded to the accusation that I sounded like Hitler by asking Cousin George that, as a psychologist, would he want to allow one of his patients to purchase a firearm for want of a background check?  I have yet to have a response.