Parable of the City of God
You have destroyed the City of God, turned it into a hell hole wherein brother is against brother and sister against sister. The City of God has become the habitation of devils who kill at will the children of God who are slain in the streets while no action is taken against them and the so-called good people are silent in the night, hiding in their mansions in fear and terror, knowing for a certainty the devils shall invade their homes, it is only a matter of time, simply because they have done nothing to reach out to the devils in their midst.
Alas, the devils are their children who have gone astray and no one will lay hands on them in fear the children will tear their limbs like hungry beasts. But these beasts are hungry for love, yet no one will reach out to them, no one will lay hands on them except other devils such as robbers, thieves and murderers.
No one will guide the young devils so they behave like Yacoub’s children of old, playing with steel, such as cars and guns, for these are symbols of power. And in their hunger and thirst for love, they seek satisfaction in steel since the human touch is absent their lives. If only someone would speak with them, tell them a kind word, guide them on the right path, but no, the elders are in fear of the monsters they created by being silent, neglectful and abusive.
No matter how hard they try, the elders in the City of God cannot get out of their responsibility to teach truth to their weary children gone mad from lack of love and direction. The schools have made them ignorant, the church doors are closed to them, thus they are hungry and homeless causing them to make terror in the streets.
If only someone would lay hands on them with kindness and love that is expected in the City of God, the so-called devil children, the children of Yacoub who love playing with steel, would put down their guns and stop using their cars as weapons of mass destruction. They would stop filling their young bodies with drugs and disease from unprotected sex. Why will not those in the City of God step to the front of the line and represent Divinity?
How can they tarry in Jerusalem doing nothing while the house of God is defiled and becomes an abomination.
You who are holy, take off your holy rags and confess naked before your God that you have neglected to clean his temple, that you have destroyed his children, turning them into beasts of the jungle or even worse, for they lack the love of beasts, for they are ready to kill for the slightest reason, without thinking of the consequences, the pain and suffering they cause families, friends and community.
Why will you not teach them legal trade and commerce. No, you allow the dope man to teach them and love them while you party in the night, wink and blink at concerts wearing your rocks, stones and animal skins.
Continue doing nothing and see if things get better or worse, but you live in the City of God and He expects you to exercise the reins of power, not cower in the corner afraid of that which your hands have created, for that which your hands have created shall seek you out in the night and in the day, but if you are without the armor of God, that which your hands have created shall slay you and the City of God shall be no more.
--Marvin X
from the Wisdom of Plato Negro, parables/fables, BPP, Berkeley, 2012.
WAL-MART SELLS OUT OF GUNS
(Bloomberg) – With President Barack Obama endorsing sweeping gun restrictions in the wake of the school shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, prices for handgun magazines are surging on EBay (EBAY) and semi-automatic rifles are sold out at many Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) locations.
Enlarge image U.S. President Barack Obama
Enlarge image U.S. President Barack Obama
Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, said yesterday that it would continue to sell guns, including rifles like the one used at Newtown, where 26 people, most of them children, were killed on Dec. 14. By contrast, Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc. (DKS) suspended sales of similar guns at its more than 500 stores.
Searches of five kinds of semi-automatic rifles on Wal- Mart’s website showed them to be out of stock at stores in five states, including Pennsylvania, Kansas and Alabama. Wal-Mart doesn’t sell guns online, instead asking customers to input a zip code to see if their local store carries a specific weapon.
“We remain dedicated to the safe and responsible sale of firearms in areas of the country where they are sold,” David Tovar, a spokesman for Wal-Mart, said yesterday. He didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on this story.
Wal-Mart has about 10 modern sporting rifles, the gun industry’s term for firearms that look like an M-16 military rifle, listed on its website. The retailer removed a description and picture of the Bushmaster AR-15, which was the model used in Newtown, after the shootings.
In 2006, Wal-Mart reduced the number and variety of guns it offered in stores, and replaced them with more upscale products such as exercise equipment. It then reintroduced firearms to many stores in April 2011 as part of strategy to add merchandise back to shelves and revive sales growth at its Wal-Mart locations in the U.S.
Gun Revenue
Gun Revenue
The move may have helped as U.S. Wal-Mart stores posted their first gain in same-store sales in more than two years in October 2011. Wal-Mart doesn’t disclose how many guns it sells, though at an analysts’ meeting in October it said gun revenue gained 76 percent in the first half of this fiscal year. The chain advertised a Sig Sauer M400 as one of its Black Friday doorbusters last month, offering the rifle for $50 off at $867.
Cabela’s Inc. (CAB), an outdoor retailer that also sells guns, didn’t return several calls seeking comment on whether it planned to change its firearm policies. Hunting equipment, which includes firearms, made up 41 percent of Cabela’s sales in 2011, according to a company filing. The retailer doesn’t provide sales data for just guns.
Prices Tripling
Prices Tripling
On EBay Inc.’s auction website, shoppers have recently bid up gun magazines. The current bid for four Glock handgun magazines, ammunition for one of the guns used at Newtown, is $118.37 compared with $45 on the day before the shooting. The bid for seven Glock magazines hit $201 on Dec. 17 from $71.01 before the massacre.
Gun buyers have flooded other firearms retailers too. The Hyatt Gun Shop in Charlotte, North Carolina, racked up more than $1 million in sales yesterday for the best single-day performance since the store opened in 1959, according to Justin Anderson, director of online sales. At the top of shoppers’ lists was the Bushmaster AR-15, the model of rifle used at Newtown that sells for as much as $4,000 and had almost sold out, he said.
Revenue at one of the largest U.S. gun stores surpassed even the spike just after Obama was elected president in 2008, Anderson said in a telephone interview. Sales weren’t as robust when Obama was re-elected last month because the president hadn’t backed major new gun laws, he said.
‘Concrete Proposals’
‘Concrete Proposals’
Today, Obama said his administration would come up with “concrete proposals” by next month to curb gun violence.
Speculation over stricter gun laws will continue to boost sales, Anderson said yesterday.
“It’s kind of the perfect storm for the gun industry,” he said. “When these things happen, even though it’s sad, it does pick up sales.”
Wal-Mart has received some pressure to curb gun sales in the past. That continued this week when Lauren Buglino, a fourth-grade teacher from the Bronx, created an online petition on Change.org exhorting the retailer to stop selling rifles like the one used at Newtown. It had more than 57,000 supporters today.
Wal-Mart entered into an agreement in 2008 with the Mayors Against Illegal Guns that included video recording of purchases and the use of databases to identify people who have bought guns recovered in crimes.
When Wal-Mart added guns to stores in 2011, Mayor Thomas Menino of Boston criticized it for trying to increase the number of guns on the streets, according to the Boston Herald.
Menino and Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York founded Mayors Against Illegal Guns. The mayor is founder and majority owner of Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-19/guns-out-of-stock-at-wal-mart-as-magazine-prices-surge-on.html
