Why Gun Control is NOT the issue.

I think we can all agree that a man walking in to an elementary school and opening fire is deeply, deeply horrific. And in the gut-wrenching social introspection that comes afterwards, the desire to 'do something' is understandable. 

These days, the role of government in the west has become so bloated that it's commonplace for people to look to their political leaders when they want something done. 

And politicians, who are bent on keeping their jobs, are keen to be seen as taking action. 

And so here we are again, after another terrible tragedy which involved (a) death, and (b) firearms, with calls to restrict firearm ownership, particularly high-powered assault rifles. 

Again, in fairness, the reaction is understandable. Most folks have such an emotional response, they just want to do something... often without thinking through the long-term consequences or all sides of the issues. 

Unfortunately, the root cause of such issues is often misdiagnosed, hence the response is ill-conceived. This is often how wars get started. Pearl Harbor. 9/11. Etc. 

What the left wing ideologues and gun control favoring media continues to ignore are stories that are equally horrific, but which don't support their anti-gun rhetoric.  For example, a man wielding a knife attacked students Friday at a school in central China, leaving 22 children and one adult injured, according to state-run media reports.  Same whacked out craziness by someone who should be in a mental institution, larger number of children affected and the only difference is the weapon of choice.  So why aren't we talking about "Knife-Control"?  

The attack marks the latest in a series of violent assaults at elementary schools in China. In 2010, a total of 18 children were killed in four separate attacks. On March 23 of that year, Zheng Minsheng attacked children at an elementary school in Fujian Province, killing eight.

One month later, just a few hours after Zheng Minsheng was executed for his crime, another man, Chen Kanbing wounded 16 students and a teacher in a knife attack at another primary school in Fujian. The following month, on May 12, a man named Wu Huangming killed seven children and two adults with a meat cleaver at a kindergarten in Shaanxi Province. That attack was followed by an August 4 assault by Fang Jiantang, who killed three children and one teacher with a knife at a kindergarten in Shandong Province.

In 2011, a young girl and three adults were killed with an axe at an elementary school in Henan Province by a 30-year-old man named Wang Hongbin, and eight children were hurt in Shanghai after an employee at a child care center attacked them with a box cutter.

So are we going to ban meat-cleavers, axes and box cutters? 

In the Newtown, CT case, some nut job shoots up a school with assault weapons, so the response is to ban assault weapons. But is access to assault weapons really the root cause of the issue? Or, to paraphrase Chris Rock, are some people simply crazy? 

History shows that there have been countless crazed psychopaths who kill wantonly, indiscriminately, without the use of assault rifles: 

- Seung-Hui Cho, the 2007 Virginia Tech killer (he used two handguns) 
- Luis Garavito, a Colombian mass murderer who killed hundreds of children with just a knife 
- Mary Ann Cotton, a 19th century mass murderer in England who poisoned her victims 
- Countess Elizabeth Bathory, a 16th century Hungarian who tortured and killed hundreds 

Some people just aren't wired right. It's always been that way. Before firearms, before violent movies, before video games... there have always been crazy nuts.  Go all the way back in Biblical times and you can see it only took a rock in a hand for Cain to kill Abel.

Passing laws doesn't change any of this. Government cannot protect us from all the bad people out there. Bathing travelers in radiation doesn't make us any safer. Fondling children at airports doesn't make us any safer. Taking away Constitutional rights doesn't make us any safer. 

Neither will banning assault rifles. Bad guys will always find a way, either commandeering a killing machine illegally, or reverting to something more old school. As Lao Tzu once wrote, "The more laws and order are made prominent, the more thieves and robbers there will be." 

On that note, there's a deeper issue that is seldom mentioned in the gun control debate. Yes, every year, innocent people die because of violence. But there is no greater mass murderer in history than government. 

When a lone gunman kills 32 people at an elementary school, it's a tragedy. When a government abandons its own ambassador and staff in Benghazi, it's collateral damage. No biggie. 

Governments have a horrible track record of murder, pillage, and genocide, and they have the blood of millions of victims on their hands. The Founding Fathers in the United States knew this. And the premise of the Constitution's Second Amendment, the right to bear arms, is based on this idea. 

Yes, people need protection against those who mean to do them harm. But occasionally, people also need protection from those who are sworn to protect them. Given history's numerous examples of once stable nations descending into murderous rampages, it's both foolish and intellectually dishonest to dismiss this point. 

Some people argue, 'well the Founding Fathers never intended for us to have assault rifles, which didn't exist back then.' Sure, maybe. But they also never intended for government to have nukes, drones, body scanners, or Homeland Security urban assault vehicles. 

A well-armed populace is a major deterrent in keeping government responsible, as well as keeping bad guys away. Willfully giving up this advantage out of fear is a poor choice. It means that we have no other option but to trust the goodwill, and competence, of government agents to keep us safe. 

There's little that's more important than the well-being of ourselves and our families. And when an entire society considers abandoning that responsibility, choosing instead to outsource it to corrupt bureaucrats and jack-booted thugs, this marks a major turning point that your nation is about to go down a very precarious road. 

In total sincerity, perhaps it's time to consider your options and be a part of the rush to purchase your own guns before that right is stripped away.

Content is King!

Understanding the Building Blocks of a Successful Social Media Marketing Campaign 

Content is King! 

Introduction 

Social media and networking is about as ignorable as that proverbial elephant in the room… only this one is wearing a big pink tutu. Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Digg, Friendster, Stumbleupon, Twitter, YouTube and the hundreds more than can be found out there in the virtual ether: they all promote communication, interaction and information exchange. They have millions upon millions of regular users… people like you and I who use the Internet to reach out to our friends, family, colleagues, acquaintances and all those people you don’t really know, but are friends with anyway. While social media and networking sites have revolutionized 21st century social interaction, they have also revolutionized the way we essentially promote our enterprises and compete with our rivals.

Social Media and Modern Marketing 

So important has social media and networking become to marketing and advertising that the subject is taught at University level. There are degree and diploma programs dedicated to unraveling the mystery that is making Facebook turn web-viewers into paying customers. Business owners shell out thousands of dollars to advertising agencies and online marketers to use websites that their eight year old nieces and nephews know like the back of their hand… and all to drive greater traffic to their websites, turn viewers in to customers and increase profits. Does this sound crazy? Well, it WORKS! It works so well that all these social media and networking sites have become an indispensible component of the successful online marketing campaign. In other words, if you want your business to keep its head above the waters of its competition, you need to be visible in social media. This means building and maintaining profile pages on all those buzzword sites: Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc. It means regularly broadcasting quality content that doesn’t simply get swallowed by the Internet, but actually creates ripples throughout its virtual pages. From status updates and tweets to posting videos, pictures and key-worded writing pieces on the myriad of article directory sites… it all helps to imprint your business’ name and identity in the minds of the both local and global Internet-users. 

Content is King! 

So here we are: a solid and creative social media marketing campaign is fundamental if the modern business is to establish a positive online reputation that translates into dollar bills. But while subscription and registration with all these social media sites is free, time is money and at the end of the day, very few business owners have the time to update their Facebook statuses. This is why social media and online marketing agencies have become really important. But what so many business owners forget, or never learn in the first place, is that content is king! Those Facebook statuses you skim off the top of your imagination? There are hundreds, if not thousands of people reading those and every status they read helps them to develop an impression of your business… of your brand. It only takes one poorly-thought out, inappropriate or weak status to make hundreds of potential customers sneer at your message and ultimately, at your business. 

Improving Your Internet Marketing Campaign 

There are a myriad of techniques, strategies, tools and tricks that go into the crafting of a fantastic online marketing campaign. But, much like a car is made of thousands of different components, these all mean nothing unless you add fuel! Likewise, your online marketing campaign means nothing without… creativity. This is the most important ingredient. You can hire a thousand social media administrators to update your profile pages, post articles, videos and more, but unless there is creative energy behind all these efforts, they will not reflect in the number of people that visit your business website. The modern business owner needs to be prepared to invest money in their Internet marketing campaign and this means maintaining a dedication to quality over and above anything else. Think ‘fresh’, think ‘unique’, think ‘compelling’, ‘engaging’, ‘original’ and any other adjectives that would make you put down your cup of coffee, turn down the radio and pay attention. The point of social media marketing is to captivate an audience and establish a positive rapport with them. While social media is a brilliant tool for online marketing, it is social in nature and no one is going to pay attention to you unless you have something interesting and original to say. Creativity drives what the online advertising agency does. So here’s what you can do to improve upon your Internet marketing strategies:

 Keep Thinking Creatively 

You need to constantly think of new and innovative ways that you can engage your audience through social media. No matter how small the idea or localized the impact it may have, as long as someone is listening, it is contributing positively to your online marketing campaign. For example, you could offer specials or discounts to those that make purchases, order online or book your services through your business website only. Or, if you own a restaurant, art gallery or any other small creative business, you could use Facebook to advertise an event you will be hosting to increase awareness and patronage on that particular night. Whatever the idea, whatever the strategy, it all pays off in the end.

Stinking Linking 

There is no doubt that link-building is a core component of a successful online marketing campaign. However, there is nothing more annoying than a business who constantly posts links to their website on their social media and networking accounts. There is nothing imaginative or interesting about a link unless there is something tantalizing before it, so steer clear of dropping them endlessly on your social networking sites. 

Write, and When You’re Done Writing, Write Some More… 

You (or your website administrator) should be actively engaged in writing blogs, press releases, informative articles and new web pages. Even more so, these need to be well-researched and eloquently written; all of the people who read these need to enjoy their content. Remember, for every new page of content you post – be it a blog post, a new webpage or a press release – a new URL is created that serves as a pathway back to your business website. The more you write, the more virtual pathways there will be leading back to you. The better the quality of these articles, the more people will actually follow these pathways.

Cheap Strategies, Cheap Results 

There are plenty of ways to drive heavy traffic to your website; however, the majority of those ‘quick fix’ solutions offer an exceptionally low lead conversion rate (this refers to the percentage of viewers that actually become paying customers). Some traditional tricks include ‘keyword stuffing’ and over-linking, which are capable of catching the attention of search engines. However, Google’s ever-changing algorithms – the latest of which is referred to as the ‘Farmer’s Update’ - are cracking down on these cheap Search Engine Optimizing tricks. The take-home lesson here is that if you employ cheap online marketing strategies, you are likely going to end up driving traffic away and completely waste your time and money in the process.

In Conclusion 

Most business owners do not have the time or skills necessary to translate their social media marketing campaign into increased website traffic and greater sales. While social media is accessible to all, it always comes recommended to entrust the online success of your business to an experienced and skilled social media advertising agency. Fuelled by your personal visions for your enterprise and your creative energy, an online ad agency can get you stellar results. It does, however, always pay to be vigilant. Keep your finger on the pulse of your social media marketing campaign and keep the content fresh, original and engaging. Follow this advice and you can only ever improve your business’ online success!

Content is king; Creativity is key