You probably think I was just trying to grab some attention and would use that to create fear and suspicion but this weekend <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080427/ap_on_bi_ge/britain_refinery_strike">gas hit $9.35 US per gallon in Scotland</a>.

Just for those who need a quick reference,  1 gallon US  = 3.785 litres, and 3.785 x $2.47 = $9.35. What really has them mad is petrol WAS $8.10 a gallon before the strike. That was the NORMAL price.

You can't blame US oil executives for that one. Keep in mind that up until a couple of years ago, Britain was a "net" exporter of oil. When reading the article or related articles that <a href="http://europe.theoildrum.com/story/2006/9/17/135527/399">increased taxation on oil companies </a>caused a decrease in exploration and production, ultimately leading to higher prices on dwindling supplies, one has to wonder what our future is with either of the two current Democrat candidates.

Now imagine that Hillary or Barak has their way and heavy taxes are levied on the oil industry in the US. Then imagine, not a strike, but another Katrina or worse yet an embargo by a foreign country. If you don't realize that our country is on the same path as other countries now paying over $11 a gallon for gas then you must really have your head in the sand.

Band-aid plans like Barrow's suggestion to stop filling the Federal Reserve is the typical political rhetoric. The Fed currently buys 70,000 barrels a day, while the US imported <a href="http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/company_level_imports/current/import.html">11,174,000 barrels per day as of this year</a>. The Fed purchases are .6 of 1% of overall purchases.

Using John logic, <a href="http://savannahnow.com/node/486892">if there is any</a>, that prices would drop by 25 cents per gallon if the Fed quit buying up .6% of the current imports. I guess if we all stayed home just ONE day and did nothing but visit the family we could cause the SAME or even greater drop in fuel prices. At .6% we would only have to do this once every 167 days. In this case why not MANDATE a Federal driving vacation where 2 days a year we all just stay home? Remember, I am using the same logic here as the other guy.

The sad part,  all of this filling of the Federal Strategic Reserve at over $110 a barrel, which by the way would be over 7.7 Million dollars a day, is being done to replace oil that we <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/31/national/nationalspecial/31cnd-oil.html?pagewanted=print">put on the market when oil was $69 a barrel</a>. Another hose job on the US citizen. We realesed oil and now we are replacing it with oil that is about $40 a barrel more expensive. That was a wise move. Once again the logic of the current political process.

John Barrows "plan" to drop the price by 25 cents a barrel is even refuted by the agency that he used for a reference. He estimates 25 cents while they estimate a few pennies. I would be on the side of the people that have a clue at what they are doing rather than a congressman, who the last time he came in close contact with oil was when he dripped salad dressing on his pants.

Barak talks change we can believe in. I think he has a point that we do need a change in the way Washington works and we can begin that change by electing people to office that have real life skills, experiences, and deals with the same issues the majority of this country has to deal with on a daily basis.

WHEREAS, gun-free zones prohibit law-abiding citizens with conceal and carry permits from bearing firearms in those areas, a clear violation of American citizens’ Second Amendment rights to defend themselves and others from violent crimes.

WHEREAS, Thomas Jefferson wrote that “Laws that forbid the carrying of arms . . . disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes . . . Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man."

WHEREAS, designation of gun-free zones in effect provide a large pool of potential victims for people desiring to commit violent crimes.

WHEREAS, we’ve just observed the one-year anniversary of the shootings at the Virginia Tech campus which killed 33 people despite the fact that the school is designated as a gun-free zone;

WHEREAS, there are many other examples of gun crimes committed in gun free zones, including:

• Five people killed at Northern Illinois University

• Seven people killed at Westroads Mall in Omaha, NE

• Two people were killed at a mall in Kansas City, MO

• Four people were injured by 15 rounds shot into a middle school in Fort Gibson, Oklahoma

• Six high school girls in Baily, Colorado were held hostage and sexually assaulted by a gunman.

• Thirteen people were shot and killed at Columbine High School in Colorado.

• Seven people, including an unarmed security guard, were murdered by a gunman in Redlake, Minnesota.

• Seven people were shot and killed in a Golita, California post office.

• Five people were dead after a gunman opened fire at a mall in Salt Lake City, Utah..

WHEREAS, experience shows the best way to stop shootings is by armed response, as demonstrated at the Trolley Mall in Utah, Pearl High School in Missouri, Appalachian Law School in Virginia, and New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

WHEREAS, a study conducted by John Lott, a fellow at the University of Chicago Law School, found that high crime urban areas and neighborhoods have the greatest reductions in violent crime when citizens are legally allowed to carry concealed handguns.

WHEREAS, Criminology Professor Dr. Gary Kleck, a member of the ACLU and a self-described liberal Democrat, published a 1993 study showing Americans used their guns about 2.5 million times per year or once every 13 seconds to stop crime, and most of the time a shot is not even fired.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Georgia 12th Congressional District Republican Party Convention calls for passage of legislation that would allow people with lawful conceal and carry permits to carry firearms in publicly and privately owned facilities, including schools, universities, government buildings, and retail shopping malls.