Andrew Cuomo, New York’s Attorney General, was investigating the banking financial crisis and has recently released his findings for the original 9 banks that received government funds to bail them out of ruin.

Every taxpayer who reads the report should be angered by it. In a time of financial crises, the banks “good ole boy” system rewarded thousands of execs with multi million dollar bonuses so they could keep up their lush lifestyles through the financial pinch. WTF?

In Citigroups case.. the bank reported losses of 27 billion plus or $5 plus a share to stock holders, yet Citigroup paid execs over 5 billion in bonuses. So where did the 5 billion come from? most likely the 45 billion from taxpayers.

Meryll Lynch got 10 billion in help, lost 27 billion and paid 3.6 billion in executive bonuses

Goldman Sachs 2.3 billion in earnings, 4.8 billion in bonuses and 10 billion in bail out funds

Anyway, sure we all see the trend. Banks droping like flies? I wonder why? Doesn’t every company pay bonuses in excess of earnings? What, stockholders actually expect a return on investment?

Andrew Cuomo had this to say in respect to the US banking system paying for failure.

“There is no clear rhyme or reason to the way banks compensate and reward their employees. In many ways, the past three years have provided a virtual laboratory in which to test the hypothesis that compensation in the financial industry was performance-based. But even a cursory examination of the data suggests that in these challenging economic times, compensation for bank employees has become unmoored from the banks’ financial performance.”

The following numbers are the banks that received taxpayer dollars and the bonuses that they paid out to their execs after getting the money.

The first number is bonuses over 3 million, second is 2 million and third is 1 million.
B of America 28 65 172
Bank of New York Mellon 12 22 74
Citigroup 124 176 738
Goldman Sachs 212 391 953
J.P. Morgan Chase over 200 - 1626
Merrill Lynch 149 - 696
Morgan Stanley 101 189 428
State Street 3 8 44
Wells Fargo 7 22 62

The Wall Street Journal did publish individual numbers for the various banks. Below is B of A and how much money they received, their reported earnings and bonuses. B of A reported earnings of 4 billion, got 45 billion in taxpayer bailout money, then paid 3.3 billion to execs in bonuses for a “job well done“?

Tarp funds received: $45 billion ($15 billion on the Capital Purchasing Program on Oct. 28, 2008, $10 billion on Jan. 9, under the Capital Purchase Program for Merrill Lynch; $20 billion on Jan. 16 under the Targeted Investment Program).

2008 Earnings: $4 billion, or 55 cents a share.

2008 total bonuses: $3.33 billion in cash and stock ($2.9 billion of the mixed cash and equity bonuses were discretionary, and $337 million were guaranteed).

Top four recipients received a combined $64.01 million.

The next four received $36.85 million.

The next six received $31.39 million.

Number that received more than $10 million: 4

Number that received more than $8 million: 8

Number that received more than $5 million: 10

Number that received more than $3 million: 28

Number that received more than $2 million: 65

Number that received at least $1 million: 172

Total work force: 243,000.

the full report

I say scam because I feel that the city of Los Angeles totally scammed it’s population, here’s why.

We here in Los Angeles have been hearing how the city is strapped for cash for years now.  A few points I have noticed..

• My kids school xeroxes pages from books rather than actually getting books for the kids.
• Some schools have a Xerox limit on paper and teachers need to supply their own.
• This year, there is NO summer school for the kids who need it.
• The city is putting up “no Parking” signs on the fly and giving tickets to entire blocks 2 mins after signs went up (my street)
• I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for a pothole to get fixed
• anyway… you get the point.

And now this?

When a city can no longer afford summer school, you would think that a big party for a performer’ death by self destruction (not scientist, not doctor, not teacher, not fallen cop, etc.) would be out of the question. right? wrong.

The city of Los Angeles spent 1.4 million dollars for a few hours of Michael Jackson tributes and parade… WTF? Rumor has it that law enforcement and other city workers were paid double time to do the gig. Again, WTF?  I am so tired of politicians who are supposed to represent the general public care more about what the law enforcement and other unions think. The unions always come first, kids summer school, not even in the top 10.

So now the city is down 1.4 million and is asking for donation. The city couldn’t even get that right.

The city of Los Angeles has only received $17,000 of the $1.4 million it cost to put on Michael Jackson’s memorial – but it’s not because MJ fans are cheap … it’s because of the complete failure of the official donation website.

Seems the City of L.A. is too broke to afford a half decent web server or a staff to keep it up.

The mayor is begging for private donations and they have gottan some, but far from the 1.4 million they need to cover the bill. Seriously now, we all love MJ, but do we want to pay for a memorial we never had a choice over?

MJ was once one of the richest entertainers around. We know he blew much of that in settlements to little boys families, maybe one of them should step in and foot the bill for the man who made them wealthy. Unfortunately we all know the taxpayers of Los Angeles will pay for it in the end.

From the Mayor regarding the Michael Jackson Memorial situation:

The Office of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa released the following statement today regarding online donations for the Michael Jackson Memorial:

“After collecting more than $17,000 from hundreds of donors in support of the Michael Jackson Memorial Tuesday morning, the City’s Information Technology Agency could not handle the high volume of traffic or adequately respond to frequent and prolonged server crashes. Consequently, the City was unable to receive contributions for several hours Tuesday afternoon. The server also failed for at least 12 consecutive hours Tuesday evening, from 8:00 PM (PST) through 8:00 AM (PST) the next day, and periodically throughout Wednesday morning.

The City apologizes for the inconvenience to those who were unable to contribute to the memorial costs. The Information Technology Agency is attempting to rectify the problems.

The City encourages donors to revisit http://mayor.lacity.org to make their donation.”

I really need to stay away from reading the latest about the California Governator and his prison budgets… cuz, it really pisses me off! In a way, I really wanna know what is going on with our money, but then when I find out, I just get upset because its jacked and there seems to be little anyone can do to relieve popular hysteria that is allowing the large prison unions to suck us all dry.

The California Parole system is broken, but it is broken for a good reason, to line the pockets of the correction system unions with 6 figure salaries, people who would only be qualified to work at Jack-in-the-crack without them. I mean, you need tons of people to get tons in overtime and they make sure getting tons of people is no problem. Civil rights? hell, they got trumped by 100k+ salaries to idiots who flunked out of pre-school.

Seriously, the California prison system is one of the largest on the planet with the highest rate of paperwork and parole violators on the planet to match. The Governator just asked for billions more to build more California prisons so California can hire more cousins as guards and give people prison time on their parking tickets so more guards can buy those gas guzzling Hummers they seem to love. Hell, almost makes you wish you were related to a California prison guard, no need for education or even 1/2 a braincell, they take care of their own, ya know.

There is a family I know, if it wasn’t for the correction officer union they would all be on welfare and there is over a dozen of em. They make me sick, always saying how great it is to be able to vote for your own raises and be able to hire all your friends and family. Yep, they claim they vote on whether to get a raise or not… ahh, let me think about that one… “I vote not. California is in a budget crisis ya know… my new Maseratti can wait! DUHHH!”

The sad fact is that the California parole board makes it very hard for parolees to NOT get violated. Getting pulled over for a traffic ticket may get you a year and 3 years of parole no matter what the original sentence, is mandatory. Many people do more time on violations than the original offense, keeping the union fat and happy.

Many parolees are forced into crazy restrictions, even though they are now “free”. I just saw a story about a block of houses in the ghetto. It seems that the parole officers are FORCING the parolees to live there. Once there, they are not allowed to get back to work and are made to file for welfare, whether they want to or not. The welfare is to pay for the housing and the fleet of BMW’s (and all the gold teeth) the cousin, sorry, I mean the home owner wants.

They stack bunk beds 10 deep in the bedrooms and force the “free” men to stay there and pay rent with the welfare money that gets sent directly to the cousin, sorry, the homeowner. If the men have a home and a job to go to and actually leave… well, it’s a violation and another year in prison.

I talked to this kid, he was about 21, he told me he refused to go on welfare, he said he had a wife and child to take care of and if he did the welfare, they would take it out of HER paychecks from work (his wife), he was actually allowed to work (after many complaint letters) and tried to work but the job was 50 miles away from house and it took 2 hours on a bus to get to work. He said they refused to allow him to live closer to his job, seems it was just too much paperwork. Anyway, he is now back in prison because he was late coming back twice… 2 to 3 hours late… Once because of the bus and once because his boss needed some overtime. His wife and child? well, seems their home is now in foreclosure because she just can not pay all the bills alone. Child support? she gets none because “cousin” takes the welfare check. He needs a few more 140″ flat panel plasma tv’s, to give as gifts to the union members that set him up, fat, collecting welfare checks for 30 fools living in his 3 bedroom house. All thanks to the Governator and the State of California!

Here is a quote regarding this issue..

Whoa! Take a deep breath for a minute. I happen to be a Correctional Officer in a state institution that holds about 7200 inmates. I must say (and I am a progressive) that you don’t want these men back on the streets. Many can barely read, don’t have a work ethich other than selling dope, and are prone to violence. God knows what people are capable of doing while under the influence. Be careful what you pray for, you just may get it…

Funny how “ethic” is mis-spelled above from the original quote. That attitude sums us the California budget crisis in regards to the bloated prison population. “God forbid that someone who can not read, be taught how to read, hey, they would then be able to read the paperwork, point out the mis-spellings and maybe some other bullshit being spread on taxpayers.

Just throw them into the bottomless hole where they belong and do everything possible to keep them there for years after the original sentence was completed, drain dry the struggling taxpaying families, schools and social programs to lock up as many people as possible for as long as possible “. Speaking about being prone to violence… I saw some news piece some time back about the Coecoran prison guards who were setting up prison fights to the death for the sake of their own entertainment and gambling… Does that qualify as violent? Criminal sentencing needs to stay where it belongs, with the justice system, NOT the labor unions and their kin.
Unrealistic parole rules set as a blanket, regardless of the individual situation is insane. What is sick ass shit is that the only reason they make it impossible for the parolee’s to get back into society, work and family is to make sure the prisons stay FULL. Without full prisons, there would be no need for tons of overtime! It sickens me that every other state wants parolees to get to work and become self-sufficient while California forces them into insane conditions, all set up to bring them back into prison for the 3 years! WTF Taxpayers? We need school books NOT welfare for parolees that are not allowed to work.

Crazy thing is, that 21 year old kid also said that he tried smoking crack at the house for the first time ever(he was not into drugs, he went to prison over a stupid drunken brawl). He said everyone is so bored that all there is left to do is dope. Thats great, my 28% of income tax is going into starting some kids drug problem and keeping up the neighborhood’s crack house. GO GO Governator!

wanna know more about the governator Arnie and the california budget due to intentional prison overcrowding to make a few rich? read this article about how much money California may waste as our school children lack the funds needed for things like…. books

This sums it all up, comment from another article about needing billions more yearly to build more prisons..

I find California’s prison system to be a “MONEY PIT”. And until they revise the Sentensing process and Parole System and get these parts out of the hands of the Prison Unions their will never be an answer. California has turned the Fox Loose in the Hen house.

Bro, the Union’s foxes seem to have penned up not just the hens, but every rooster, turkey and pigeon for their pluckings.

Making money hand over fist and still taking..

People need to be more educated in the real reason why more prison are being build. I college student and my research has been on the Prison Industrial Compex. PRISONS ARE THE NEW SLAVE TRADE. Fortune 500 and multi-billion dollar corporations such as McDonalds, Microsoft, Boeing, Sprint, Compaq, Toys R Us, and Revlon and Victoria ’s Secret use prison labor for packing, telemarketing, and manufacturing. Hattery, Angela and Smith, Earl. (2006) The prison industrial complex. Sociation Today, 4 (2).

So today I see that Nancy Pelosi (speaker of the house) got a bail out for salmon fisherman put through using her power as speaker and bypassing vote (see earmark reform).

174 million dollars for Salmon fisherman who now need to stoop to catching other fish because the Salmon are low… wait a minute…

This smells a bit foul, here’s why

the fisherman are getting 6 figure checks based on work they do not need to do.

The fisherman are picking a “GREAT” season between 2002 and 2005 and are allowed to be reimbursed for the highest season’ s earnings. Talk about living the American dream.

They are not out of work, they just have to catch other fish in the meantime, but they are still getting a paycheck for the boats they did not run, hands they did not employ, gas they did not use, in trying to catch Salmon… so they get 2 paydays this year. 1 for the Best Catch Ever (from US TaxPayers) and one for this seasons(if they feel like working since they already are getting paid for their best catch in years).

Sounds like a great gig, and… they got a part of this last year also for smaller catches. I do not want my kid to go to college, hell NO, he needs to get a farm or fishing boat! Why work if you don’t need to.. right? that seems to be Nancy Pelosi’s argument.

Can someone reimburse me for the years of diminished tech wages? I mean, my engineering degrees mean shit nowadays when most Tech and programming jobs have been outsourced to India at 1/10th our pay.

I don’t even bother with programming anymore since all I even hear is “the guys in India will do it for 50 cents”, So its not done right… but hey, at those prices they can come back and pay Americans to fix it saving thousands.

Anyway, the fisherman are going to Aruba on me, getting their biggest payday in 5 years having never worked at all… and if they would like to work, then they can. I mean, a fish is a fish is a fish… OK, they may not pay as well per pound, but isn’t that a fact of life?

Nancy says it’s a national emergency, These boys can’t keep the kids in private schools without it! The news reported the average check was 100k…. for not working! When I get laid off I get unemployment that caps out at $420 or so a week in California.

BTW, Katrina victims who lost all due to city levy issues got about $2500 a piece… Those fools should have bought a boat and fished for salmon in the flooded river. Today, they would be sitting phat!

Nancy and friends, go buy some salmon, its not an expense… its just money back into your own pockets.

Seems a state social worker got very lazy one day and decided to go on an extended sick leave. Now, she really wasn’t sick (well, maybe just sick in the head), so she made up a cancer, forged the papers and collected taxpayer money for doing so.

Sandra Dee Martinez, 40, never was diagnosed with brain cancer and instead faked letters from phony doctors to get paid sick leave, work half-days and land certain duties in the department, according to court documents.

State Social worker accused of faking cancer to steal from state and how did she get caught? her own stupidity. She typed one of her forgeries on someone else’s computer and did not delete it.

Every doctor’s name was made-up and all documents were forged. The woman since then has moved out of state and I gotta wonder if she will be allowed to get away with her cancer scam.

The woman received $21,000 in paid leave after forging letters from doctors, prosecutors allege.

By Diana Hefley, Herald Writer, the story from the Herald

ARLINGTON — When a state social worker announced she had malignant brain tumors, she received $21,000 in paid leave, lots of time off from work, and extra sick days generously donated by co-workers pulling for her in her fight against a terrifying disease.

Turns out the tumors were only a sick ploy to steal from the state Department of Social and Health Services, prosecutors alleged Tuesday.

Read the rest of this entry »

ohh, this will be a long one because this issue aggravates me like none other..

For starters… just about every senior in high school who has dated a freshman or junior, the kid in college who is still dating his high school sweetheart, any dumb college kid who flashed or mooned anyone. the 12 year old kid who as a joke pulled down their younger siblings pants and laughed. the wrongfully accused and any man going through a bitter divorce with a vengeful wife. Anyway… 99.5% of the population

So know who is a registered sex offender? Anyone who was unlucky enough to have been caught and someone lying about the age is no excuse…..everyone should be able to tell the difference between 17 and 18! period.

think it could not possible be true? read on.

Los Angeles, CA–”When Ricky was 16, he went to a teen club and met a girl named Amanda, who said she was the same age. They hit it off and were eventually having sex. At the time Ricky thought it was a pretty normal high school romance.

“Two years later, Ricky is a registered sex offender, and his life is destroyed. “Amanda turned out to be 13. Ricky was arrested, tried as an adult, and pleaded guilty to the charge of lascivious acts with a child, which is a class D felony in Iowa. It is not disputed that the sex was consensual, but intercourse with a 13-year-old is illegal in Iowa.“Ricky was sentenced to two years probation and 10 years on the Iowa online sex offender registry. Ricky and his family have since moved to Oklahoma, where he will remain on the state’s public registry for life.“Being labeled a sex offender has completely changed Ricky’s life, leading him to be kicked out of high school, thrown out of parks, taunted by neighbors, harassed by strangers, and unable to live within 2,000 feet of a school, day-care center or park. He is prohibited from going to the movies or mall with friends because it would require crossing state borders, which he cannot do without permission from his probation officer. One of Ricky’s neighbors called the cops on him, yelled and cursed at him, and videotaped him every time he stepped outside, Ricky said.

“‘It affects you in every way,’ he said. ‘You’re scared to go out places. You’re on the Internet, so everybody sees your picture.’”

A 17 YO kid went to summer camp, sent there by his parents, he meets a girl at camp who tells him she is 16, they have a summer romance. Her parents find out, tell the kid she is only 13(he did not know, they are in the same teen summer camp together) he is now a registered sex offender for life. He is not allowed to return back to his school nor finish high school, he can never go to college or get a real job. Most likely he will spend 15 years in prison on registry violations before he is 40 and will be forced to move countless times as states add more and more places he no longer can live near.

A black man 40 years ago(then a teen) was wrongly arrested for “molesting” a white girl. He is railroaded by the white police and forced to plead guilty. 40 years later, the registry is retroactive he finds himself in prison for 5 years, as an old man for registry violations because the southern state he lives in says that registered sex offenders can not live within 1/2 mile of schools, parks, bus stops, swimming pools, churches, etc. leaving 1 hotel in the state that no one can afford daily or under a bridge. This man committed no crime other then the one 40 years back and was evicted out of his lifelong home because the state says he can not live there. Being homeless is not an excuse to not register an address and is 3 to 10 in prison as a violent felony in most states.

A 20 year old college kid at spring break moons a group of girls with his buddies, gets arrested for indecent exposure. one of the girls has her 16 YO sister with her in the crowd. He is a sex offender for life. 20 years later, now 40, married with kids and having committed no crime the police come to his home, arrest him for a week lapse in registration, seems the Read the rest of this entry »

Every year a ho rises to super-stardom, and puts the fear of God, or at least fear of “woman scorned” back into America’s moral underbelly.

2008 is Ashley’s year of fame and fortune almost from its start, Ashley Dupre couldn’t have planned her rise to stardom any better. Ashley Dipierto Dupre had a modeling and acting portfolio, she really did want to be famous…. and all she had to do to get that fame was blow. WOW! Who would have thunk it. I wonder how many hookers are searching the internet for political photos to see if any of their clients match.

Next year a new girl will no doubt come along and put an end to Ashley’s reign as queen Ho, but 2008 is all Ashleys and she has 10 more months to enjoy it, well, unless one of the whores searching through pictures on the internet looking for her johns actually finds a match and blows the whistle.

There always seems to be a time gap between great sex scandals. I have a theory… These elite circles of sex, lies and videotape are fairly well protected. After a year without scandal, people feel safe, untouchable and stop worrying about getting caught becoming a bit sloppy. Media rushes in and fries the biggest fish of the now exposed circle.

Read the rest of this entry »

AB 1940 would grant privileges to late-term pregnant women

SACRAMENTO — Give birth, get a parking pass? California lawmakers are considering granting special parking privileges to women in the final three months of pregnancy and the first two months after birth.

The legislation would apply to more than a half-million women who give birth every year in California.

Assemblyman Chuck DeVore’s bill would qualify pregnant women for “temporarily disabled” parking placards from the Department of Motor Vehicles.

“Let’s be reasonable here: There are challenges, physical challenges, that arise as a natural part of life,” DeVore said of pregnancy.

The Irvine Republican said it makes little sense to force a pregnant woman who has trouble getting out of her car, and might have a toddler in tow, to park in the outer reaches of a parking lot.

“It certainly makes you realize that for that very short period of time in their pregnancy, they are certainly by any practical definition (impaired),” he said.

DeVore is wading into a thicket abandoned four years ago by a colleague, then-Assemblyman Tony Strickland, R-Thousand Oaks, who proposed similar legislation, then shelved it amid a hail of controversy.

Opponents of the new proposal, Assembly Bill 1940, say pregnant women should be exercising as much as possible and that the legislation could reduce parking for motorists with more serious disabilities.

“We really want pregnant women to be active, to be moving, to be walking,” said Shannon Smith-Crowley of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists’ California chapter, which opposes the bill. A woman with complications from pregnancy that severely impair walking, or cause other serious health problems, can qualify for a temporary parking placard under existing law, she said.

“If she truly needs it, she can already get it,” Smith-Crowley said.

Helen Grieco, executive director of the California chapter of the National Organization for Women, said the bill inadvertently could send the wrong societal message.

“It’s very much a normal part of a woman’s life — we have children,” Grieco said. “So we’ve always been troubled by framing pregnancy as a disability.”

The bill would allow pregnant women to park in spaces reserved for those with disabilities, park for free beside meters, and park for unlimited lengths of time beside green curbs.

To qualify for a temporary placard, women would have to produce a note from a doctor, nurse, midwife or other health care professional stating that they are in the final three months of pregnancy.

Frances Gracechild, executive director of Resources for Independent Living, which assists people with disabilities, said she had not yet read AB 1940.

“But reasonable people might say that if you decide to pass it, it would have to have a commensurate increase in parking spaces (for people with disabilities),” Gracechild said.

AB 1940 faces its first legislative hearing Monday in the Assembly Transportation Committee.

More than 2.6 million Californians, roughly 11 percent of the state’s motorists, possess special parking privileges because of disabilities, DMV records show.

Statistics are not kept on how many temporary parking placards have been granted under existing law due to complications from pregnancy.

Strickland, whose 2004 effort failed, said he still supports easing the strain on pregnant women. “Look, I’ve never had to carry around a 10-pound baby in my belly and walk every day,” he said.

CompStat might not count a February 29th murder, but the neighborhood does

March 18th, 2008 12:00 AM

The NYPD has become so obsessed with trying to show an ever-lower crime rate that it erased February 29, 2008.

That day, however, was particularly bloody in the Ninth Precinct. Outside the East Village Key Food supermarket, a makeshift memorial still stands, weeks after a Leap Day slaying of one of the store’s employees.

On February 29, inside the market at Avenue A and 4th Street, James Gonzalez, a 42-year-old ex-con known to store workers as “Crazy Jimmy,” allegedly repeatedly stabbed his ex-girlfriend, Tina Negron, to death with a butcher’s knife. Both worked at the market. Negron would have turned 25 years old on March 16.

It was the Ninth Precinct’s first homicide of the year. But according to NYPD stats, it didn’t happen.

Read the rest of this entry »

Obama Spiritual Leaders

The following are excerpts of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s telephone interview Thursday with Tribune-Review reporter David. M. Brown.

Q: Gov. (Ed) Rendell and (Philadelphia) Mayor (Michael) Nutter held a conference call and did their best to say you are minimizing Pennsylvania and essentially your campaign is trying to paint Pennsylvania as not that important.

A: I don’t think there is any denying that we are an underdog there, and it’s important for us to remember that there are 10 other states. The irony of this, of course, is it’s the Clinton campaign that’s been trying to cherry-pick and decide which states are important. There are a whole slew of states that she’s dismissed. We’ve competed actively in every single state, and we’re going to compete actively in Pennsylvania.

Q: I don’t know if you’ve seen it, but it’s all over the wire today (from an ABC News story), a statement that your pastor (the Rev. Jeremiah Wright of Trinity United Church of Christ on Chicago’s South Side) made in a sermon in 2003 that instead of singing “God Bless America,” black people should sing a song essentially saying “God Damn America.”

A: I haven’t seen the line. This is a pastor who is on the brink of retirement who in the past has made some controversial statements. I profoundly disagree with some of these statements.

Q: What about this particular statement?A: Obviously, I disagree with that. Here is what happens when you just cherry-pick statements from a guy who had a 40-year career as a pastor. There are times when people say things that are just wrong. But I think it’s important to judge me on what I’ve said in the past and what I believe.Q: What about the big vote today in the Senate for a moratorium on congressional earmarks — items inserted into legislation to fund lawmakers’ pet projects — also called “pork barrel spending?”A: I’m a supporter of the idea of pausing a year so that we can make sure they are more transparent and more accountable.

Q: How do you differ from Sen. Clinton on the issue of gun control?

A: I think our positions are fairly similar. I’d let her characterize her own position. I certainly believe in the Second Amendment right, that people have the right to bear arms. But I also believe it is important to have some common-sense gun laws in place to make sure that straw purchasers aren’t being used to fill up our streets with illegal firearms, and that we have stronger background checks so we keep firearms out of the hands of people with mental health problems or young people or those who have committed crimes. I think it is important for us to strengthen our ability to trace guns that have been used in crimes to gun dealers to make sure they are not operating in an illegal way. I think it’s possible to reconcile the tradition of gun ownership, and the rights of sportsmen, hunters and those who want to protect their families, with keeping handguns that are used in crime off the streets. You can protect the rights of gun owners and at the same time keep guns out of the hands of criminals.