The list is unfathomably too long. From Columbine, to Sandy Hook, to Las Vegas, to Parkland, to Pittsburgh, to Thousand Oaks. And so many more. Just this year, there have already been 311 mass shootings in America. After a decade that saw gun deaths in decline, in 2016, they reared their ugly head again, and increased. Something must be done to fix this horrific, deadly, problem. What’s perplexing about this, is that no other developed country in the world has this problem. What has led to this problem for us? How can we save lives and fix it?

We have approximately 265 million guns that are currently owned in the United States. Guns aren’t going to disappear, and progress will therefore be incremental. Regulations to who gets guns, and how people get them, is how we can begin to solve this problem. In “What We Can Do to Stop It” by Sean Wilson, motor vehicle deaths is used as an analogy for how we can curb this epidemic. “Safer cars, stronger seat-belt laws and fewer teenage drivers have helped reduce car fatalities, which dropped from 33.5 deaths per billion miles traveled in 1975 10 11.8 in 2016. Gun deaths have increased steadily since 2009 and are now nearly as lethal as traffic accidents, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).” The reason why one fatality is going in one direction (decreasing), and the other is going in the other direction (increasing), is because common sense regulations have been put on one, while the other has been left alone, non-adjusted, and not improved whatsoever.

Speaking of the CDC, it has only received 5.3% of the funding for gun violence as it has for motor vehicle accidents. So us, as a nation, are already fighting an uphill battle on this issue. There are several ways to regulate guns without taking them away from lawful gun owners (99.9% of gun owners are obviously good and law abiding). One idea that needs to be put forth is that if someone has the police called on them a certain numbers of times, they need to be barred from having any weapon whatsoever. Also, there also needs to be a law where any family member can legally get a waiver to prevent a family member who they think is troubled from accessing a firearm until further notice. Additionally, “What We Can do To Stop It” brings up an idea, offered by President Obama that we can use a fingerprint to access our guns in a similar way that we use a fingerprint to get onto our phone. Expanding already in place laws of keeping guns out of the hands of people with known domestic violence, or with a history of legal trouble, needs to be done as well. Unfortunately, as long as the NRA refuses to compromise on these types of ideas, congressional and senate leaders are going to need to step up and push legislation forward.

“Suppose we granted (incorrectly) that this assumed right is a basic moral right. It would not follow that it must be free of moderate limits or regulations.” In “The Case For Moderate Gun Control” by David Degrazia, gun control is suggested, not as a way to take away rights, but instead to channel them in a way that minimizes risk for society, and maximizes pleasure and reward for gun lobbyers. Degrazia makes it clear that you cannot simply do anything you want, as you cannot abuse your right to do something to such a degree where it’s limitless. There is always a line to be drawn, and it is imperative that we put the safety of citizens first, before the hobbies of others. This ideology doesn’t just apply to guns. “The right to freedom of movement—a plausible candidate for a basic moral right—does not permit me to walk onto private property or into another person’s body without her permission. These are significant limits on my right to free movement. Even basic rights may be subject to significant restrictions.” Without limitations, people can take their rights to an extreme, and can facilitate devastating criminal behavior. Continue reading “Gun Control Final” →

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In this, the second episode of coast to coast football, Matt and I discuss the games from Week 8, and the playoff implications coming out of it. Are the Saints now the favorite in the NFC? Should we pump the breaks on the Rams just a touch? Can the Patriots go to the Super Bowl without Sony Michel? Who now has the inside track to win the NFC North? Are the Eagles bask on track after a solid win in London against the Jaguars? Are they favorites to win the NFC East? What ON EARTH was Ty Montgomery thinking? You simply CANNOT make that play at that time, let alone when Aaron freaking Rodgers is your quarterback. We also touch on which trades had the biggest impact, and which trade was most surprising? And who’s the MVP favorite at this point, roughly halfway through the season? Per usual, Matt and I disagree on a number of topics, including how seriously to take my Colts after their 2 most recent dominant performances (albeit against the Bills and the Raiders). This football season is getting good, and Matt and I are here to take you through and discuss each and every storyline in the football world.

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Coming into Hofstra’s game against James Madison, the Pride were in 5th place, needing a win in their final home game of the season to stay alive in the playoff race. Adding to the challenge in front of them was them having not beaten James Madison since 2011. After a tough, gritty battle throughout the game, Cami Larson put home an excellent shot off a penalty corner to put the Pride up 1-0 with just over 2 minutes left, saving their season for the moment, and putting them in position to grab the fourth and final playoff seed near the end of the season.

“We had just an amazing performance. We had a great game plan, and we had been scouting James Madison for a while,” said head coach Kathy de Angelis. “We’d been practicing all week on what we needed to do, and I can’t say enough about our players and their ability to follow a game plan. And just, the fortitude, the fight, the tenacity, and pure perseverance was on display today.”

When the horn sounded to end the game, the Pride stormed the field and mobbed goalie Betty Bosma. Meredith Pfennig even did a cartwheel in the postgame cooldown, and she and her teammates kept high fiving and hugging each other left and right, overtaken with a huge sense of relief, and an even bigger sense of joy.

“It was a good goal. I liked it, and it was on a corner, so I couldn’t have done it without the work of the team, so I think it was all teamwork,” said Larsen.

Goalie Betty Bosma kept her team alive with multiple phenomenal pad save with 7 and a half minutes left in the first half.  Despite JMU having 9 first half penalty corners, the score was 0-0 at halftime. With 6 minutes left in the game and both teams getting desperate, JMU had a flurry of shots on net, off multiple corners, but Bosma again stood tall and saved the game for the Pride. Without her heroics, Larsen’s game winning opportunity would have been deemed irrelevant.

“It was a very nerve wracking game, but at the same time, the defense was just great today, and coaching was hard. There was so much pressure from the other team, but at the same time it was just incredible how we defended and just kept going until literally the last second. And it’s just a great feeling, and it’s my first zero (shutout),” Bosma said.

The Pride now occupy the fourth and final playoff spot in the CAA. If Hofstra wins out, they’ll get into the playoffs. If they win one of their final two games, and JMU wins 2 of their final 3, the Pride can still sneak into the postseason. With JMU having 3 games left, and Hofstra having 2 , JMU must finish ahead of Hofstra in the standings, and the only way they can do that is by winning 2 more games than Hofstra does in this final stretch. If they finish with identical records, Hofstra has the tiebreaker because of the head to head win, and therefore would get into the playoffs.

Hofstra goes on the road to face Drexel on Friday, before finishing up their season at Delaware two days later.

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This slideshow represents my daily life at Hofstra. I get to do it all! I’ll wake up in my room (with the Steph Curry poster hanging on the wall and the San Jose Sharks Flag, A’s Leather, and Peyton Manning hanger), then walk to class on campus where I may pass the intramural fields. On this night, there were multiple ultimate frisbee games, and on other nights, there will be anything from rugby to soccer games. The parking lot made for an excellent picture because of the lights in the background. But since live in California, I won’t be commuting to school.  I’ll go to the weight room 3 or 4 times a week, so weights are a big part of my life. I gotta get my exercise in or else my ADHD will drive me crazy! Additionally, my roommate and I are starting a podcast, so the producing board and the microphone are a part of my life here at school. And they will be for the rest of my life as I go through my career in sports broadcasting. My days here at Hofstra are jam packed, and in doing everything, I go just about everywhere on campus!