There are a great many very tough issues that face this country now and in the near future. In my humble opinion gun control is not one of them. Those who rally to cry for more gun control laws every time a tragic shooting occurs are very much little the fabled Chicken Little. Recently a very mentally ill young man murdered his grandfather (who was a tribal police officer), stole his firearms, and proceeded to go to his school where he killed another 8 people then took his own life to bring the death toll to ten. This very tragic event which happen in Red Lake, Minnesota was the worst school shooting in the United States since the incident at Columbine. I pray for those killed and those who lost family or friends but I condemn everyone who takes the slain and uses them as a stepping stone to advance their own agenda.
Let me propose a challenge to all those who wish and hope for tougher gun control laws. If gun control laws are the answer then please let me know what law would prevent what happen in Red Lake. The kid was mentally unbalanced and overpowered his grandfather to get the weapons he used to commit his crimes. What law would prevent a sick kid from murdering a family, who was a cop, and stealing his weapons to commit his heinous acts? Speak up you moon bats, your silence is deafening. Better yet, explain the recent church shooting in Wisconsin? How can we prevent a seemingly normal law-abiding citizen from snapping and killed those that he feels have wronged him? What law would have stopped that? Perhaps that when a citizen tries to exercise his or her 2nd Amendment right we should do a psych profile. It is a tragedy when anyone is killed and especially so when a firearm is used. That is a simple fact.
I usually don’t put much stock in the letters to the editor since my letters are reactionary and usually filled with ignorance and inaccuracies but this is a classic example of how successfully the left has indoctrinated the average American into thinking that gun control laws are the answer. Read on:
Once again, another community, this time Red Lake, Minn., suffers the loss of innocent lives because America is awash in handguns. Ten people dead, 15 wounded. It is a game of Russian roulette we play, everyone having to wonder if their loved ones will be the next to die. The litany of recent deaths is startling: In Dallas, four people were shot by a person wielding an assault weapon from a car; in Philadelphia, nine people died in unrelated gun incidents; in Chicago, a judge’s husband and mother-in-law were shot dead in their home; in Wisconsin, seven people were murdered by a gunman in a church service; in Houston, a 2-year-old was shot to death by a 4-year-old who found a handgun in his mother’s purse; in California, another Columbine was averted when two teens were arrested for planning a shooting spree at their high school; the GAO reported that 47 people on terrorist watch lists successfully purchased guns. And now, Red River. It is hard to keep up with all of the gun violence in the United States. This doesn’t have to happen. In countries where handguns are rare, this kind of horror doesn’t occur. We could begin to turn the tide if we enacted reasonable gun-control laws. Even then it would take a long time to see improvement because a gun lasts forever. A gun bought years ago is still around when a family member unexpectedly snaps. But don’t count on the situation to change soon. With the current leadership in Washington mostly in the pocket of the NRA and gun manufacturers, controls are not likely to be forthcoming. We could have safer lives, and numerous people could be spared unspeakable tragedy, if reason prevailed and we ended our sick obsession with guns. But thanks to the NRA, gun manufacturers and complacent lawmakers, we all will have to continue to wonder each day, is it going to be our community’s turn to mourn the senseless loss of life that made Columbine and Red River famous?
PHILLIP C. WRIGHT Fort Wayne
This letter appeared in the online edition of The Journal Gazette, a Fort Wayne, Indiana daily newspaper. Here is the link. Gee, where do I start? I am sure that Phillip Wright is a good honest, hard-working American; after all he lives in Indiana. The sad truth is that Mr. Wright is the sad by-product of many years of the MSM and their leftist gun-hating partners telling us that guns are back and that the only solution is more and more gun control laws. The sad truth is that folks like Mr. Wright are ignorant to the truth about the ineffectiveness of gun control laws. The best way to prevent shootings like the school shooting in Red Lake, the church in Wisconsin, the shooting in Houston is education of the public to the responsible handling of firearms and allowing those who wish to carry to do so after the proper training. The statement that other countries with tighter gun laws don’t suffer the same types of incidents is simple ignorance. In the period from August 1997 to February 2002, 32 students and 4 teachers were killed in school shootings in that great example of a civilized society, Europe. Here are a couple of examples, here and here. John R. Lott, Jr. does a great job of setting the case for the fact those countries with gun bans having the highest murder rates.
There is no gun law that will prevent a criminal from obtaining a firearm as long as people choose to break the existing laws and sell guns illegally. An honest legal gun owner given the choice between a suspect sale and turning the buyer away will err on the side of caution. It is a tremendous responsibly to sell firearms and there are already laws on the books that work to make sure that not every Tom, Dick and Harry can get a federal firearms license and open up shop on the corner of criminal street to sell to those who can not legally own firearms. That being said, the criminals out there are not worried about gun control laws because they know that ever restrictive gun laws keep guns from law-abiding citizens. In fact gun-related crime in this country has been declining for the past ten years according to this report. Recently the Center for Disease Control released a study that reviewed over 20 years of gun control laws and concluded that they have little to no effect on reducing firearms related crimes.
It is a tragedy when a firearm is used in any crime and especially so when a death results from that crime. The fact is that no law can prevent an incident like Red Lake, or the church shooting in Wisconsin. The left will wail and moan about the “need” for more gun control and this is my challenge to those who favor more gun control laws: What law or laws would you propose that will prevent another Red Lake style school shooting or another church shooting in Wisconsin? But wait, I have another scenario for you to consider: what law will prevent a person or persons from walking into a crowded mall and opening fire on the innocent citizens? I await your pearls of wisdom.
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