To the Editor,
I remember a few years ago sitting at a courthouse meeting where people who love guns were making an argument to the Supervisors that there should be no restrictions on people carrying guns on county property including the courthouse because it is our “right” to carry guns anywhere we want to.
At that meeting, I mentioned my conversation with a member of our Assessor’s office who expressed concern for the office’s safety because some people really angry about their property tax bills.
Someone will undoubtedly state that the issue in Jackson County was brought on by not enough people having guns at that meeting on Tuesday. Can you imagine the carnage what could have occurred if everyone pulled their guns out to “defend” each other? No doubt more would have been injured or killed. A gunfight at the “ok corral” does nothing to insure public safety.
Just as what happened when Gabby Giffords was shot in Arizona a few years back, it was someone without a gun who prevented the attack on the Jackson Co. Assessor. The shooter on Tuesday did not have a license or a concealed carry license and that is exactly the point. Our society is so obsessed with guns that any discussion about common sense solutions is seen as somehow trampling on the 2nd Amendment and off limits.
Until we can start having that rational discussion, events like what happened in Jackson County will continue occur. There is not a week that goes by that some where a child or an adult is killed by someone finding a gun, playing with it or mistakenly taking the life a loved one because of mistaken identity.
It is extremely doubtful that a rational discussion will ever occur. If that discussion did not occur after 20-6 year olds were shot by an unstable person who had unfettered assess to guns, why would anyone think that a courthouse shooting in Iowa would have any effect?
It seems to be that it is far more important to have guns to defend ourselves from a government gun grab that has not occurred than it is to address gun violence. Never mind the death of innocent people because they are just collateral damage in our obsession with villains (government gun grab) that do not exist.
The paranoia surrounding the need for people to be armed to the teeth has not created a safer society. All this paranoia has accomplished is the more guns and more people being injured or killed.
I would suggest anyone commenting on my post please address solutions and keep the personal attacks on my ideology to yourself. The discussion should be about finding common ground and solutions. Burying your head in the sand by saying the 2nd Amendment says…while the killing continues does not add anything to our society. It is the obsession with guns that is the problem and if you are not willing to discuss rationally to find solutions, you are part of the problem.
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There is very little that might actually help reduce many of these gun crimes from occurring and even if the gun would be eliminated the crimes likely would not. Crime and homicides will occur with or without a gun. The 2012 FBI crime statistics showed that there were as many people killed in the US by someone using their own body (feet, hands etc.) as rifles and shotguns combined, more than twice that many were killed with knives or other sharp objects. Cain did not use a gun to kill his own brother Able and people who want to kill will find a way.
The first response often times is to ban all guns or at least a type of gun which is miss represented and often times is related to its appearance rather than is function or abilities. While this sounds like a workable solution it is not. The law abiding people may turn their weapons in, but those who are criminals will continue to break the law and hold on to their guns. You must look at the people involved in these events.
As it was pointed out, the shooter in Jackson County was not licensed nor did he have a permit to carry. People like this will not obey a new law if they don’t follow the current laws. The sheer number of guns in circulation today would be impossible to eliminate. Add the argument that a people need to be armed to protect itself from a government run amuck, which seems to be getting closer and closer to a reality, does possess a hint of 2nd Amendment thought.
While the killing of 20 - 6 year olds is horrific, I would say equally horrific are the parents of a 20 year old boy, still living at home, diagnosed with a mental issue not preventing that child free access to a number of firearms, as was the case in Newtown. If you look into the Newtown killers mental state it will likely shock you. Another example took place in Columbine. This time the shooters were 18 and 17. Parents were so disconnected with their own children, they had no idea they were stockpiling an arsenal of weapons and bombs.
This leads to one thing that might help this issue. Personal responsibility. Today we live in a country where it is no longer your fault for anything, it’s someone else’s. We no longer talk with our neighbors or if we do it is via text or email. Our world is becoming more and more virtual, and when tragic events happen in reality we are shocked and can’t understand why. We aren’t concerned with raising our kids and teaching them right and wrong. ‘Let them figure it out for themselves’ or ‘The school will teach them’ seem to be the mottos of some modern parents.
I am fortunate to work in at a company that encourages interactions with other employees, getting to know them on a personal level not just as fellow workers. I can tell you I know of many of them who own not only a gun, but several guns. Some are hunters and others are gun enthusiasts. I have never once felt concerned or worried about these people coming to work with a gun. A common description of the killers at these media hyped events is, ‘he was a loaner’, ‘he kept to himself’ or ‘I really didn’t see or talk to him much’.
Political Correctness has been and will continue to hinder our ability to prevent events from happening. People are so afraid of hurting someone’s feelings. It used to be normal for a police officer to stop someone who looked suspicious. If it looked like a duck, quacked like a duck, it might be a duck. But today, they run the risk of being accused of racial profiling.
We aren’t allowed to be proud of our country. Kids in California wearing shirts with an American flag are being told to change their shirts because it will offend immigrants from Mexico. Active military are not allowed to wear their uniforms into schools. We can’t say ‘God Bless America’, say ‘God bless you’ when someone sneezes, have prayer in school or read the bible. Then we wonder why bad things keep happening. We continued to remove God and the bible from everything, which teaches forgiveness and caring for your fellow man, but is also critical of sinner’s actions. Then we get upset when people do the very sins, murder, steel, lying, etc.
What is most concerning to me is the efforts to help stop these crimes only gather media attention when it is, forgive my generalization, a white person killing a black person or if it is white people being killed. Every day there are dozens of shootings in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and Detroit that are black on black. Hundreds of people are killed there every year, but Al Sharpton and Jessie Jackson aren’t there trying to build community support to stop it unless it fits their agenda. Those who want to ban all guns aren’t in the streets trying to convince the thugs to turn in their illegal weapons.
The problem is not the gun anymore then the car is the problem when a drunk driver kills someone or the fork is responsible for me being fat. The problem is the person who used a gun in a bad way. Adding another gun law won’t help, as I stated these people aren’t following the existing gun laws.
Now, has any of these gun crimes occurred at a gun show?
Has anyone walked onto a shooting range and started shooting? (Had the instructor that was shot been paying better attention to his student, he probably would have been okay.)
No. You know why? Because even crazy people know that they would get shot if they tried that.
So it seems that guns make a good deterrent to violence.
Arm and train our teachers to defend our kids.
In Ferguson, did you see the store defended by people standing outside with guns? Their store was fine while all around them looting occurred.
Tell the old lady in her home whose home was invaded and the only thing that saved her was the words, \"Get out, I have a gun!\"
There are so many cases where a gun has saved lives, and prevented crime.
If every courthouse employee was trained and carried, I doubt there would be any shootings at the court house.
Crazy people don\'t read signs. Even if the letters were 6 foot tall, they would walk right past them, with their guns.
So if you think a sign will save you from someone being an idiot, good luck.
Rationally speaking, we know life happens. Crazy people happen. There is nothing wrong with carrying, just in case crazy breaks out around you.
Trust me, I\'d rather sit next to a friend with a gun than next to a crazy stranger who MIGHT have one.
It\'s not a matter of gun \"loving\" it\'s a matter of understanding, or some might say, \"being rational.\"
This is will likely remain so, as long as the conversation uses terms like \'gun lovers\' as a derogatory slur.
The purpose of having a percentage of the population armed is not to support vigilantism, it is as a defensive deterrent.
Criminals are less likely to commit violent acts in places where they know guns are present, compared to places where they know there are none.
http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=4616
The key is education, on both sides. For gun owners, and non-owners. As long as guns are considered a scary things that should not be used, handled, looked at, or even discussed openly, this schism will continue.