Letter: Let's think about gun control

Talk about it

My personal copy of the Constitution of the United States also includes the second amendment. It reads thus:

“A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

Notice please that it does NOT say a militia can keep and bear arms … it says the people can. Where do you suppose the Minutemen got their guns during the Revolutionary War?

Miss April Wallace’s previous letter on this subject claimed that guns make it much easier to kill people. Guns also make it much easier to defend people. A gun is a tool-whether for good or for evil, depends on those who wield them. Taking guns away from law abiding people is possible. Taking guns away from crooks, criminals and crazies is not possible.

Consider the “Tommy Gun,” a machine gun used by Al Capone and the like back in the days of prohibition. All the gangsters had them at the time. In 1934 the ownership of machine guns (what are now called class III weapons) was restricted and taxed in an effort to provide gun control. Ask yourself how many criminals turned in their machine guns, and then ask yourself if gun violence stopped?

The United States had a ban on “assault weapons” for over 11 years back in the ’80s. How many criminals surrendered their guns that time? Did gun violence stop, or even reduce?

The very term “assault rifle” is very misused. An assault weapon is a fully automatic weapon, like the American M16 or the communist AK47. They fire at a high rate of speed (600 rounds per minute) as long as you hold the trigger down — in other words, a machine gun.

The gun used in the recent school tragedy is designed to look like an assault weapon, but it only fires one round (bullet) each time you pull the trigger. This is the same type of action that your friends and neighbors guns use when they go hunting or target shooting. It’s the same as a pellet rifle. It’s the same on a shotgun. It’s the same with a handgun. One pull, one shot.

In her last paragraph, Miss Wallace asked us not to put pride over reason. I ask rather that we put reason in front of fear. Learn the truth and consider the issue well.

If an arsonist starts a fire and kills a crowd, shall we outlaw all forms of fire? Does that even make a little bit of sense?

Tags: opinion, letters, politics, guns