Guns don’t kill, people do the killing

Editor:

I am writing in response to Mrs. Boyd’s editorial last week calling for stricter gun laws. First I’d like to point out that, yes in fact guns do not kill people, neither do knives, baseball bats or any other product a person may find to commit acts of harm.

In 2005, 52 people were killed in the London subway bombings; in 2002 Dr. Harold Shipman killed 172 of his patients. Timmy McVeigh killed 168 innocent people, (19 children under the age of 6, and injured 680 people). You can still buy fertilizer, racing fuel and rent box trucks.

The question of gun laws and assault weapons is the topic on everyone’s mind. Some examples of these laws failing are as follows: since Australia’s gun control laws went into effect in 1996, armed robberies rose 51 percent; England passed their law in 1977, crime rose 40 percent; since the 1997 Washington, D.C. ban, murder rate is up 73 percent; and in 1982, Chicago instituted a ban, murders committed with hand guns went up 40 percent. Up, not down.

In 1938, Hitler added extreme restrictions to the already passed gun law, mostly addressing “Jews” and “non-citizens.” We all know about the Holocaust and the millions killed by their government. Would that have occurred had they been armed and able to protect themselves?

You say assault weapons have no legitimate purpose and we have no legitimate reason to have them. That’s not the point. The Second Amendment is not about hunting rabbits. It’s about your right to protect yourself from the government.

The fact of the matter is that a murderer can have an assault weapon with lots of bullets or a weapon that shoots one bullet at a time. It takes one second to change out a clip, not enough time for anyone to rush the offender. You’d get two feet toward him when he points that gun at you.

You say assault rifles don’t have any defense use. Tell that to the man who stood on his roof with one during the L.A. riots defending his home and family from an angry mob. That assault weapon saved his and his family’s lives.

The Second Amendment is also about helping your country if attacked. James Madison, in the Federalist 46, said, “Let a regular army fully equal all resources of the country be formed, and let it be entirely at the devotion of the federal government. Still it would not be going too far to say that the state of government, with the people on their side, would be able to repel danger. A militia amounting to nearly a half a million citizens with arms in hand.”

We as unarmed citizens become the victims of crimes if we cannot defend ourselves.

Guns are not allowed in public buildings or schools where most of the horrible shoot outs and bombings happen. All because the murderer knew they were defenseless and unarmed. Train and arm our teachers and they will no longer be targets. The same with movie theaters and public places.

In closing I’d like to beg parents to be responsible with your weapons. I won’t argue that accidents won’t happen, but if we lock up our weapons and supervise our children we can be armed and protect ourselves and no longer be victims of deranged murderers, our government and be prepared to defend our country along side the military to protect our home if the need ever arises.

Jennifer Munsie

Worthville