Opinion: Guns are dangerous
I agree strongly with New York [City] Mayor Michael Bloomberg coming out against the leading cause of gun violence. The mayor opposes the wake of terror the [jerk] in Denver caused by using his assault weapon to assault people as well as the credo we are powerless to guarantee life, liberty, or any pursuit of happiness too many embace.
Why are there so many heinous mass killings in big gun rights states and less so in gun control blue states?
Maybe I am wrong but mass shootings at Columbine in April 1999, church shootings in Texas in 1999, 2010, 2011, the Fort Hood massacre in 2009, the Waco and Branch Davidian-ATF mess in 1993, Virginia Tech in 2007, the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, and the Randy Weaver-ATF showdown in the Idaho Panhandle at Ruby Ridge in 1992 all speak volumes.
Go back even further to the University of Texas tower shooter in 1966 or the Orangeburg massacre in South Carolina in 1968. It seems to be a red state regular event.
And anarchist crazies abound now in Montana, Arizona and Texas. Red states all.
And let’s not forget the eight-foot fenced canned hunting farms in all those red states too. Apparently nature is too much of a challenge and these hunters need guarantees.
Exactly why did the gun lobby even oppose encrypting ammunition with serial numbers to allow law enforcement to trace the ammunition’s buyer in California?
And now University of Chicago political science profesor Mearsheimer is using the NRA’s gun rights logic to justify nuclear arms for Iran! “It would bring stability to the region” he says. When does this lunacy end?
Locally I applaud the eight-foot-high barred fence walls now surrounding the new additions at Hemet High School. That is right down the street from where three kids were shot by a drunken San Jacinto 18-year-old one year ago at my tenant’s block party on Stetson at Columbia. Another first-offender sentenced to 13 years. Allegedly.
Forty percent of all arm sales are at gun shows. This needs to stop.
Why not pass a “big gun sin tax”? Charge an extra $500 per firearm and reintroduce the oversized magazine ban that expired in 2004. Do something, even if it’s wrong.
Isn’t the purpose of government to do for us what we can’t do ourselves?
Well, apparently we can’t stop arming miscreants with assault weapons. So we’re left with the option of arming only miscreants like we do now, arming everyone all the time or no one at all. What else can it be?
It’s time for common sense. Or more idiotic NRA soundbites until the next massacre.
Mike Reno
Pine Cove
IT IS NOT THE GUNS THAT ARE DANGEROUS, IT IS THE IDIOT THAT HAS A GUN OR THE IDIOT BEHIND THE WHEEL OF A CAR OR THE OWNER OF A BITING DOG,OR THE OWNER OF A WILD ANIMAL SUCH AS A MONKEY THAT ATTACKS EVEN ITS OWNERS OR A DOCTOR THAT TAKES THE LIFE OF AN UNBORN BABY. IT IS THE PERSON THAT HATES AND KILLS. IT DOES NOT MATTER WHAT LAWS ARE PASSED, IF A IDIOT WANTS TO KILL SOMEONE THEY WILL FIND A WAY TO DO IT, SAY BUT TRUE M.K.G.
The devil is always in the detail. The deeper you research, the more confusing and misleading the primary information becomes.
The Colorado theater shooter – Colorado right? well born and raised in San Diego and Riverside. That's California. That contradicts the Blue vs Red state stereotype.
The theater plaza is a gun-free zone, that is why law-abiding citizens who usually carry, were defenseless and slaughtered. That town has a lot of military base residents, they abide by the law, and did not carry weapons for self-defense.
By disarming the law abiding citizens, you are empowering the criminals with a greater overwhelming advantage. Criminals by definition disregard the law. Even with the most restrictive castrating laws, a criminal such as the theater shooter would have gone to Mexico to buy his equipment to complete his massacre plan.
Crazy people and semi-sane criminals can not be stopped or deterred by laws, or jail consequences. They can only be intercepted and subdued as they engage in criminal behavior.
You can chose to have one paid government armed security guard staff for every four unarmed citizens to protect them from the one-in-a-million crazy shooter, or get out of the way, and allow law abiding citizens from protecting themselves and their family.
Sane people and law abiding citizens, weigh the consequences, debate right and wrong, morality versus legality. Insane people and criminals are callous and go straight to implementing the crime.
In Texas, the clock tower shooter in the 60s, most on campus were carrying and returned fire immediately – neutralizing the threat right away.
For the record, a restrictive law, pepper spray, or a pocket knife could not have stopped the theater shooter. Only a trainer law abiding citizen (hired security guard, police, or civilian) carrying a handgun could have intercepted. Similar to the airplane Marshall.