The recent mass murder at Sandy Hook has propelled gun control back to the forefront of political discussion. The Baltimore Sun has opined that “background checks … would help keep guns out of the hands of criminals and the dangerously insane” in its support of President Obama’s call for additional Federal gun control legislation. The CBG will discuss the President’s proposal at its breakfast meeting on Thursday, February 21. Is the President’s call for universal background checks, restrictions on the size of magazines, or banning the sale of assault weapons the best approach to reducing the possibility of mass murder? Are there better ways? What is your opinion?
The CBG meets for breakfast every Thursday at 7:30AM at the Holiday Inn Express in Chestertown.
At the end of the inevitable decline of centrally planned (aka socialist) economies, it becomes necessary for those in charge to take away the guns of their increasingly unhappy subjects. The immediate cause of our Revolution was the effort of the British army to seize the guns of the citizens of Concord, MA. The experience of our founders with oppression by the King’s bureaucrats was the reason that the very definition of freedom, including the right of citizen to own guns without limitation as to their background, the size of magazines or the type of handle, was enshrined in our Bill of Rights. While gun owning citizens are not effective against regular armies, the symbolism of infringing on their right to own guns is serious indeed.
It has been reported that there have been 61 mass killing in the US in the last 30 years. This amounts to two mass killings or about 10 deaths per year. This compares with roughly 61 deaths per year from lighting strikes or 33,000 deaths in automobile accidents. Is it an appropriate use of the huge amount of money necessary to register guns and control their sales considering the relatively small problem of mass killings? Are such efforts likely to be any more successful than our War on Drugs?
Notice that there are no calls for addressing the actual cause of the mass killings which is inadequate treatment of our mentally ill. There are millions of American who are disabled by serious mental illness. Of course, most of them are not mass murders and so get little attention from Obama or the rest of our politicians. But wouldn’t it be more appropriate to spend the money necessary to take away the right of ordinary citizens to own guns on improving the treatment of the mentally ill?
Allen Capel says
Finally, someone has the gumption to bring up the fact that automobiles and yes, even lightning kill more people than guns. In fact I even heard one statistic that places the number of those killed by automobiles to over 40,000 per year. While I know that will there never be legislation to outlaw the automobile, we really need to consider more deeply the cause of the so-called massacres. In almost every case so far these killings have been carried out by either mentally unstable or persons under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol. It seems that no one wants to rock the boat and curtail the activities of these potential assassins. A shining example is the incident of the kidnapping of a youngster in Alabama by a man who was previously known to display unstable characteristics well before the actual incident. His antisocial behavior was noticed several weeks not days or hours before the his action of kidnapping took place You can pass all the knee-jerk anti-gun laws you want and the criminal will still be well armed. I know that John Q Public doesn’t want to hear this, but it’s a fact. Instead of more anti-gun laws why not clean up television and the media as well as these latest electronic games. Some time ago they took Looney Tunes and Bugs Bunny off television because it was deemed too violent. These cartoons were replaced with such things as “Transformers, The Hulk,” and how many more. Then you have rap music with songs advocating killing of cops-just beautiful. Look at the television shows today where family morals are laughed at. Oh yeah, the media, TV news make sure it shows the most violent scenes possible to up the ratings and to sway people’s thinking. Why not direct some of that energy toward correcting society rather than wrecking it. While I’m not an overly religious person, I find nothing wrong with the 10 Commandments. I invite you all to take some thoughtful consideration to returning down that path. Respectfully.