Our Voices for Dec. 15, 2012

Time to end easy access to guns

OK, I’m going to say it: As the bodies of innocent people continue to pile up and spill out onto the streets, someone is going to have to say it’s time to make it more difficult for the lunatics to get guns.

Once you say that, the folks who preach the right to bear arms are going to say their rights are being threatened because the Second Amendment allows them the right to march into a gun store to purchase and walk out with an M1 A1 Abrams tank if they so desire.

They will say guns don’t kill people, people kill people. Then they will say, “You can’t ban guns because people kill people with knives, spoons, arrows and paint brushes. You can’t ban those things.”

Honestly, I have not seen many mass slayings caused by arrows and knives. I think the dozens of people killed Friday in Newton, Conn., would have had a fighting chance to survive if they had been attacked by a knife-wielding assailant or someone with arrows.

The truth is there are not many people clamoring to stop people from having the right to bear arms. Look, if you want a Gatling gun, I’m all for it. But I think someone should check out your background before you walk out of the store or weapons show.

It shouldn’t be easier to keep a gun than a Happy Meal. According to an ABC-TV news report earlier his year, statistics from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives show there are some 129,817 federally licensed firearms dealers in the United States. There are just over 14,000 McDonald’s restaurants in the country. “I’ll have a cup of armor piercing bullets with shake, thank you.”

You expect the argument from the National Rifle Association and others that no one should stop them from getting the guns much like you get popcorn at the movies. Now, these same people will order an item from an online business and will be willing to wait days for a single-shot coffee maker. So, why the hang up about waiting a day or two to get a killing machine like a semi-automatic rifle?

Some sort of control on who should be able to get weapons is just good sense. I don’t want to hear the refrain that the government is coming to take my gun away nonsense. Keep your guns. Get a Stealth Bomber, some grenades and a surface-to-air missile.

But the bottom line is, until we get some control over weapons free-for-all, we will continue to have mass funerals and unbelievable tragedies like the one we had yesterday and across the country in the past couple years.

There has to be some sensible approach to dealing with the problem that continues to grow. While folks complain bitterly about gay marriage and the legalization of marijuana, the unbridled health hazard of unfettered gun ownership is resulting in deaths and maiming.

The frustrating truth of the matter is that no single or collection of laws will stop all gun violence. But something has to be done and done quickly.

Ed Pratt is a former Advocate editor. He is assistant for media relations to the chancellor of Southern University. His email address is [e-mail].

Comments

1) Comment by Whatnow - 18/12/2012

DMJ, you mean the kind of responsibility of getting pregnant when you don't want a baby and then killing it before birth? Or the responsibility of having kids and expecting others to pay for them? That monster could have killed in so many ways, so don't blame it on the guns. They didn't walk into that school on their own and they don't shoot by themselves.

2) Comment by DMJ - 17/12/2012

And just because we have a right doesn't mean there can't be restrictions on that right. Take Freedom of Speech... we all have it, but none of us can commit perjury, threaten someone, incite a riot, engage in espionage or treason, etc. We, as people with brains, put limits on certain rights when it comes to public safety. We can do it with Freedom of Speech, but not with the Right to Bear Arms?? That makes no sense to me. This debate is insane. We talk about containing mentall illness as if doing so would be easier than creating some gun restrictions. But hey...all you good gun-totin' patriots can relax. We won't get meaningful gun control. And this will happen again. And you'll abdicate responsibility once more. And we'll talk about but not implement gun control.....and you'll win again....and another shooting will happen... Anyone think I'm wrong?

3) Comment by DMJ - 17/12/2012

Bighug, according to the 2nd Amendment, the right to bear arms is for maintaining a well-regulated militia? Are you in a militia? Is it well-regulated?

4) Comment by Bighug - 17/12/2012

Yes, those pesky "folks who preach the right to bear arms are going to say their rights are being threatened." Doesn't it really irritate you when people expect their rights as designated in the U.S. Constitution to be granted? What's next? The separation of church and state? Freedom from unreasonable searches? If we allow them the rights of the 2nd Amendment, pretty soon they will expect to have all their Constitutional rights granted.

5) Comment by Whatnow - 16/12/2012

Hmmmm, CNN didn't mention this part of a story.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BuLgO4wo4xI

6) Comment by tradewinns - 16/12/2012

the latest reports show the .223 was used and not left in the car as previously reported. my apologies for using inaccurate information in my arguments.

7) Comment by Attila - 15/12/2012

When, and IF, there are tighter regulations concerning a persons mental capacity in order to purchase a firearm, people like Twinkie will be the first to jump up and say that we are violating the persons civil rights by making such inquiries. Just more proof that if it weren't for double standards, liberals would have no standards at all.

8) Comment by tradewinns - 15/12/2012

what happened is horrible, please stop trying to push YOUR personal agendas on the premise that it will stop violence. it won't. there was a comment that the president stated he was committed to assualt rifles ban, the shooter did have a bushmaser .223, which he left in the car. assualt rifles had nothing to do with the massacre at the school. go and pray for the children at the school, all of them could use your prayers or at least you will feel better. and stop politicing at this time of tragedy.

9) Comment by gary - 15/12/2012

twinkie1cat - excellent comment - you do know that talking about any type of gun control in this fine state we live - is well like that song by Jerry Jeff Walker - weeweeing in the wind -( I cleaned up the weeweeing part) - anyho, that is the same comment that my wife made yesterday - need to start arming those pre k through 4 grade. I am sure one of our fine state senators or reps will introduce this idea in the next session - after all we can carry at our tail gating parties at LSU and SOUTHERN - why not startem' when they are 5.

10) Comment by Whatnow - 15/12/2012

twinkie1cat, I'm guessing if the guy's mother was teacher, she may have been a democrat. I have plenty of friends with guns like those who are democrats. Heck, my father had guns like those and he was a democrat. He was a collector. But, he never used them except at the firing range. I guess this Mom's guns just went to that school on their own and started shooting on their own. I guess all the U.S. arsenal, like drones from the military just find targets and load themselves to kill the innocent, right? I guess when a drunk driver kills innocent people we should take away all cars, right? I mean, the car must have driven it self? Sure, make the laws tougher as far as owning these type of guns, but the right to bear arms is the law. Maybe the mom should have been more careful and kept those weapons under lock and key with a disturbed son in the house. Plus, the criminals will always find a way to get these type of weapons through theft or other criminals. I'm sure they don't go through screenings or registration.

11) Comment by twinkie1cat - 15/12/2012

Couldn't this have all been avoided if the little dead kindergarteners had received gun training and a personal derringer the first week of school? After all, your own personal gun should be a rite of passage! ABCs and rifle training. That's what you should learn in kindergarten..... You see, guns don't kill people! Conservatives and other gun freaks think about those 20 totally innocent (except of course to anyone from Westboro Baptist Church) little children and the 6 adults who had dedicated their lives to their education next time you want to whine about our right to bear arms. Picture those adorable little gap toothed babies who still believed in Santa. Remember what their siblings and parents will remember about Christmas next year and for decades to come. He didn't do it with a deer rifle, y'all! He had not just come from the camp. Assault weapons belong only in the hands of law enforcement, and even then, only if they have had a quality psychological assessment and special training.

12) Comment by Whatnow - 15/12/2012

tradewinns, I'm glad you brought the fact that the mother was the owner of the guns. She did have a thorough background check, drug test and fingerprinting done prior to hire as most teachers do. When the liberal mayors of the strictest gun law cities of New York and Chicago figure out how to stop the killings by guns in their cities, then maybe I'll listen. (http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/shot_at_empire_state_building_Ycd08ZMPwDQf7r8qSKX3yO) (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-shootings-chicago-violence-august-23-august-24-violence-gunfire-20120823,0,49779.story)

13) Comment by tradewinns - 15/12/2012

the guns in question were legally owned by the shooter's mother. i'm fairly sure she would have passed any background check so your argument is null and void in this case i.e. "unbridled health hazard of unfettered gun ownership is resulting in deaths and maiming". nothing about gun ownership would have changed this horrible event, unless all firearms are seized and total ownership banned and enforced. then the only gun owners will be criminals.

14) Comment by Being_Stupid - 15/12/2012

We should also outlaw all video games, Halo 4, Movies like Batman, Ban Movie theaters, Abolish Malls, and TV too. Stop Hollywood from making any movie or form of entertainment that depicts the usage of guns in a violent way. We should also ban other weapons like knives, numb-chucks, swords, forks, and spoons.

15) Comment by [e-mail] - 15/12/2012

Predictable-"it's the guns! The guns did it! No mention of the pampered nut kid full of some trumped up mysterious rage who went on the murder of children rampage. In my opinion, Pratt is just much too anxious to use such a tragedy to promote his leftist ideals; he even managed to get in a plug for gay marriage and marijuana use as though opposing those two abominations is somehow linked to opposing government regulations on firearm ownership.

16) Comment by Elderly Man - 15/12/2012

Our refusal to control firearms in any reasonable way remains beyond comprehension and moral justification. I have owned two high-end handguns and a shotgun. I never got around to buying any ammonium for them. I realised that I had no plausible use for any of them. I feel no loss by having gotten rid of my arsenal. I am glad that I never used it against anyone. There are no reasons why we ought not limit the number, power, and character of legal firearms, stop mentally ill and criminal people from having them at all, and holding manufacturers accountable for the use of their products.

17) Comment by gary - 15/12/2012

Ed, I agree - this horrible action will not stop the defenders of automatic weapons. I'm sure the NRA will suggest K-12 students be allowed to carry concealed weapons to their classes - of course our state leaders would try to pass a law to do just that.