Letter: More guns on more people a bad idea
The National Rifle Association, with the blessing of the gun industry, has operated as an organization similar to rolled pastries on steroids, flexing its muscle lobbying prowess to get legislation passed favorable to the industry.
The gun lobby believes that every one of us would be safer if we only carried a gun. Some advocate we should carry guns openly on our person. The NRA backs students carrying guns onto college campuses, patrons inside local bars and even for congregates wearing them inside our houses of worship while studying God’s holy word.
I know of no gun-control advocate who wants to take guns from hunters, thwart homeowners from defending themselves from possible home invasions or preclude marksmen from perfecting their skills. Where is the logic, though, behind civilian gun owners needing assault weapons with large-capacity ammunition magazines for self-defense or for hunting, along with enormous quantities of ammunition, such as the 6,000 rounds purchased by the Aurora shooter?
Why do we allow civilians to purchase body armor such as that worn by the Aurora, Colo., movie shooter? Body armor counteracts the NRA’s claim that we all would be safer if we carried guns on our person, only for us to learn later that shooters wear protective armor. Does this fact call for the rest of us to purchase body armor to wear with our concealed weapons?
The United States is the most violent developed nation on the face of the Earth because our gun laws are the most permissive. The NRA’s legislative initiatives for the omnipresence of guns as the answer for reducing gun violence in our culture is a myopic understanding of how to diminish gun violence in communities across our nation. More guns, in more hands, in more places, for more accessible use by more people is a prescription for more gun violence, not for less.
Where is the obligatory national debate in the midst of these sickening violent gun atrocities on the need to balance a citizen’s right to own a gun under the Second Amendment with the need to pass reasonable gun-control legislation for public safety? It is crucial for our legislative leaders to hold a national debate on this subject, for it is not going to go away.
Jerry W. Doyle
retired federal employee
Alexandria