GUN CONTROL
People should be held responsible for actions
The recent public shootings were a tragedy and, unfortunately, it has renewed the irrational thinking about gun control. Prohibit guns and stop all shooting. Did making drugs illegal stop drug problems?
If people aren’t responsible for the shootings and the gun is, then cars must be responsible for all crashes and fatalities, and we should do away with cars. Prohibit or make illegal anything you want and all you do is establish a black market for the product and it leads to higher prices and more crime because those criminals who want the product choose to steal from those who don’t.
Our society has become a society of bleeding hearts where nobody wants to say a critical word to anyone or wants to require people to be responsible for their own actions. America’s moral decay has led to a decline in family values and has created many problems that manifest themselves in crimes against nature and society.
Until punishment fits the severity of the crime, there will be no improvement. I feel sorry for the parents, grandparents and friends of all affected by the shootings but the shooter perpetrated the crime; the guns could not commit the crimes by themselves.
- STEVE HOLLAND, Boise
Don’t count on the feds to solve the problem
Those who, as a result of recent shootings in Connecticut and elsewhere, would allow the grasping hand of the federal government to shred another piece of the Bill of Rights in exchange for vague guarantees that these events “will never happen again” should consider the following: What makes you think Washington, D.C., is capable of delivering on those promises, given its demonstrated incompetence in so many other arenas?
A few examples: 1. The federal prison system cannot prevent riots, rape and drug use within its institutions despite theoretically unlimited control; 2. Congress is unwilling/unable to follow the Constitution’s mandate to secure the borders; 3. The State Department is arming one faction of al-Qaida in Syria while our military is fighting another in Afghanistan.
Ronald Reagan’s conviction that “the federal government is the problem, not the solution” is again being reaffirmed. Just as the Justice Department’s illegal “Fast and Furious” gun-running project is responsible for untold murders in Mexico, the federal policy of gun-free school zones allowed the Newtown shooter to execute his plan unmolested. Do not be fooled into thinking Washington has the answer.
- MICHAEL HUEBSCHMANN, Meridian
Look at the culture, not the weapons
In our rush to solve the violence problem, we will focus on gun control. The problem is not 100 percent the weapon, but the culture of violence that prevails.
Next time you buy a movie, just “count” the number of productions that show someone holding a gun and solving all their problems by shooting.
Next, visit the video game department and check out the same. It will astound you how much violence is produced. Mindless hours killing, shooting and solving all our problems with a gun. You can be a hero if you kill all the bad guys (and girls) with a gun.
Let’s find a way to tax movies and games that depict death as the answer. Let the tax money go toward mental health programs.
- KIP MOGGRIDGE, Boise
Say ‘no more’ to guns
How many catastrophes is it going to take before our eyes are opened?
Until we make guns illegal, we will continue to see innocent children and adults killed with no regard for human life. Children kill children playing with guns in their homes; people with grudges kill people; criminals kill people. It never ends. When are we going to stand up and say no more guns?
In response to the question, How can God allow (these things) to happen? Billy Graham’s daughter replied: “God is saddened by this, just as we are. But for years, we have been telling God to get out of our schools, get out of our government, get out of our lives. Being the gentleman that He is, I believe He is calmly backing out. How can we expect God to bless us if we demand that He leave us alone?”
Living by the Ten Commandments and treating our neighbor as we would be treated might get us started on becoming a God-fearing nation. It might be our only hope. Try it — you might like it.
And now recreational pot is being legalized. God help our country!
- VIRGINIA ROSE, Boise
Liberals at it again
OhMyGawd, empty liberal heads are seizing the tragedy in Connecticut to once again disarm Americans and prevent us from protecting our children in schools. Chicago’s own Obama will be leading the charge against guns, advocating Americans who abhor these assaults on our citizens —Chicago, a city that has had the most violence with the strictest gun control laws in the universe.
I, for one, and many I know, will now go buy more guns, more ammo and more powerful weapons so if by chance we witness one of these events, we can simply pull out our weapon and eliminate the vermin perpetrating these kinds of assaults on Americans, just like we did when I was in Vietnam.
The morose liberal mindset will once again tell us the same old story of how guns kill people. Yes they do, but I’ve yet to know of one single death caused by a gun without a human pulling the trigger.
The mostly male enemy is on our streets, in our cities and know that schools full of anti-gun liberal teachers would never protect themselves with guns, so now the schools are being assaulted. Arm teachers and school security and watch the violence end. Immediately!
- DANO SAVINO, Kuna
Look at the facts
Every time a drunk driver kills, I have noted no new laws to ban the car. Every time a child drowns, I see no effort to ban home swimming pools. Just fact. Yet more die of these two causes than firearms every year.
Another fact: To own an assault rifle requires an FBI background check that takes from five to seven months, and a $200 tax, per gun.
What the media reports on is not accurate. What they say is an assault rifle is, in fact, a lower-functioning “look-alike.”
I have taught gun safety to all who wanted to learn. Competition in regional and national events have given me years of pleasure. These look-alike guns are used in competition and, in a suitable caliber, are used in hunting. Making a new law, using responsible gun owners as scapegoats, is a way to get money from lobbyist funding.
The media has a part in this. They use uninformed hysteria to shape an urgency to read their “stuff” or to tune in. It makes them money! There were a number of laws broken in each case here. The laws didn’t save anyone. Mexico has more “anti-gun” laws than we do. Do the drug guys care?
- RICHARD SEEGMILLER, Meridian
Focus on gun safety
The events that have taken place at Columbine and Sandy Hook are very serious and unfortunate occurrences. I, along with everyone in the community, is mourning for the loss that so many victims and families have suffered. A lot of people at this point are afraid of guns, and wish that gun rights would be abolished or minimized, but I don’t believe that’s the answer to our problem. The answer is to educate the people. Deaths caused by automobile accidents are only slightly higher than deaths caused by firearms. Why, then, are people required to take a class, get licensed and be a certain age for driving cars but not guns?
We all have a constitutional right to hold guns, but we also have a responsibility to use them safely and have knowledge on how to use them before we purchase one. Taking away guns is not the answer because in that case, criminals will obtain them illegally and innocent people will be left unprotected. Installing mandatory gun safety classes and instruction, however, will allow everyone to properly protect themselves if they so desire.
- LAUREN MADISON, Boise
GOOD AND EVIL
Society pays a price by rejecting God
We can’t build fortresses strong enough to keep evil out. This is not just a physical battle; this is a spiritual war. And this reveals why there is an increase of these terrible acts. Our society has systematically rejected God by rejecting his standards of morality. Morality hasn’t been banned in America, but immorality has been legalized and promoted. Its prevalence has weakened and eliminated the fear of God from public life. Proverbs 8:13 says, “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil.” It’s now politically incorrect to hate evil in this country. This moral vacuum allows and encourages demonic activity. And the media make them famous, encouraging those with likemindedness to commit even a more heinous act of violence so they can have their moment of fame.
- CHUCK CAHOON, Meridian
