A brilliant solution?
Well, folks, I don’t know about you, but I think the NRA has it exactly right. There is no better way to protect our children than to create gun zones and install armed guards at elementary schools. What a brilliant solution. More people with guns to protect our children from people with guns.
Hey, I just had a troubling thought: My children will still be without gun protection at movie theaters, malls and churches, not to mention my home — I don’t mind staying up most of the night with my AR-15 semi-automatic beside me, but I will eventually need to get a couple of hours sleep and that means no one with a gun will be guarding my children. That ain’t gonna work.
Call me paranoid, but I can’t risk a wacko somehow getting his hands on one of the 240 million guns stashed safely throughout our country.
Guess I will have to bite the bullet, so to speak, and hire full-time, armed guards to protect my kids 24/7.
It’s the only safe thing to do, far more safer than, say, amending our Second Amendment, or God forbid, reducing somehow the sale of guns.
Yours for gun zones everywhere ....
MIKE CRAMER, Nampa
Look at other problems
My heart goes out to the school shooting victims in Connecticut. But typical of the anti-gun people in our government and society, they shamelessly use it as propaganda to further their agendas.
A serious and similar problems exists in our society and it is disregarded. That problem is drunk driving and its serious consequences.
People go out, drink and get behind the wheel without regard to the consequences of their flawed actions. They knowingly drive disregarding the fact that their privileges are suspended or revoked. They do so knowing that their actions cause serious accidents and death as a result of their drunken decisions. Getting caught with a suspended license is of no use as they still do this. It happens here with repeat offenders getting caught time after time.
Are we to ban cars due to the problems of repeat offenders? No. Enforce the many laws we already have and jail the offenders. The same applies to the criminal elements in society that are not supposed to have weapons. Pursuit of law-abiding citizens is not the solution. Removing the criminal element with mental problems from society would keep the American public safe.
MARTIN DAVIS, Boise
NRA runs the country
I have felt something was wrong with our government for years. Now it has become very apparent that the NRA, which has taken the place of the Mafia, is now running our country.
The reason the Republicans have changed so much and are refusing to work with our president on the important things that government is supposed to take care of is because the people voting for the needs of this country are bought and paid for. It’s all about the money. All they can get their hands on to run for office to help out the NRA.
It’s big business. What a shame. The double-dealing and lies. You all know good and well that at the time the Constitution was written it wasn’t meant to cover military artillery. Soon you guys will come up with some reason to have a bazooka.
The blood of the children and all people being shot in this country is on the hands of the people that refuse to admit the laws need to be fixed to match the times.
A fortress being built in Idaho, how embarrassing is that?
TRUDY DAY, Boise
Promises broken
There’s much in the news about gun control suggesting that this would curb mass murders. Nothing is ever mentioned about the fact that we are promised a government to promote freedom, justice and equality under God originally intended by getting our information from the Bible. Instead, we have a government promoting slavery, injustice and inequality under capitalism. People anxious for power and capital are satisfied to receive financial support from the gun lobby, as well as other violence promoting businesses, promising a consideration for their business operations if elected.
The promise of freedom from violence is not on their agenda. The need people have to beg for jobs so that they can survive supports the elected officials’ need to enslave people. The massive use businesses have to hire people to make the business leaders wealthy while giving token amounts of money to their employees to make this happen describes the inequality that exists.
Has anyone in responsible government positions heard anything about freedom, justice and equality under God? Do any of them believe in the existence of God especially as He represented himself in the perfect person of Jesus Christ?
CECILIA B. LANGLAND, Boise
Not at the Statehouse
Guns in our Statehouse? Really? And with ammunition? This is wrong on so many levels.
JAN LANG, Boise
Think past wants
I find it interesting, indeed telling, that most of the gun control discussions center on “me” issues. This can not be a me/I issue. We, the people, the guardians of our children’s future have to come together and own up to our shared responsibilities. It is up to us, not me. We are the answer. “I” is just an opinion, a feeling, a belief. Solutions only come from us, a collective for the greater good.
President Reagan was surrounded by at least eight armed security officers when he was shot. And please remember that under duress, well-trained police officers are only accurate one-third of the time with their guns. That is two unaccounted for bullets for every hit. Now imagine a frightened teacher trying to comfort and protect her charges outshooting a trained officer. These are not solutions they are pipe dreams. If larger numbers of guns make us safer we should be the safest country in the world by now.
We must think past our selfish wants and work together for the betterment of our society and the safety of our children and grandchildren.
DALLAS BAIRD, Boise
It’s in the card
If everyone that wanted to buy a gun or ammunition was checked out to make sure they were not a felon, there should be a place where you could go, get checked out and receive a card similar to a credit card with a bar code on it and your picture. You could take this card to any gun dealer, gun show, etc. and they would scan your ID card and you could get immediate approval. You could not buy guns or ammunition unless you had this card. Of course, if you were a felon you couldn’t get the card anyway.
JIM GAVETT, Kuna
Preserve our rights
My granddad was Russian and he sacrificed greatly to come to the U.S. to give his children freedom. I can not understand why people don’t write their representatives and president and let them know we disapprove of the destruction of the Second Amendment.
We need to preserve our Second Amendment rights. We are already so much like communist Russia that it scares me and frightens me. What frightens me the most is the new and improved words they use now to candy coat what they are really doing to us. If Americans are too brainwashed, too stupid, too busy, too drugged up, too desensitized and too “Not in the mood to give a crap,” then I guess they get to be serfs and peasants again and history will have repeated itself.
It is not right that my children go to school unprotected yet Obama’s kids are guarded like gold. I should maintain the right to protect my home and children from medicated wackos. I shouldn’t be a criminal to go buy a semi-automatic weapon. I never shot or even threatened to shoot anyone. If Americans don’t do something then they deserve to become ignorant peasants again.
MELANIE HESSLER, Boise
Times have changed
When the Founding Fathers wrote the Second Amendment to the Constitution, guns were single shot muzzle-loading which enabled the shooter to fire about every two minutes. They never envisioned a rifle that would fire 60 rounds per minute. People don’t have a problem with gun ownership. It’s assault weapons that have no real purpose other than killing a lot a people rather quickly. Citizens aren’t allowed to keep hand grenades in their nightstands, which are less lethal than large magazine assault rifles. I own firearms that I keep secured, the ammo elsewhere, which insures no angry person can quickly access all that’s needed to shoot the weapons.
The NRA is trying to hide behind the Second Amendment, selling fear that all guns will be confiscated from citizens. Their real aim is protecting makers of assault weapons. Their principle source of revenue is from the gun manufacturer and spend those millions to ensure legislation that supports their cause.
No wonder Congress is rated so poorly. For once, they must listen to the people and be held accountable to the voters in 2014. The gun lobby (NRA) must not be allowed to intimidate or dilute the work that needs doing.
ROCKY ROTHARMEL, Boise
NRA’s profit model
The recent NRA video plumbs new depths in their depraved campaign to put a handgun in every pocket and an assault weapon on every shoulder.
Exploiting the law that mandates protection for Mr. Obama’s family, they suggest that somehow his effort to slow the arms race created by arms manufacturers shows a disregard for the nation’s children.
What does it say for our nation that we are debating putting armed guards in our classrooms? What is next, vigilantes riding shotgun on school buses and deputized yahoos strutting around our shopping malls?
The NRA has created a business model that profits from mass murder. How much longer will we allow these profiteers to wrap themselves in our flag and exploit our fears in the name of patriotism?
DENNIS SCHRECONGOST, Boise
