Get tough on crime, not on gun owners

I have read all the letters people have sent in making known their opinions about guns in America. Some of those letters have some merit, and some don't make any sense at all. I've listened to a lot of politicians talking about what they think should be done, but none of the letters and certainly none of the politicians have really come up with any real solutions to the problem.

First off, the problem is obviously not guns. It is not the gun control laws we already have in place, or any lack of. The true problem is the people who violate the gun control laws already in place. And I believe that problem is caused only by our judges and lawyers who would rather play their silly courtroom games than seek justice. Of course, this philosophy of our court system is the problem in more areas than just guns, like DUIs and DWPs, drugs, and others where offenders, it seems, go virtually unpunished. Maybe it is time we hold judges and lawyers responsible for the court system the have created which is ineffective in reducing crime.

It is time for our courts to start punishing those who violate the law, instead of making more gun laws that our system has already proved will be violated by those who don't obey the law in the first place. Instead of always punishing the law-abiding citizen in America by making another control law that he or she will obey, it is time to reward these same citizens by getting those who refuse to obey the law out of society. If we need another gun law, perhaps it should be a law forbidding any lawyer or judge form allowing a gun law violation charge from being pled out in the court system like so many are even here in Kootenai County, and maybe one requiring the minimum punishment required for violation of any gun control law where an innocent citizen is injured to be life in prison without any possibility of parole or the death sentence - even for the first offense since it seems that most people who violate any law will violate it again.

Somebody said that there are over 8,000 people killed by guns in America every year. Well, first off, I've never heard of a gun killing anyone. I've never even seen a gun load itself. So it would be more accurate to say that over 8,000 people kill somebody with a gun each year in America. Just like so many people each year kill somebody with a car whether they have been drinking or not, and so many people die each year because a medical professional made a mistake, or how many people kill themselves each year by any of many methods. The list can go on and on, but the important thing here is not all the different ways people are killed each year, but how they are killed.

It is time we law-abiding citizens take America back. It is time we voters realize that we are not to be controlled by those we elect. We must remember that we hired them to do a job for us, and if they will not do the job we hired them for, we should fire them like any other employer would. And keep in mind, judges are elected also. What a great country America could be if employers (voters) would be more careful about who they hire, and like any good employer interested in operating a successful business, fire those who don't do a good job and hire someone who will.

Keep in mind, the president signed 23 executive orders to control guns - not to control those who abuse guns. These are laws based on one person's feelings which were not subject to due process. These are laws more like laws that a king or dictator might create for his subjects that the people have no say in. And it appears he might be trying to make gun ownership a form of mental illness with some of his executive orders. At the rate things are going, it won't be long before the law-abiding gun owner may have to violate some law or laws to keep his gun because our judges refuse to punish the guilty, and the government condones it.

John Stone is a U.S. Navy veteran and a Coeur d'Alene resident - and not the same John Stone of Riverstone fame.