GUNS: Deal with real problems

I am writing in response to Jim Spurr’s letter entitled “Don’t let the NRA bully you.” I agree with his statement that this is a monumental problem. However he then he goes on to give the most simplistic solution—better gun purchase control so that “only the best among us own guns.” Who, pray tell, is going to decide who “the best among us” are? The government?

The Founding Fathers gave us the second amendment for a number of reasons. Two of them are deterring a tyrannical government and facilitating a natural right of self-defense. Both of these rights should be guarded carefully.

Then let us look at the consequences of the kind of gun control Mr. Spurr wants. Chicago has the toughest gun control laws in the nation. The city requires registration of firearms. Residents must complete a firearm safety class, pass a background check including fingerprinting and pay $100 fee. The murder rate in Chicago in 1012 was 500. I would submit that the good guys can’t get a gun and the bad guys have no problem disregarding the rules. By the way, according to a recent article, the number of multiple shooting victims in Europe over the last 10 years is about the same as the U.S., so this is not solely an American phenomenon.

One of the psychiatrists speaking on TV after the tragedy in Connecticut stated that people who perpetrate these kind of atrocities are usually cowards. That is why they go after soft targets. And they usually give up when faced with force. There was a shooting in an Oregon Mall before Christmas where a man started shooting randomly in the Clackamas Mall, (killing three people and injuring five) but when a young man pulled out a gun (he had a concealed permit) the shooter killed himself. The 22-year-old man had hesitated to shoot because he saw a movement behind the killer’s head and didn’t want to kill an innocent bystander. So, my answer to the question posed by Mr. Spurr, “ Does anyone really believe that an ordinary citizen, armed, in the most emotionally charged moment of their life, could effectively use a gun without being shot and killed themselves, or without harming an innocent person?” is yes, I do.

We all know that the real problem is much harder to fix than taking away our right to defend ourselves. Mental health is a huge and expensive problem to deal with, but we do need to face it and discuss it in order to come up with a plan. The breakdown in the family structure often leaves kids alienated and adrift. Drugs enter the picture. It’s very complex, but don’t let politicians, unable to deal with the depth and breadth of the problem, (or any complex problem, for that matter) take away your natural rights.

GWYNNETH ANDRUS

Coeur d’Alene