The slaughter of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook elementary in Newtown, Conn. again has raised calls for tougher restrictions on firearms.
It’s sad it takes such tragedies to get those in positions to enact change to speak up about their beliefs, such as U.S. President Barack Obama – who now, in his second term, claims to have long backed reinstating a ban on assault weapons.
It’s even sadder still that such mass killings continue to occur, and unpalatable to listen, in their wake, to gun supporters in the U.S. spout off about the right to bear arms.
It is illogical, their line that guns don’t kill people – people kill people. Bullets kill people.
More unsound is the suggestion by some that it would be a good idea to arm school administrators or teachers.
Let the police serve and protect. Let our educators do what they do best – teach.
Let’s be clear, the problem is guns; more specifically, guns in the wrong hands – criminals and those with mental illness, or just drunk or disturbed. They can do much harm, and unfortunately guns allow them to do so in quick, cowardly and devastating ways.
In 2009, according to GunPolicy.org, there were more than 9,000 gun homicides in the U.S. – the highest rate in the world, in a country where almost nine out of 10 people own a gun.
Canada had the third most gun homicides that year, behind Italy, with 176.
Make no mistake, the issue is guns, not culture.
Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein plans to introduce legislation early in the new year that would include a ban against new assault weapons, re-introducing one that was allowed to expire in 2004.
Democratic Senator Frank Lautenberg also wants to reintroduce legislation to ban the sale of large capacity ammunition magazines.
There should be no debate about this.
No one needs a semi-automatic rifle to kill a deer.
Guns are not toys, something used to pass time, shooting at paper targets or tin cans, or children.
From Columbine to Virginia Tech to Sandy Hook, we’ve seen the damage guns do.
It’s time to take them out of dangerous hands.
– The News
