Taking issue with "gun culture" blame

A letter in last week’s Opinion section blamed gun culture and the NRA for the horrid acts committed by individuals. The guns that are used in these acts are simply the tools that these evil, psychotic, deranged, and/or mentally ill people use to carry out their acts. The reasons for their actions will differ with each individual, but those blaming the NRA are just taking the popular, easy, and wrong route.

The letter mentioned that guns are the leading cause of homicide in the United States. If you could magically take away all guns, then the number-two cause of homicide would become the number-one cause. Are you going to keep banning everything that is number one on the list until the only thing we have left are rocks, sticks, and nerf balls? A recent article on the dailycaller.com mentioned that more people were killed by knives than by rifles in 2016. Handguns were number one. If you are blaming the weapons for the murders, then logic dictates that you have to do something about knives before you do something about rifles. As far as handguns go, Illinois and California have some of the toughest gun control laws in the country, and according to the FBI, 20 percent of the nation’s handgun murders were in these two states. Economist John Lott and the Crime Research Center headed a study of global mass shooting incidents from 2009-2015. While I agree that our numbers are too high, the United States was not even in the top ten of death rates measured per million population. The European Union had 27% more casualties from 2009-2015 per mass shooting incident than the United States, even though, on the whole, Europe has stricter laws and rules regarding owning firearms.

The letter also condemns the NRA for fighting against regulations that would prevent people from having access to automatic and semi-automatic weapons. Most citizens do not have access to automatic weapons. According to the National Firearms Act of 1934, it is illegal for any private citizen to own any fully-automatic weapons manufactured after May 19, 1986.

Yes, it is true that the NRA donates millions of dollars in the political arena. Millions of dollars are also donated to the other side of this issue. Pick your cause and donate or join as you see fit. The ability to make that choice can be filed under your first amendment rights, rights which are protected by the second amendment. The writer mentioned that she does not see the well regulated militia that is mentioned in the second amendment. This has been addressed by the Supreme Court and this militia is made up of you, me, and other citizens with regards to our natural right to self defense.

I also take issue with the part of the letter that condemns having God in schools and with the author telling us to make sure we know what we are talking about regarding the Constitution. I believe I addressed this in a previous letter, but I will again because apparently our schools aren’t teaching it correctly. The separation of church and state is NOT in the Constitution. The phrase comes from a letter to the Danbury Baptists from Thomas Jefferson in 1802. The first amendment states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” This is written to keep the government out of the church’s affairs, not to keep the church out of the government’s or states’ affairs. The Bill of Rights are written to limit the government, not the other way around. Do you know what is not in the Constitution? Anything mentioning that the government must provide schools and education. That is something left up to individual states and local communities. Those states and local communities should decide what is taught in their schools and whether they want God and religion in them, or not. The author of the letter says, “If you are going to lean heavily on the Constitution and your rights, then at least know what they are and know when you are violating them.” Every one of us should lean heavily on the Constitution; it’s the law of the land. As far as knowing what our rights are, don’t forget that the second amendment protects our right to bear arms. If you don’t like that, then you will need to amend the Constitution. There are a couple of ways to go about doing that, although they aren’t easy for good reason. Those who believe in a government of the people, by the people and for the people will fight tooth and nail to keep the second amendment.

While it is true that gun violence is committed by bad people with guns, there are many more good people with guns. Bad people also use other weapons, like knives, cars, and pressure-cooker bombs to cause mass casualties. Banning guns won’t stop violence with any of those weapons. You can pass all the laws you want restricting firearm ownership or even ban them all together, but it won’t stop criminals from getting their hands on one. All it will do is stop the ability of innocent, law-abiding citizens from defending themselves and their families. Since nothing is more precious than our children, why don’t we secure our schools same way we secure banks, office buildings, airports, and other government buildings?

While many of my views on the subject differ from hers, Ms. LaPlace should be commended for submitting her letter to the Opinion page. Since she mentions something about last year in eighth grade, I assume she is now in ninth grade. Seeing a ninth grader reading the Constitution and then writing a letter to the editor on it and current events is awesome. I encourage more of our youth to to become engaged in thoughtful discussion of current events and how we can improve our lives and the lives of others.

Chip Cathcart