Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Letter to my Senators and Congressman

I sent this off to my elected representatives. Feel free to plagiarize as you see fit.



The usual antigun media figures and politicians have used the wake of last week's tragic school shooting in Newton, CT to promote their anti-rights agenda. We do not need any more gun control in the US. No gun control measure has been been proven to reduce crime or make society safer.

Three things which will reduce the frequency and impact of mass shooting are:

1. Improve our mental health care system. If the perpetrators in any of the recent mass shooting over the past couple of decades could have received good treatment for their psychoses, odds are most if not all of them would never have gone on to kill anybody.

2. Stop creating victim disarmament zones. "Gun free zones" are a feel-good non-solution to violence. The only people who obey the prohibitions on guns in such places are the same people who won't commit murder any way. All these zones do is create safe hunting preserves for psycopaths.

3. More specifically than #2, we should encourage school faculty and staff to get training and carry firearms so that they can protect the children in their care. When Israel was faced with school shooting attacks by Arab terrorists, they didn't put up signs saying that no guns were allowed on the premises. They did the smart thing -- they trained school staff are armed them. School shootings dropped off to almost nothing.

Please don't cave in to the hysterical cries for more gun control from the mass media and the usual anti-gun politicians. We can take action to make our schools and society safer, but not by giving in to their demands.


3 comments:

Chaplain Tim said...

I sent something similar to my congress-critter yesterday. Waiting for a reply.

Don Armstrong said...

"No gun control measure has been been proven to reduce crime or make society safer."

Actually, that turns out not to be the case. As you know, Australia implented some quite Draconian "gun" control legislation and regulations after a similarly horrific mass murder. Very similar, as it happens - the criminal was mentally ill, there were laws in place which prevented him from owning or using firearms, and guess what? The criminal ignored the laws.

Most of the new laws had no effect except, of course, to victimise law-abiding shooters. Firearm crime had been trending upward because of increased population, increased immigration, cancellation of a prior policy to integrate immigrants into the community, and criminal activity by some of those immigrants. The laws had absolutely no effect - the trend line stayed EXACTLY the same. Upward, but no difference to the trend - still increasing at the same rate.

However, there was ONE part of the Australian laws which did have a positive effect. Firearms were rquired to be stored in an approved, locked firearm cabinet or safe, with ammunition stored under separate lock (normally a separate lockable compartment to the cabinet).
ACCIDENTAL DEATH OF CHILDREN DUE TO FIREARMS IMMEDIATELY DECREASED BY 80%.

That's the only good effect I've heard of firearm control laws having, but it is worth knowing about.

Don Armstrong.

James Koss said...

It is saddening to see that in an army and police controlled country such as Israel, even though many people after High School join the army and carry an M-16, still no one understands the value of having the right to own and carry arms.

There is an odd and awkward fake trust in the governmental forces, while most people suffer from them regularly. The fact is, that people who had never enjoyed the freedom of self-protection, are not aware of the real need it entails - and assume that it's better to let strangers in uniforms "protect" them.

Assaf Koss,
Professional Author & Web-Developer,
Check out my blog and books at: AssafKoss.blogspot.com