In light of the latest killings in Santa Barbara, is it not time to back away from the "Guns for
everybody and everybody with a gun" policy of the NRA. True, the Constitution says that the
government shall make no laws limiting the rights of its citizens to bear arms. However, that part of
the Constitution was written in a time when dictatorial kings were remembered and the Revolutionary War
was fresh in everyone’s memory. Also, the arms involved were black powder muskets – and pistols if one
was rich enough. The argument that weapons of mass destruction (semi-automatic pistols and AK47s for
example) are necessary for protection is false. If the government wants to get you, it will not matter
what your armamentarium – remember Ruby Ridge and Waco? How about the Whiskey Rebellion?
People want protection from home invasion and think that such weapons will keep them safe, but more
people die from those weapons used for other purposes than are protected by those same weapons in event
of home invasion. Your best protection from home invasion is probably a good alarm system and a dog. And
if you want to hunt, why not be a really skilled hunter and use a bow and arrows, as the Indians did.
Really, the people who support unrestricted gun possession are simply expressing their addiction to the
pleasure power entailed in "packing heat." How many people have to die because gun owners get
off on "packing heat?"
I guess that limiting gun possession to one’s home might be a reasonable compromise, as long as the gun
owner is willing to risk the fact that some innocent victim is more likely to die than is some home
invader. But that would not have stopped the Santa Barbara killings. Nor did it stop a Texas woman,
whose case was reported on Forensic Files on TV, from being killed with her own gun. (I know, three of
the Santa Barbara killings were done with a knife.) And whose bright idea was it to allow guns in bars?
That has to go down as one of the most idiotic ideas of all times.
And why would BG residents want to take guns to the city parks? BG city council should put a stop to this
insanity.
William E. Feeman, Jr., M.D.
Bowling Green
