I am extremely upset over Democrat moves they label as “gun safety” regulations and laws that have minimal or NO effect on the killing of American children.
Why do voters not ask: “Would this proposed legislation have prevented the Columbine event or the Sandy Hook shooting or the Parkland school shooting or the Colorado theater shooting?” The rhetoric, laws and regulations being argued about today would have prevented none of these massacres.
People who do crazy things with firearms do not care one iota about any law now on the books or any being proposed.
How do people not recognize that every mass shooting in the USA but one since 1992 has occurred in a supposed “gun free zone”. The perpetrators obtained firearms legally (passing background checks), bought them illegally, stole them from someone else, or possessed them illegally at the time of the shooting.
Laws do not affect the behavior of those who have decided to act illegally.
I am a retired Board Certified pediatrician with 35 grandkids and 5 great-grandkids, and I care enormously about the safety of all of those children, as well as the children of all Americans. It is very clear to me that the ONLY way my family members will be safe in any school, shop or restaurant is for someone there to be armed and to stop attackers before they damage the lives and well-being of those in that place.
It’s not rocket science to know that when seconds count, law enforcement is minutes away.
I learned many years ago to evaluate medical literature. The recent “study” reported by the American Academy of Pediatrics should have embarrassed those who authored it as well as those who allowed it to be published. It is stacked with “statistics” that are intended to mislead and misinform the general public. It should be regarded only as a political statement by a group of supposed professionals intending to promote an agenda that is not based on facts.
None of those who desire to disarm American citizens and neuter the Second Amendment EVER talk about the millions of times every year that firearm owners stop violent criminal events. News outlets are not interest in reporting that “Nancy Williams was not beaten and robbed today because she outgunned her assailant.” The great number of defensive uses of firearms is reported in unpublished work by the Centers for Disease Control in 1996-98 that is ignored by all those who are intent on disarming Americans
It is unfortunate that most people who want to ban modern semi-automatic weapons have no clue that the main difference between those and “Dad’s hunting rifle” is appearance. I am confident that many of those seeking restrictions in the name of “gun safety” have no idea about the differences between a revolver and a semiautomatic pistol, between a lever action and a semiautomatic rifle, or between a semiautomatic rifle and a machine gun.
I also wonder at how the world’s memory has faded about what occurred in Germany before Adolf Hitler began slaughtering millions of people. The Weimar Republic required gun registration, and Hitler outlawed citizen ownership before he began his mass killing rampage. He said “The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subjugated races to possess arms.”
Not only does the Second Amendment protect our right to the means with which to protect ourselves from criminals and tyrants, without it the First Amendment codifying the right to public dissent has not a leg to stand on!
Any proposed “public gun safety” legislation needs to ensure that people can protect themselves and each other from attackers, whether they use firearms or other weapons. The proposals currently being promoted will have affect only law-abiding citizens who choose to be armed for good reasons, including to protect themselves and others from those to whom gun control laws are meaningless.
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—Cris McBride, M.D. is retired from a busy practice in rural Arizona. He purchased his first firearm at age 11 from a Sears catalog for $12. Dr. McBride is adamant about shooting for fun and self defense, and to prevent a tyrannical government from taking away our God-given rights.