Editorial response

The last issue of the Catholic paper from Madison had an editorial promoting yet another assault weapons ban to cure the recent rash of shootings. My reply:

This is in response to Mr. Christopher White's editorial in the November 23rd issue.

One thing that seems lost in all the recent discussion of violence in America these days is that the problem is not inanimate objects like guns - it is the human being that makes a decision to use these objects to harm others. It may be trite, but true - guns don't kill people, people kill people - and the proper response to an armed criminal is an appropriately armed private citizen on the spot - not a call to 911 and a long wait for the police to arrive and draw chalk outlines around the victims.

The perpetrators of all the recent shooting incidents violated numerous existing laws. For instance, the perpetrator in the Texas church shooting was by Federal law not allowed to possess any firearm. He passed a background check because the Air Force neglected to notify the FBI of his criminal conviction, and the fact that he lied on the Federal gun purchase record when he stated that he was not dishonorably discharged. Only the presence of an armed citizen - armed with one of those scary black "assault" rifles was able to bring the murders to a halt by shooting the bad guy. If an "assault rifle" ban had been in place before that citizen bought his rifle, more people could have been killed.

Our Constitution has the Second Amendment in place to allow citizens access to weapons similar to those used by the military for the protection of themselves and their families and communities.

Criminals and the mentally unstable will be with us always. New laws will not stop them, but certainly will deny good people access to those defensive tools.

One way to address the issue would be for the media to refrain from glamorizing the shooter with unending coverage on national TV. If the perpetrators know they won't be headline news no matter what atrocity they commit, they might think twice about going through with the act. At least the good citizens of America will still have the option of self defense if they need it.

Chuck Kuecker