Classes resumed Thursday for the students of Sandy Hook Elementary School for the first time since last month’s massacre in Newtown, where a gunman killed 20 first-graders and six.
Dear Paul B Readers,
I am the bearer of popular sentiments from the populace, and it is NOT very logical. Actually, it is quite frightening. First of all, I took my favorite (only) son, Sam, on his first cruise. He had a fun-filled seven days, while I had some very relaxing sun-filled days, but some frustratingly troubling evenings. As a lonely bachelor, I roamed the bars (and I am NOT a drinker,) in search of a thought provoking adversary to solve the worlds problems and concerns. Instead of solving any problems, I discovered that the problems are more massive and serious than I had envisioned. Guns are entrenched in Americana. I had to speak to a few dozen folks to learn that. I live in the land of Northwest Chicago. I know two peeps who own guns and I am not friendly with them. My twenty or so close friends have no guns, nor have the majority ever even fired a gun. We are middle class, and we trust our local police to protect our skins and our homes. In the South, in Texas, in Wyoming. Kansas City, Oklahoma and even Virginia….yep…guns can be found in every house. I know I must be living in a cave, because everyone OUTSIDE of my tiny little enclave own many guns, but I was shocked that these peeps STILL believe that guns are necessary and rightfully theirs to own, regardless of this Newtown massacre. When these children’s deaths became center stage, I broached this uncomfortable topic with these gunslingers and I was totally blown away (pun intended.) “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people,” and “that’s why we NEED guns, heck the teachers should have been packing.” I spoke to an auto-body shop owner (who seemed quite astute,) who bought two more guns the morning after Newtown. He, his wife, and both kids (aged 15 and 12,) have guns. He told me that he wanted to have a gun in each room of his house so he could “sleep better.” I sat there with clenched fists, dry mouth, and a mostly blank, expressionless face, while listening to these U.S. taxpayers. Am I missing something? I asked most of these gun-lovers if they could envision a world “without guns,” and they thought I was nuts.
CARDINAL BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
The Early American Argument for the Second Amendment
“Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined.”— Patrick Henry, in the Virginia ratification convention June 5, 1788, argued for the dual rights to arms and resistance to oppression
Second Amendment of the United States Constitution
The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution in the United States Bill of Rights protects the right of the people to keep and bear arms. The Second Amendment was adopted on December 15, 1791, along with the rest of the Bill of Rights. The Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess and carry firearms.Recently in Illinois …
On December 11, 2012, the Seventh Circuit ruled that the Second Amendment protected a right to keep and bear arms in public for self-defense, as an expansion of the Supreme Court’s decisions in Heller and McDonald, each of which referred only to such a right in the home. Based on this ruling, the court declared the Illinois ban on the concealed carrying of firearms to be unconstitutional. The court stayed this ruling for 180 days, so Illinois could enact replacement legislation. Currently, Illinois is the only state that doesn’t allow some sort of concealed carry statute for law-abiding citizens. Chicago, Illinois is currently the city in the United States with the highest murder rate.Week 1 January, 2013, Illinois State Senate President John Cullerton (D, Chicago) is behind a Senate committee formed to approve limits on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines, which according to the Illinois Rifle Associated would ban pump action shotguns, semiautomatic pistols and rifles, and 8-round antiques rifles like the M-1 Garand, the rifle used by U.S. troops in World War II. The session for Friday, January 4, 2012 was canceled, and the gun bill did not make it to the floor.
When a young man of 30 told me that he wants his 10-year-old daughter to be a marksman extraordinaire. with both pistol AND rifle skills, I just had to excuse myself. I am not a believer that more guns, or any guns are a solution. As long as people buy guns, leave them in clear sight of teens, kids or “peeps on the edge,” these guns will be in the hands of the unstable.. No gun….no problem. People are NOT responsible and CANNOT be allowed to purchase, collect and display semi-automatic weapons, pistols, rifles, Lugers, 357 Magnums, and the like. These guns always seem to fall into the hands of murderers. Those who legally own guns with their “permits,” often seem sane on Tuesday, and lose a job, a wife, a house, or become ill, and they can now “take out a schoolhouse of six and seven year olds.” I’m sorry kids, People AND their GUNS kill people…and the newest episode of mass violence is just the beginning. When will this stop? How many deaths will it take?
Paul B
ABOUT ASK PAUL B! … WRITE PAUL B! …
ASK PAUL B! usually appears on Thursday evenings, but occasionally appears on other days or times so the article might be introduced to new readers.
IMPORTANT LEGAL STUFF:
Advice is offered for general discussion. Any advice from a columnist or someone who has never actually met you is not guaranteed to be fit for your particular situation. While the advice might help send you in the right direction to find a solution to your problem, missing information or lack of specific dialogue might cause you harm, or delay a solution to your problem. Never use this advice as the sole replacement for advice from a physician, psychologist or other health professional or other professional. The information provided through any Arlingtoncardinal.com post or Ask Paul B! post is not a substitute for health, legal and other professional advice where specific facts and circumstances warrant additional personal attention. If any reader requires legal advice, health advice or other professional assistance, each reader should always consult his or her own legal, health professional, or other professional advisors and discuss the facts and circumstances that specifically apply to the user. Consider the topics discussed as a part of your overall experience for your pursuit of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Don’t hesitate to get help when you might need professional help.
The views of Ask Paul B! are not necessarily the views of The Cardinal — Arlingtoncardinal.com.
Typical liberal progressive nonsense from Paul B. Yes, its terrible that many children lost their lives in a horrific way. But does every liberal have absolutely no common sense. The more horrific the crime, the more loss of logic.
Paul B says …
“These guns always seem to fall into the hands of murderers.”
That is a stretch. There are plenty of responsible gun owners with weapons that are kept safely without possibility of harming someone. You just don’t hear about them.
Paul B says …
“We trust our local police to protect our skins and our homes.”
I bet the parents at Sandy Hook trusted the police and school district to protect their children. Nothing against the police, but patrol officers can’t be everywhere. If you think you are protected by the police from someone who seriously wants to shoot you or kill you, you are gravely mistaken.
Paul B says …
“People are NOT responsible and CANNOT be allowed to purchase, collect and display semi-automatic weapons, pistols, rifles, Lugers, 357 Magnums, and the like.”
It is really odd that nothing in your editorial even mentions mentally ill people, or criminals that shouldn’t be out of prison. You really want to go after law-abiding citizens, who you really already admitted in your piece you didn’t know about? The Webster, New York murderer was out of prison after beating his grandmother — hitting her multiple times with a hammer. Should he have been out of prison? What bleeding heart liberal made sure he made it out of prison? As a felon, he illegally obtained a gun. Well, so much for making guns illegal. Guns were illegal for him; and he still obtained a gun. If outlawed, do you have any idea how easy it would be to get guns illegally? Imagine the import business, with criminals making even greater profit. Just think how easy it is to get illegal drugs. Ironically the drug problem is so bad that some argue that drugs should be legalized to take the business away from criminals. Guns are not going to go away just because they are made illegal in the United States. If guns were illegal in the United States, there would be all sorts of opportunities for criminal outsiders — both as violent offenders and as opportunistic business traders. Even our own government messed up trying to deal with Mexican drug cartels and violence with Operation Gunrunner and Operation Fast and Furious. Guns used for a sting operation and tracked by the ATF were found at crime scenes on both sides of the Mexico–United States border, and the scene of the death of at least one U.S. federal agent — Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.
The real shame is that by missing the target and wasting time and energy on law-abiding citizens, you are wasting valuable time and energy by not going after the real problems. Hopefully, we are still at a point in our society that to most of the people you pass on the street or at the mall, it is inconceivable to kill a classroom of innocent children. There should be some serious time and energy being spent on what’s happening to our society to bring out these cold murderers, and how to keep them the psychopaths from getting guns. By spending energy and time targeting law-abiding citizens, you are not spending time and energy solving the problems of mental illness, or identifying mental illness, or spending time and energy keeping crooks in prison that don’t belong back on the streets. How is it … that those problems were not even mentioned in your editorial piece? How is it … that you didn’t mention drugs, as a problem related to crime and mental illness and criminal activity leading to murder? How is it … that you are so simple minded or one-track minded not to even mention drugs or mental illness? … at least as contributory to the problem of gun violence.
In your world, we’re all supposed to be afraid that we will lower ourselves to level of the murderers and succumb to some mental illness or failure to control ourselves? You really believe all of those law-abiding citizens are that close to flipping out? Are you so lazy, you punish the whole class, when one goes bad? You say, Paul B … ” I’m sorry kids” … but who are you to call us “kids” and lump law-abiding citizens as weak beings that are vulnerable to the behavior common to some low life criminals. Who are you to decide? You think you can decide for us because your labile mind confuses the power of the emotion of the tragedy with the power of controlling other people you know nothing about. I guess you’re just part of the problem of progressives, the dumbing down of America, and the disregard for the genius of the United States Constitution. I appreciate your intensity to solve the problem of gun violence, but you are the dangerous one, because there is no time and energy to waste on the wrong target.
These words are not meant to disregard that it is a shame that the United States is such a violent culture. Consider all the Hollywood freaky actors that play parts in movies that glorify violence, and make it cool to shoot “awesome” weapons … and they make a lot of money doing it. Then they tell us how to behave about guns and gun control, like they know better than us … like they are so enlightened about violence. Maybe that’s why so many take drugs, to blank out the guilt of taking all that acting money to the bank — knowing deep inside that they aren’t worthy while they’ve spread their gospel of violence. And of course some of the actors are violent hypocrites, like Sean Penn beating Madonna or Chris Brown beating Rihanna.
You were right about one thing. Mass violence could be just beginning. But we can’t solve the problem if we don’t know or admit what the problem really is.