Saturday, January 15, 2011

A Time of Sorrow


As most people know there was a terrible shooting a week ago, on the morning of Saturday the 8th. A 22-year old man, named Jared Laughner opened fire at Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' outdoor meeting. She was his target and suffered a gun shot wound to the head. Miraculously at this point it appears she will survive the injury. A total of thirteen people were injured and sadly six were killed, including a federal judge, a congressional aide and a nine-year old girl.

Laughner is in custody and faces the death penalty. He is remaining silent, having plead the fifth and will likely go for an insanity plea. There are many reports along with many of his online posts that show he is indeed very mentally unstable.

Everyone is pointing the blame at someone else. Liberals saying conservatives such as Sarah Palin had targeted that district in "cross hairs" on a map of the U.S. and have been using a great deal of gun related language. With conservatives responding to this criticism that those were simply districts to target in elections, and it was never meant to lead to anything like this. Although Laughner targeted a Democrat he appeared to be very mixed along political lines, liking the book by Hitler, Mein Kampf (Giffords was indeed Jewish) and a book by the Chinese communist leader Mao, which would usually be linked more towards the left of the political spectrum.

In all of this political turmoil, there are likely many to blame. But sadly a new far more daunting finger of blame has arisen, as we knew it would. With many Democrats backed by the Brady campaign saying that it was not Loughner to blame or all of the political partisanship, but are now attacking guns........ As always they are using the crisis to get their agenda's passed when they hope there will be less opposition. Fortunately groups such as the NRA have vowed to fight any laws that threaten the second amendment rights of the citizens of Arizona.

It is so sad to see that so many people come away from such a tragedy with conclusions as insane as we see from some of those in the liberal media and politicians. I mean, let me get this straight. A truly mentally ill man goes on a crazy shooting spree in an attempt to assassinate Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and the lesson learned is that guns should be taken away from law abiding citizens? Where is this connection between a mentally ill lunatic and responsible, perfectly sane people coming from? It would be the same as a drunk driver killing an entire family in a car and the state or federal government trying to ban alcohol or even cars to everyone. Absurd right? And yet, that indeed was the response.

There are countless reasons to not ban guns to law abiding citizens, they can not all possibly be named here, but one reason would be that limiting access to guns will not stop criminals from obtaining guns!! Drugs are banned in this country, yet they are found everywhere. If guns were to be banned it would not stop a single criminal from obtaining it on the black market, it would only prevent law abiding citizens from defending themselves. Leaving them to the mercy of thieves, home invaders, murders, rapists and madmen.

As Americans we have a Constitution. It gives law-abiding citizens the right to bear arms. Allowing us to protect ourselves, our families and our homes. It is a huge part of how America has remained so free. God Bless America!

“Laws that forbid the carrying of arms...disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes...Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.”
--Thomas Jefferson