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We need guns

We need guns

Joan Hildal’s letter to the editor (Tribune-Herald, Sept. 14) starts off thanking the very people who have done the least to improve the safety of our citizens from guns. If our policymakers want to make citizens safe from gun violence, they should have very harsh sentences for those who use guns to commit crimes. Instead, they just make laws that “law-abiding” citizens have to follow and the criminals ignore.

I live in Volcano and it takes police a minimum of 20 minutes to get up here, sometimes longer. Does Ms. Hildal suggest I negotiate a settlement or agreement with the bad guy while waiting for the police, or do I deal with it myself, as is my Second Amendment right?

Should a homeowner let the bad guys sodomize their loved ones while waiting for the police, or do you take care of it yourself?

The genie is out of the bottle, and no matter what laws you pass, there will be guns, legal or illegal.

We have laws against certain drugs. How is that working out? Prohibition was the law of the land to keep evil alcohol away from Americans. How did that work out?

America has had a long tradition of gun ownership, backed up by the Second Amendment; it is how our country got started. All the horrible acts of gun violence committed by evil people have all ended when the good guys with guns show up.

You don’t blame the tool — blame the tool holder. If somebody writes a hate-filled article, do you get rid of the First Amendment?

The Sandy Hook shooting would have turned out much differently if someone with a concealed-carry permit was at the school. The actions of the brave principal who tried to stop the shooter by charging at him, unarmed, did nothing to prevent the massacre, but if she had come out with a fully loaded 9 mm, extra magazines and training, the events of that day would have been different.

There are countless stories where guns have prevented death and injury. Because you choose to ignore these events doesn’t mean they didn’t happen.

If a schoolteacher has a gun in his locked desk drawer, and a crazy person shows up with a gun that he intends to kill students with — and even shoots a couple — and that teacher shoots him dead before any more kids can be shot, how many years in prison would the teacher get by our policymakers?

And isn’t it ironic how people opposed to guns always call on people who have guns to save them from a bad situation? If they were truly opposed to guns, they would try to reason with the bad guy and not deal with it by gun proxy.

Roger Schweitzer

Volcano