Editor:
I’m getting rather tired of the ignorant and uninformed telling me that I don’t “need” an “Assault Rifle.” How in the world could they possibly know if I need one or not?
First off, the ignorance shows immediately because these ill-informed people don’t even know what an “assault rifle” is.
To fit the definition the rifle MUST be capable of full-automatic fire, and 99.99 percent of the time the term is used incorrectly.
As most everyone else did, I watched in horror with tears in my eyes, thinking of the murdered children and the thousands of friends and family that were directly affected by the loss. I’m just talking about the people who actually knew and loved these kids personally. Their lives are altered forever.
I can think of nothing worse than losing a child, especially to something so beyond needless. I can’t even fathom how the human mind can get so warped to do something like this. And let’s make no mistake: It has been happening all over the world, not just in our country. Our morals and parenting in this society have fallen apart for sure and I suppose that is a critical factor, but this behavior is so far out of the normal human condition I don’t understand how anyone can get this far out there.
No one else seems to know either, so prevention seems highly unlikely. That leaves us with the only option of stopping it as soon as we can when it does happen. It sure seems like it takes a long time for police to show up when you’re dodging bullets.
Israel occasionally has someone show up and start shooting innocent people as an act of terrorism. You know what their solution was? Train people to use firearms and let them take these individuals down as fast as possible to lessen the carnage.
While watching the coverage I noticed that virtually every police officer on the scene was carrying an AR-15, or possibly the full-auto version; the M-16. I haven’t heard anyone mention this but if the police need an AR-15/M-16 to deal with these situations, I sure as heck do! If I have to take on one of these crazies I am seriously under-prepared compared to a police officer.
I don’t have body armor that will stop rifle bullets or a Kevlar helmet. I don’t have a radio to immediately call up three to 10 fully trained buddies to come and save my bacon. I don’t have air support and a S.W.A.T. Team on stand-by with an armored vehicle. I don’t have any night vision or F.L.I.R. I don’t even have any intimidating red and blue lights on my roof. The only thing I have is a rifle probably at least the equal of the one the nut-ball has and most likely a lot better idea of how to use it safely and correctly. You see, nut-jobs rarely practice with their stolen rifles very much but sane, legally armed civilians and police do.
I’m sure many are thinking, “what are the chances of having to deal with something like this?” Luckily, not very high; but few argue that we have the basic right to self-preservation and these wackos are out there and if someone had been prepared to deal with it many innocent lives would have been saved. “Paranoid” is a fool’s term for “prepared.”
One thing I find stupendously ignorant is that people don’t want teachers and principals to be able to protect their/our children. I keep hearing, “We don’t want guns in our schools.” As if the mere presence of an inanimate object is evil. I know one of the elementary school principals in Lebanon used to be a police officer. I would love it if he was allowed to keep a rifle in a secure location at the school. There is no way the availability of that firearm would ever be anything but a good thing.
Most likely – and thankfully, it would stay locked up forever and would never be seen. If the unfortunate circumstances came and it had to be used, it could do nothing but good in the hands of a trained person. I could take up a collection and have the funds donated to purchase such a defensive tool in about 0.06 seconds.
Some are saying we should not use this tragedy to further a political agenda, usually right after they say we need to ban “assault rifles.” This is talking out of both sides of your mouth, is it not? You bring it up, I defend my position (and possibly my life) and I am the one using a tragedy to further my political views.
I don’t see it as politics; evil people will always exist, they will always have weapons and somebody has to stop their acts. The sooner the better! If you’re not up to it, put your head down and stay out of the way and quit trying to take away the only effective tools.
Jeff Hutchins
Lebanon