Letters
Letters to the editor
Highlands Today
Published: December 24, 2012
Gun lawsPublished: December 24, 2012
I have been reading the letters to the editor in both The Tampa Tribune and the Highlands Today concerning gun laws, or lack of them.
As to those letters to the editor, especially two in the Tampa Tribune on Dec. 18, Dana B. Orr's "Guns not to blame," Mr. Orr did express his grief, but what I got from his letter was the feeling that he feared the government will take his guns.
Now M. Clift's letter, "How many more?" reminded us of what the Second Amendment states — the people have a right to bear arms for the purpose of "a well-regulated militia" — nothing about the right to own automatic weapons and 100-round magazines.
Then Dec. 19, I read the letter by Charles Reynolds of Sebring, "Stricter gun laws." He compares ours to those of Israel.
The one point I thought was significant was that after all kinds of background checks and being in the military, they can own only one gun with limited amount of ammunition. In Japan, citizens can legally buy and use only shotguns and air rifles. The Japanese must pass strict background and medical checks and each year repeat these checks and training. In 2006, with a population of 128 million, they had only two deaths by gun shots.
Now Congress must find a way to protect citizens, especially children, from gun violence. Do we follow the Israel's example or the Japanese form of gun control?
On Dec. 19, President Obama said, "Ten thousand deaths per year from gun violence is unacceptable."
There's Bob, your neighbor, walking his dog. Bob has lived next door to you for 20 years. He goes to church; he is a stand up guy. Then one day Bob walks out of his house and shoots the paper boy. The news media will say he just snapped. The point is we cannot foresee the future. People will continue to kill one another. Why make it simple?
Joseph Alviano
Sebring
Innocent lives gone
We have all be horrified by the snuffing out of innocent young lives in the mass murder in Connecticut and have been reminded of similar tragedies in other schools in recent memory. We grieve the loss and look for ways to prevent such things from happening in the future.
We are also appalled when governments turn their weapons on the citizens they should be protecting, as Syria is threatening to do today and as countries like China and the USSR have done in the past.
Why, then, are the people of our country so complacent when thousands of our most vulnerable baby citizens are murdered, even dismembered, each year by our government-sanctioned abortion industry?
Our own country is to be condemned for allowing this gruesome, barbaric practice to continue. Our children are our most endangered species of all; they deserve our protection. God himself will hold us accountable.
Jean Conrad
Sebring