Letter: Gun violence, unabated

Jackbooted? I did not see any of that but have you looked at the State Police in most states, they dress like stormtroopers. Thugs? I think that applies to union leadership. 2000 people killed out of 350,000,000. More are killed by auto accidents. You should not punish the majority for the sins of a minority who we empower through a weak mental health system that liberals and the ACLU destroyed in the name of "patient rights". How quickly we forget.

Dear Williamdiamon;,,,,,,,, Fantasyland is in Florida. Not in this Forum!,,,,,,,save your Garbage for people who will agree with you. That way you can all pat each other on the back and feel good. Take your Crap away from the Concord monitor an back to the Picayune Times............. Give it up !@!!!!!! and another @!!!,,,,,,,Nhdriver, Duke & Charlie. Spokeshounds Concord Monitor !!! Arooooooooo !!!!!!!!

This was posted before but applies more than ever; What Hasn’t Worked? For thousands of years, laws have banned killing/maiming innocents and criminals and the criminally insane have paid no heed. We could pass 100 more laws with stronger wording and would see the same result. We could pass 1000 more laws banning types and parts of weapons and criminals and the criminally insane would get them from any place on the planet where they still existed or could be made. We could pass 1 million new laws with stiffer penalties and criminals and the criminally insane would not heed those laws either. I would like to live in a world where personal safety was never an issue but that is not the world I live in. The police do the best they can by almost by definition, aren’t called until whatever is going to happen – has already happened. Weapons and virtually any tool that mankind has ever made can be used to kill or maim OR guard and protects (in and out of the home). It's not the tools - its human behavior. The killing of innocents was done long before the creation of what we now call guns. We are rapidly approaching energy weapons - what next-try to ban sound & light? We need to think in new and creative ways of identifying and modifying behavior of criminals, the criminally insane and errant young. We need a more effective criminal justice system but first let's not waste time and money on what hasn't worked. We must be smarter knee-jerk calls for strategies that haven’t worked for 10,000yrs. To paraphrase Einstein, -Insanity is repeating the same action and expecting different results. What does that say about those who call for “gun control”? We CAN impact this problem and I believe an important step is to change the stimuli to prevent he conditioned response. We need to make new plans (that do not have long histories of failure) to impact this problem and I look forward to creative suggestions. Next-worried about about gun toters? Your Gov't" recently purchased 1.5 billion -that's billion -hollow point bullets that are banned for military use and way too expensive for target practice . Why? How about the 2700 machine guns for internal use? How about the 2700 armored vehicles for use inside the US borders? Worried about people with weapons - better worry about your gov't before worrying about law-abiding citizens. .

You are confusing gun culture with criminal culture. Lawful gun owners carry guns to protect themselves, their loved ones and their communities. 80 million gun owners in America own 300 million guns, 300 accidental deaths with guns. Now lets look at these numbers, the accidental deaths are 1 percent of accidental deaths in the home, you are more likely to die from falling or poisoning. 250 justifiable homicides by citizens, 2,500,000 estimated crimes stopped by citizens with guns. Yes there are accidents, negligent discharges, and murders committed with guns but the benefits far out way the misuse. If you notice that when a crime is committed we arrest the person who committed the crime, not the weapon. it's because the person is at fault not the inanimate object, the gun. i'm sure you would agree guns are good, when you need help to protect yourself from criminals, you call a man with a gun, a cop. see, it comes down to the man behind the gun. It takes a good man with a gun to stop a bad man with a gun. If you really want to help protect your community you can get a gun, training and a ccw permit. Then you could be a good man with a gun and maybe save yourself, a loved one or people in your community because private citizens shoot almost as many criminals as police officers because we are often the first responders. Until then remember, if you see a gun stop, don't touch, leave the area, tell an adult. Why didn't you mention the statistics of knife deaths in other countries? You could have compared our gun deaths with the data of England, China and even Japan. They still have mass murders of children in schools but the attackers use knives and they are just as deadly. The knife is the weapon of choice of evil men. Japan: 8 children dead, 13 wounded + 2 teachers. China: recently, 22 children and 1 teacher wounded. March 2010, 8 children dead. April 2010, 1st attack: 16 children + 1 teacher injured. 2nd attack: 28 children, 2 teachers, + 1 security guard. 3rd attack: A hammer attack on preschool children. Since then 11 children + 4 adults have been murdered with several more wounded. This is data from only 2 countries. The reason is no one hears a knife go off. So no one is alerted. Until responsible teachers arm themselves, they will have to wait for the police to arive. Of course, by then its always too late. Imagine a world without guns. In fact 500 years ago there was a world without guns. Was it more peaceful then? Now let me ask you something, would you rather be bludgeoned to death with a club, cut in half with a broadsword, or be shot with a rifle. Get my point? Violence has existed since Cain. The 2nd is there for a much bigger reason than even local security.

There is so much wrong with this letter I scarcely know where to begin. First, what argument you MAY have had goes down the toilet with your first, "Godwin's Law-inspired" sentence. Second, your 2nd 'graph makes no sense. I'm sure the folks that were at the rally DO know how many people have been killed since Newtown. But does knowledge of how many people have been killed since Newtown equate to not giving a shit about stopping crazy people from going on mass-killing sprees? If so, then I guess you "don't care" either, huh Mr. Stein? Third, your next two graphs bring up settled law. Felons are already not allowed to own guns and I haven't heard one gun owner who's advocated to change that. And finally, the answer to your last sentence is a resounding "NO!" We should do something about it. And we can start by forcing mental health agencies to work more closely - and give up more info - to LE. We all know that ALL of the recent mass-shooters had serious mental health issues that were ignored. THIS would do far more to stop mass shootings than any ban on inanimate objects. Close the gun show loophole? Fine! Have stricter background checks? Sure(especially regarding MENTAL HEALTH HISTORY!) But ban particular types of firearms? HELL NO!!!