Connecticut Massacre

                    Another shooting massacre occurred on Friday, December 14, 2012, at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.  Twenty children and six adults were killed by a gunman who opened fire at the school.  All of the children were in the first grade.  The adult victims included the school principal, psychologist, and four teachers who were killed and one teacher who survived the attack.  Many other children were saved because of the heroics of their teachers. 

The carnage at the school was so terrible that the parents identified their children with pictures.  The school district announced that the school would be closed and the children assigned to other schools. The shooter shot his mother before going to the school and then killed himself after shooting all his victims multiple times.    

            

The shooting is the second-deadliest school shooting in the history of our nation and is exceeded only by the 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech that left 33 people dead.  The shooting apparently took place in two different classrooms in one section of the school.  Authorities recovered three weapons (a Glock pistol, a Sig Sauer pistols, and a .223-caliber rifle).  There were numerous conflicting accounts about which weapons were where, but the latest is that the shooter used the rifle to kill his victims.  The guns were all purchased legally and registered to the shooter's mother.

                    My heart goes out to the families who are mourning, including the shooter's family.  My prayers are with all of them plus those children and adults who were traumatized but lived through the ordeal.  The little children lost much of their innocence and probably need therapy in order to live normal lives.  The Christmas season - a time that is supposed to be peaceful - has been ruined for all of them and dampened for the rest of us.  Those of us who are fortunate enough to still have our loved ones with us should extend extra love to them! 

This massacre is not the only gun-related killings in the United States this weekend, but those who desire to control guns are using it for political purposes.  They cannot/will not understand that guns do not kill people and that deranged people kill people.  We do not blame vehicles for the deaths caused by drunk drivers, and we should not blame guns for the deaths caused by mentally ill or emotionally disturbed people.

These facts and opinions do not sway the gun control advocates.   New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an avid gun control advocate, immediately called for greater gun control. "… the country needs him [President Obama] to send a bill to Congress to fix this problem…  We need immediate action…  This is a national tragedy and it demands a national response…."

Boston Mayor Thomas Menino issued a similar statement:  "… As a Mayor who has witnessed too many lives forever altered by gun violence, it is my responsibility to fight for action.  Today's tragedy reminds us that now is the time for action….  Now is the time for a national policy on guns that takes the loopholes out of the laws, the automatic weapons out of our neighborhoods and the tragedies like today out of our future."

Rupert Murdoch tweeted, "Terrible news today.  When will politicians find courage to ban automatic weapons?"

These politicians were wrong about the guns being automatic because they are apparently semi-automatic.  As pointed out by Breitbart dot com, the politicians cannot blame Connecticut's gun policy so they call for a national gun policy.  Those cities and states with the strongest gun-control laws in our nation seem to have the most attacks.  The liberal politicians do not understand the effect of gun-control laws:  when they take away the guns from law-abiding citizens, only the criminals will have guns.  We cannot pass enough gun-control laws to take tragedy out of our future!  Anyone who wants to kill someone else will find a way!

                    As proof of this statement, along with all the articles about the tragedy in Connecticut, I found an article entitled "Knife-wielding man injures 22 children in China."  "A knife-wielding man slashed 22 children and an adult at an elementary school in central China on Friday, state media reported, the latest in a series of attacks on school children in the country."  There were no details about the extent of the injuries.

                    I also offer the following statistics about deaths per year from selected causes from the Center for Disease Control, FBI, and U.S. Federal Government.

Gun Control Stats:  Compare the Ten Big "Killers" in the U.S.

Tobacco Use                                    529,000

Medical Errors                                  195,000

Unintentional Injuries                     118,021

Alcohol Abuse                                  107,400

Motor Vehicle Accidents                  34,485

Unintentional Poisoning                   31,758

Drug Abuse                                         25,500

Unintentional Falls                            24,792

Non-Firearm Homicides                   16,799*

Firearm Homicides                            11,493

*According to the FBI, the #1 weapon used in violent crimes is a baseball bat. 

                    I hope that you noticed that of the ten top killers in the United States firearm homicides is number ten out of ten!  This proves that there are many other "weapons" besides guns that can be used to inflict injury and/or death.  Do you want to eliminate all of them?

                    The National Rifle Association (NRA) has recently been called "the new KKK" and answered that charge in this video entitled "The NRA is the New KKK Response."  

                    Stricter gun control laws are not the answer to violent crimes.  Politicians who clamor for stricter gun control are not really interested in controlling guns; they simply want greater control of the residents of their cities and the citizens of our nation.  Chicago is #1 in gun control laws and also #1 in crime; its violence regularly makes the news.  In comparison, Switzerland issues an assault rifle to each adult male citizen to keep at home.  Citizens regularly carry their rifles around the towns and country; they practice shooting and hold shooting competitions.  Switzerland was able to maintain neutrality in both World War I and World War II.  The Nazis did not invade Switzerland, and there was no Holocaust there.

                    Yes, the massacre in Connecticut is a national tragedy, and I join my fellow Americans in mourning the deaths of the many innocent people.  I hope that we will not be too anxious about giving up liberty in an attempt to get safety.  It did not work in the days of our Founders, and it will not work in our day.  Benjamin Franklin said, "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."  I hope American citizens will be extra careful about the kinds of laws and regulations we ask for because we may not like what we get!