From my letter to the editor last week, Aug 8, 2012, I have learned, via The Citizen website comments, and I feel that at least 80 percent of all Fayette Countians are gun owners.
My main question last week was “why the need to own a semi-automatic assault rifle?” I had used the word “automatic” by mistake, but whatever, why the need for a assault rifle? No one really answered that question, but almost all replies would leave one to believe that they will never give up any of their guns.
I have found, also through those comments, that one individual took his daughter to The Batman movie, and packed his loaded pistol along also. “Loaded for any deranged person”? (my words, not his)
Imagine this scenario: Suppose there had been a deranged copy-cat in the theater; lights go out, movie starts, and deranged person gets out his/her weapon, a firecracker, and it explodes.
The deranged individual could have been shot, and most would say they got what they deserved. And hip hip hooray for the dad with the gun! Hip hip hooray for the dad who tried, in an unofficial way, to prevent a crime.
Do a reverse look-up for the word that describes the previous sentence, and you will get “vigilante.”
This is all well and good for stopping a crime in action; the police are not there, so some brave individual took control of the situation, and then the police came, the bad person was arrested. End of story? Perhaps.
The criminals would soon learn that they “do not know ‘whom’ they are dealing with; the deranged person(s) may begin to have second thoughts. End of story?
Let’s explore a phase of this scenario that, so far, has been lucky enough not to have been mentioned. Suppose something goes wrong, and an innocent person or persons is injured or killed. The vigilante may gets arrested, but then the jury refuses to convict him; but he would have to live with the (scenario) fact that an innocent person(s) has died, (on his watch).
Are we headed in the direction that, the only safe place to be, in a crowd of people, is 30,000 feet up in a commercial airline flight, where perhaps the only individual with a gun (you hope) is a sky marshall?
I can understand why neither presidential candidate is mentioning the “guns” subject. They both surely realize that most of this country’s private homes are fortresses of individual family protection (Takes too long for the police to get there … We have to protect ourselves from burglars or any potential foreign invaders … The Second Amendment allows me to own these weapons).
The latter part of my Aug. 8 letter to the editor asked for suggestions for ways to identify and stop deranged individuals from buying weapons. Not one person offered any suggestion.
Neither have I, but The Coalition To Stop Gun Violence may be the place to start.
Hugh Buchanan
Peachtree City, Ga.
