Friday, December 21, 2012

An Open Letter to our Leaders in America


Dear American Leaders

The reason I am contacting you is in regards to the terrible events of last Friday in Connecticut.   Any death of a child is tragic, and to have a madman kill 26 people is unthinkable but it happened. 

The problem we now face is what to do about it.  We can get emotional and pass another law but that will not fix the problem.   We need to take a hard look at how we deal with mental health issues in this country. 

It is time to take a hard look at FACTS and admit that gun control has not worked.  We have placed our most precious gift – our kids (I have 3) in schools that are gun free zones.  Why?  How can we not protect our kids?  We all but advertise they are defenseless and wonder why crazed killers go there. . .  what are we thinking?

Over and over again these gun free zones have been where the madman goes to kill people.  All of the mass shootings (more than three killed) since 1950 have been in gun free zones with the exception of the Gifford shooting.  This is not by accident.  People know where folks will be disarmed and cannot fight back.  This attracts these sick people as we have see over and over. 

The other thing we have see over and over is that when a civilian is there to stand up to them right away things end with far fewer deaths.  It has been shown that when there is a lawful gun owner on site to react the death toll is just over 2- when people have to wait for the police to get there the average death toll goes over 14.  That is the hard facts of gun control – it does not make us safer, it puts us in more danger.

To take the emotion out of it look at it this way:  We have outlawed drugs. . . but now we have the war on drugs and still almost any high school kid in the US can tell you how to get drugs.  Our war on drugs has not stopped the supply and has increased the violence involved as gangs and dealers fight for control.  Innocents are injured and killed in their crossfire and neighborhoods ripped apart.

Prohibition in the 1920s was supposed to end alcohol in the USA.  What we got were stronger gangs and people still got their booze.  The laws did nothing to stop it and increased the violence in our country to the point we repealed the amendment and I hope learned from it.  I admit our War on Drugs gives me doubts we learned a thing.

I am asking that you do not support any NEW gun control laws.  We have plenty on the books now and they have done nothing to protect us.  This shooter killed his own mother, stole her guns, took them to a gun free zone, and then killed 26 people.  He broke at least 30 laws.  Do you think one more will change things?  We need to have a national discussion, but on Mental Health, not gun control.  Until these people get the help they need we will not change anything.  This time the tool was a gun.  In 1927 44 were killed when the madman used a bomb at the school instead.  Timothy McVeigh used a car bomb and killed 168 people in 1995.  In 1990 the Happy Land fire in NYC (Very strict gun control) killed 87 people – it was arson with gas, a very common item anyone can get.

Please support our rights.  Don’t punish the millions of law abiding gun owners for the act of a madman.  Don’t take away my ability to protect my children.  It is un-American to punish folks for acts they did not commit – why is this different.  It is time for our leadership to stand up and fix things.  Please push for help for the mentally ill.  Only then will we see the madness stop.

Thanks You 

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