Former NRA member calls for reasonable gun controls

Former NRA member callsfor reasonable gun controls
EDITOR:
The recent dustup over carrying hidden guns in Ohio reminds us that the longest wars are those in which one side has an interest in prolonging the conflict. That has certainly been true in the ongoing battle over gun control, which I have been watching for more than 40 years.
I was a National Rifle Association member in the 1960s. It was evident then, as it surely is today, that NRA leaders were more interested in prolonging the controversy than in resolving it. Then, as now, they portrayed themselves as staunch fighters against shadowy evil-doers who want to emasculate the NRA, "take away our guns" and leave Americans defenseless against criminals and foreign armies that might someday invade the United States. Eventually I figured out what was going on and dropped my NRA membership.
The real issues are simple enough for all of us to understand. It's reasonable to let people who enjoy target shooting and hunting to pursue these activities in a responsible way. It's also OK for the few who truly need weapons for self-defense to have them if they know how to use them properly and understand when the trigger absolutely must not be pulled.
On the other side, easy access to firearms permits thousands of needless deaths in the U. S. every year, and many more assaults and robberies. As regular Vindicator readers know, it's not just drug dealers who die when bullets start flying. There was the child killed in its bed in a "drive-by shooting," and the Youngstown policeman who was gunned down at a traffic light, among others.
We sometimes hear the fiction, "Guns don't kill people -- people kill people." The truth is that people with guns kill people just by aiming and pulling the trigger. People without guns can kill, too, but committing murder with a knife or club is hard work and is less likely to succeed. Another often-heard untruth is that we already have enough gun control laws because it's illegal for convicted felons to possess firearms.
There are a lot of dangerous people in this world who haven't (yet) been convicted of a violent felony. I believe that citizens of integrity and good will could sit down together and work out a solution that both sides could live with if the NRA and the shooting magazines had not created such fear and mistrust.
The gun enthusiasts that I know are mostly reasonable children of God who don't like being complicit in the needless deaths of other children of God.They would willingly endure some "red tape" to reduce the number of people killed by firearms. That would include registration of handguns and more meaningful rules to make it difficult for those weapons to fall into the wrong hands. It might also include limitation on assault rifles. That's not because these weapons are more lethal than hunting rifles but because of their macho image. People who have grown up playing violent video games and watching carnage on TV may have difficulty telling fiction from reality, especially if they are having emotional problems.
The recent votes in the Ohio Legislature that undercut concealed weapon restrictions and cripple attempts by Ohio cities to reduce the carnage on their streets represent a giant leap backward.
ROBERT D. GILLETTE
Poland
War in Iraq is based on lies
EDITOR:
In peace, children bury their parents. In war, parents like the mother of Sgt. Marco Miller of Warren, bury their children. War, especially this one, reverses the order of nature. It already has for some 3,000 Americans and 650,000 Iraqis. Must the body count reach those of the Vietnam War before this madness ends and those responsible are brought to justice? Have we learned nothing from the bloody mistakes of the past and the bloody lies of the present? Is not blood more valuable than oil?
The choice before us is clear: Either continue filling our cemeteries and hospitals while emptying our national treasury until we reach total fiscal and moral bankruptcy, or embrace the truth, which sets us free, and immediately stop this war based on lies with a peace based on justice. What do you think a nation truly under God, especially the Prince of Peace, would do?
Rev. WERNER LANGE
Newton Falls