WhackyNation

The recent tragedies involving the deaths of students at schools in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Colorado, and other states have touched off another national dispute concerning the safety of students everywhere and, particularly, the fact that the killings were done by youngsters brandishing pistols they should not have been permitted to wield.

Many schools are conducting safety drills for all students and developing elaborate plans to protect youngsters while they are at school. Others are appealing to local and federal police agencies to lend a hand and help create security systems that will make such tragic shootings impossible.

Yet, in all I have heard and read on the subject in recent times, no one seems able or willing to direct attention to the real culprits in the shooting deaths at schools. The real culprits, I insist, are the persons closest to the berserk young people who decide to shoot up the premises at schools — the parents or other relatives who leave pistols and other weapons unlocked and easily available to the troubled young killers.

In virtually all cases, the youngsters bent on killing children at school obtained a weapon belonging to parents who failed to make sure the weapon was not only concealed but locked with a key that was not easily available to the youngster.

In effect, then, it isn’t the young upstart alone who should be charged with the crime; it should be the owner of the weapon, who did not bother to keep it out of the youngster’s hand. He or she should be hauled into court and charged as an accomplice in the crime.

So much for the parents in the continuing tragedy. I want to point another accusing finger at the other culprits in the mounting number of “accidents” resulting from the misuse of weapons or, more specifically, the placement of dangerous arms in the hands of thieves or the mentally impaired.

The target should be the gun dealers who are more interested in a buck than in refusing to place a weapon in the hands of a person with a criminal record or one who is a mental patient and should never be permitted to own or borrow a lethal weapon. Laws in all the states should demand that dealers make a thorough investigation of a customer before they hand over a weapon.

Gun dealers would probably argue that such an investigation should be the province of the police in every community, not the owner of a gun shop. Maybe it should, but maybe new laws on gun sales should insist that gun dealers summon the police whenever a sale is made.

Some may argue that requiring such a system would entail a lot of extra paper work and surveillance by already overworked police departments. But I say the system would be a blessing in disguise and certainly worth the extra effort. What’s a little paper work when lives are at stake?

I don’t know if terrorists who may be lurking in the U.S. read the newspapers, but I have some important news for them, culled from a report in the Reuters news agency. Frankly, I don’t know why the American news media didn’t publish this report on Page 1 nor why the broadcast media ignored it.

Here’s how it read:

The United States has 90 guns for every 100 citizens, making it the most heavily armed society in the world, a report released on Tuesday (August 28, 2007) said. U.S. citizens own 270 million of the world’s 875 million known firearms, according to the Small Arms Survey 2007 by the Geneva-based Graduate Institute of International Studies.

Now, if that doesn’t scare off any terrorists plotting to do great damage within the U.S., nothing will. The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution is alive and well and itching to help armed American citizens take on any terrorists they may face on the streets or elsewhere. It should be a comforting thought to U.S. citizens.

The Reuters article went on to say:

About 4.5 million of the 8 million new guns manufactured worldwide each year are purchased in the United States. India had the world’s second-largest civilian gun arsenal, with an estimated 46 million firearms outside law enforcement and the military, though this represented just four guns per 100 people.

It’s quite obvious that the Reuters report will not please the gun-control camp, but the evidence is clear that its members are decidedly a small minority in the U.S. It’s also evident that any terrorists who try to wreak havoc on any community within the 50 states will be met with quick retaliation.

Would you, as an American citizen, want it to be otherwise? Would you, like the gun-control addicts, want to risk not having the means to defend yourself, your family, and your community against the kind of international thugs who send children and mothers into the marketplace with suicide bombs strapped to their bodies?

Never before in American history has the Second Amendment, which grants citizens the right to bear arms to defend themselves, been more important. This right is especially more important in view of the fact that our enemy is not a country we can wage war against but a lurking enemy that depends upon ambushes, church and mosque bombings, suicide attacks, and the murder of innocent men, women, and children simply because they have espoused a religion other than Islam.

In case you’ve forgotten, the Second Amendment reads this way:

Right to Keep and Bear Arms. A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

Nuff said. A word to the wise should be sufficient.