Guns and the Second Amendment
Five commentaries today on laws pertaining to guns.
Crime flourishes when morals erode
By Bill Van Velzer
Van Velzer lives in Daleville.
Jim Ludington’s recent op-ed piece (“We need an armed citizenry,” Feb. 1) encourages thoughtful deliberation about the only legitimate question in the recent gun control debate: “How do we maintain our personal freedoms while enhancing legitimate requirements for personal security?”
Along the way, he also alludes to a political divide that has become deeper over the last few years. Sadly, there are two Americas: the rural heartland and South, and the nation’s urban centers, including (and perhaps especially) both coasts. The gun-control debate is simply another topic within this larger theme.
Not all liberals support gun control
By Heather Brown
Brown lives in Roanoke.
Disclaimer: I am a bleeding-heart liberal and voted for President Obama. My husband, however, is a Libertarian and watches Fox News. We have learned through painful and heated exchanges not to discuss politics. The only thing we seem to agree on is the love of our country.
My husband is a skilled marksman. His favorite pastime is to go to the shooting range. At home, he instructs me to say “threat,” and he practices how quickly he can unholster his gun and take aim. My husband is an extremely responsible gun owner.
Gun laws don’t stop disturbed killers
Jim Martin
Martin lives in Catawba.
In the hysteria surrounding the proposed assault weapons ban, much misinformation, disinformation and blatant lies have been tossed about. The main focus of the ban is the AR‑15. With millions in circulation, it is the most popular rifle in America today, and it is not an “assault rifle.”
Words are so important
By Bill Caperton
Caperton is a retired Presbyterian minister. He is not a gun owner now, but grew up with a hunting father and brother and several guns.
A young attorney, just a few years out of law school, and I were recently talking about church and religion, and she said she felt like her constitutional law course had been much like a Bible study class. She meant that the Constitution was the canon we use to guide our nation. We take into consideration all the commentary that has grown over the couple of centuries, along with the statutes and the “natural law” and common law that is so influential; some include God’s law in the mix.
Difficult to decipher meaning and the truth
By Frederick Fuller
Fuller lives in Roanoke County.
We human beings are unique among all other animals on Earth because we are connected by words. Indeed, words are sounds we agree represent something — a movement or action, an idea, opinion, etc. Often words are consonantal, or in harmony, with what people agree on. Nevertheless, just as often words are disconsonantal, or disharmonious, and create oppositions that can, and frequently do, lead to hostility.
February 17, 2013 - 7:40 AM
I don’t think there is a better take on the “gun problem” that that which you see in the link below.
Social decay, I call it. Moral cliff is another good term. A lot of other ways to say it but this article puts it as straight forward as any more complex way.
http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials-on-the-right/021213-644195-cultural-decay-not-guns-is-the-real-problem.htm
Now, just for a political slant on the reasons behind the decay, I have only to point to the proliferation of left winged ideals which have infected society in the last 50 years. We should be at a point where the “do what you want as long as it don’t hurt anyone else” attitude is recognized in that it DOES HURT and it’s time to stop.
I will readily agree that we have cultural rot, but I vehemently reject that it is the “left winged ideals” that caused it. It is not the left or liberals or Democrats that have pushed the “do what you want as long as it don’t hurt anyone else” meme. That comes from the “personal freedom”, “individual liberty”, society is on its own mentality that is literally the book written by the conservatives and libertarians.
Liberals and “the left” have pushed and worked at making the societal responsibility part of every decision. The “greater good”, the “general welfare”, “we are all in this together”, THOSE are the left winged ideals.
Here is a great clip. Says an awful lot about an awful lot in an awful lot and does it very quickly!
http://www.guns.com/2013/02/16/watch-armed-robber-quickly-retreat-when-he-is-met-with-an-ar-15-video/