Gun control not the answer

Published 10:48 pm Thursday, June 25, 2015

A few months ago I noted the likelihood that gun control would be an immediate issue and that gun owners should be cautious about a knee-jerk reaction to the Sandy Hook massacre.  Many folks ran to the buy-back collection points like metal to a magnet. Not everyone. Some brave souls kept their guns and bought more. For a rainy day, I suppose.

Following the tragedy at Sandy Hook numerous other violent outbursts have taken lives, limbs and property along with millions of dollars. Local outpouring of sympathy and fundraisers along with local charity events have shown community support. Law enforcement has bent over backwards to keep up with a thankless job and maintain public safety when and where possible. Anti-gun critics may need to loosen their stance a little.

Yet, teleprompter readers and talking heads keep pounding on the subject of gun control. It seems that when one man or woman chooses to murder several people the problem was not the person but the gun that was at fault. It would be pointless to go into detail on the number of murder events where a legal gun carrier could have saved several lives. It is worth mention that a woman was delayed in receiving her legal gun permit a month and in that select few days she was murdered by the person she was afraid was going to kill her. She even had a restraining order against the murderer.

Any and all concealed carry permit holders in Georgia should become familiar with the new legislation coming about in 2015 pertaining to legal places to carry and where not to. A legal holder may well have saved lives in Charleston, S.C., last week. Yes, a church is no place to be carrying a gun. Persons entering a church should be there for reasons other than to harm or kill people. That’s the way it should be. Obviously that was not how it was in Charleston. With our deteriorating society some rules may need to be reevaluated, some loosened and some much tighter.

What we need to happen in our array of knee-jerk politicians is for leaders to lead and for those who only want to parrot what one politician has read on a teleprompter to step out of the way and let sincere persons with leadership ability guide the nation.

Lawrence Headrick

Tunnel Hill