Guns are not Cool

When I read about the horrible tragedy of the accidental shooting by a man of his fiancée in Winter Park that resulted in her death, I thought again about my hatred of guns, all kinds of guns. Guns are to kill people. That is the only reason to own one. When you consider accidental shootings, that one thing alone should be enough to ban all guns.

I haven’t visited the Brady Campaign web site in quite some time and thought I would see what they had to say. 81 people a day die from gun violence or accidents every day in America. Here in this country, there are 97 guns for every 100 people. The web site says that 77,500 people have been shot so far this year and 71 people right this minute.

The statistics taken in 2006 are alarming on murders attributed to guns: 18 in Austria, 28 in Australia, 59 in England and Wales, 60 in Spain, 190 in Canada, 194 in German and then you get to the United States…10, 177.

The FBI says that there are at least 200 million firearms not including what law enforcement has or the military. There is a gun for every man, woman and child in the United States or around 350 million firearms.

Innocent, law-abiding people are under the impression that it is for their self-protection should they have a home intruder. What are the odds that the average citizen will have a home invasion? The odds are higher that you or someone in your home will be shot accidentally. The other argument is our right to bear arms under the Constitution. This is one right that needs to be re-visited. We are in a society where the criminal is winning. The more guns, the more violence, the more deaths. And the third argument is if your right was taken away from you only criminals would have guns. I believe in the three strike law. I also believe that any crime committed with a gun, that user should be sent away for life. Period. No exceptions. Make our laws tighter. If we banned guns, eventually our stats would be similar to Australia’s.

People here in Lake Worth have been murdered. The gangs are prevalent. The weapon of choice is the gun. Easy access to firearms is the problem. We have made it easier for young people, those in gangs and other criminals to have access to guns and assault weapons. Even Nathaniel Brazill stole his grandfather’s gun and shot his teacher. If you viewed that video on Top 6, it is a scary reality of what we have in our city. No one is safe.

The only way to reduce violence is to have stricter laws, stop tying the hands of our Sheriff’s department, stop tying the hands of our federal enforcement agencies and allow them to keep background checks on all those who purchase guns. We also need to protect the innocent victim from that homeowner who just thinks having a gun is cool.

In order to stop this run-away violence, banning guns is the answer.