letters to the editor

opinion: Citizens have no reason to need a gun in their household

Posted on Thu, Jan 10, 2013 : 9:34 a.m.

For many years I have been in the minority, and I may still be; but in my opinion we should make it unlawful for anyone to have a gun in his/her house.

When the Constitution was signed, we as citizens under the 2nd amendment were granted the right to bear arms with the express purpose of being able to protect ourselves from our government. Well, we have had a very good government for more than 230 years, and we have never had the desire or the ability to protect ourselves from our government. Now if we lived somewhere else, we may very well need guns to protect ourselves.

Don’t use the argument that the “bad guys” would still have guns, or that people living near the Mexican border need guns. These points are well-taken; but we can make and enforce laws that speak to these points, and, if we want to, we can clear the gangs from the border states and close the border to those attempting illegal entry. Personally, I would rather face a person wielding a tire iron than a firearm — at least I would have a chance.

England, a country one-fifth the size of the U.S., and with no capital punishment, had 58 firearms homicides from September, 2010 to September, 2011; while we had 8,775 in 2010. This statistic is shocking, but the real issue is, what are we going to do about it?

We have shown, apparently, that too many of us do not value life and cannot be trusted to use our guns as they are intended — just look at the senseless killings in our country during the past several years.

I realize that many people enjoy guns as many enjoy cars or other things; however to protect us from ourselves, we need to require that guns be banned from our houses. Perhaps they need to be checked in and out when one wishes to hunt, target shoot, or whatever.

One more thought — what is the value of life? How would one of us feel if our loved one was a senseless victim?

Don Horning

Ypsilanti

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