Cumberland Times-News

Opinion

January 27, 2013

Solutions that won’t work don’t make sense

Cumberland Times-News

You titled your Jan. 21 editorial “It makes sense: Governor wants funds to improve school safety.”

I title this one, “No it doesn’t.” Every time there is a national tragedy like the one in Newtown, Conn., the politicians go into knee-jerk reaction. They feel like they have to do something even if it is the wrong or ineffective thing.

The ones like President Obama and Gov. O’Malley, who have some power, use these tragedies to their advantage to advance their own agendas.

They want to control our lives, tax everything in sight, spend money like it grows on trees, and take away our freedoms.

In a “Letter to the Editor” that same day the writer stated that “the assailants could not have killed the number of people that they did with a screwdriver or hammer.”

I beg to differ on this statement. An adult armed with a hammer, machete, baseball bat, crowbar, or similar weapon could have killed every single defenseless child in that classroom if he had first blocked their way of escape by blocking the door with a heavy desk.

If a deranged killer is intent on killing, then outlawing “assault” rifles (these are not the automatic weapons used by our military) or registering guns will not stop him and it is ludicrous to think that they will.

Neither will placing armed guards at schools or fortifying the entrances deter a determined killer. He could simply wait until the children go outside for recess, find them at a public playground, or he could wait at a school bus stop and forcibly board the bus to carry out his dastardly deed.

If he plans to use a gun in his killing plan he will find a way to obtain one by bypassing a background check and stealing one would be the easiest way. No law is going to keep him from doing this.

In fact, guns are stolen frequently as we often see in this newspaper. Many of these killers have no regard for their own safety and killing themselves is usually part of their plan. They remind me of the suicide bombers in the Middle East. There is no defense for them.

I truly believe that the violent culture that we have today has been exacerbated by violent movies, TV shows, and video games where after a time they become desensitized to people being violently killed.

Also the drug culture plays a significant role in this violent culture. Abortion on demand is another thing that has cheapened and devalued human life.

Why do we get so upset (and we definitely should) over a classroom of grade school children being killed and yet we do nothing about the hundreds of thousands of babies being killed every year? Over 55 million babies have been killed in the United States by abortion since 1973.

Politicians are planning on spending millions, if not billions, of our tax dollars with their solutions which will not work. They will only waste our tax dollars and burden law abiding citizens who legally own guns or who would like to obtain one for their own safety or sport.

Vernon Grapes

Cumberland

 

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