TIME TO WASTE
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Healdsburg Tribune 8/29/2013
Let me get this straight. Gary Plass doesn’t think that the Healdsburg city council should be wasting their time endorsing a ban on assault weapons because “it would open the door to a variety of issues coming before the council presented by political parties on the right and the left.” Hello? Why should the council care about who brings a legitimate issue before the council. I would like to think that the council is intelligent enough to make a judgment on whether an issue is appropriate for city business. I know that Healdsburg is a small town but does that mean our city council should have small minds? It makes me proud that the rest of the city council saw endorsing a ban on assault weapons and for that matter same-sex marriage, as the right thing to do.
It’s a shame that Plass doesn’t have the time to support a national issue that he doesn’t think is also a local issue. Just ask Sandy Hook, Aurora and Columbine if it isn’t a local issue. But he has enough time to waste the town’s time and money on an ill-advised one-way street.
I agree with Mr Plass. A big waste of time. Lets start with something simple. Define an assault weapon. Is it how many bullets it holds? What it looks like? Caliber? If I take the wood stock off my shotgun and put a pistol grip and short barrel is it an assault weapon now? My handgun came with a 15 shot clip, California says I can only have 10. So I bought 2. Now I have 20 shots. That was helpful to the clip manufacturers but nothing else is gained against gun violence. We could spend years just trying to define what an assault weapon is, yes a big waste of time.
There are 2 facts you can’t dispute
All guns are assault weapons.
Criminals don’t follow the gun laws
So before you pass more laws to take my guns away , maybe you can figure out a way to take them from the criminals.
Tell me what law could have been passed to stop the shootings at Sandy Hook or Columbine? I can think of one, arm some of the teachers. How many less would have died at Ft Hood if some in the military could carry weapons there?
The fact is there is no way to stop a crazy person intent on killing people. It’s been going on a lot longer than guns have been around. The only option is to allow good, well trained people to be armed and protect themselves and others.
The Joker
You’re right all guns are assault weapons and criminals don’t follow the gun laws so why don’t we just do like the NRA wants and repeal ALL gun laws and we can all just live in an armed society. Wouldn’t that be fun. We then have the means to settle arguments right there on the spot kind of like bringing back the dual – great sport. I know very well that we will never stop crazy people but we can try and slow them down with a smaller clip and if an expanded background check snares one crazy don’t you think it’s worth it? I don’t want to take away your guns just your assault weapons.